The therapeutic use of medicinal plants such as Echinacea, ginseng and St. John’s wort has gained widespread acceptance in North America in the last two decades. Aeroponic cultivation of medicinal plants have shown great potential for producing root yields that are cleaner, more uniform and faster maturing than can be obtained using conventional soil-based methods. Two pilot-scale commercial A-...

The Green Revolution has enabled Asian countries to boost their crop production enormously. However, Africa has not benefitted from this agricultural revolution since it did not consider local, but important crops grown in the continent. In addition to their versatile adaptation to extreme environmental conditions, African indigenous crops provide income for subsistence farmers and serve as sta...

Roots are crucial for nutrient and water acquisition and can be targeted to enhance plant productivity under a broad range of growing conditions. A current challenge for plant breeding is the limited ability to phenotype and select for desirable root characteristics due to their underground location. Plant breeding efforts aimed at modifying root traits can result in novel, more stress-tolerant...

Calcium Absorbed form the soil as the cation, Ca. Most calcium uptake occurs near the root tip. Poorly translocated within the plant. Deficiencies of Ca first affect the growing points of plants, including root tips. Calcium is important for cell wall formation and the integrity of cell membranes. Sensitive crops to Ca deficiency and characteristic symptoms. Crop Symptoms Peanuts Old leaves hav...

Grafting is a method of asexual plant propagation that joins plant parts for them to live together. So they will grow as one plant. Normally the method has been largely applied to propagate trees that will not root well as cuttings or whose own root systems are not strong enough or resistant to several soil-borne pathogens. Now the method is used for other crops, as vegetables, such as solanace...

An aeroponic system was developed for the production of root crops used in the herbal and phytopharmaceutical industries. The variability in the phytochemical quality of botanical products precludes the ability to administer uniform dosing in clinical studies. Aeroponic systems allow the producer to precisely control root zone nutrient and water regimes and environmental conditions, as well as ...

Bioenergy crops have the potential to enhance soil carbon (C) pools fromincreased aggregation and the physical protection of organicmatter; however, our understanding of the variation in these processes over heterogeneous landscapes is limited. In particular, little is known about the relative importance of soil properties and root characteristics for the physical protection of particulate orga...

Perla, David E. M.S., Purdue University, August, 2014. Management of Root Knot Nematode (Meloidogyne incognita) in Indiana Soybeans. Major Professors: Ricky Foster and Virginia Ferris. The aim of this project was to evaluate different strategies for management of Root Knot Nematode (RKN) on soybean and tomato in Indiana. Seed treatments were evaluated under field and greenhouse conditions, but ...

Successful irrigation management of tree and vine crops to control soil salinity requires adequate leaching, which is defined as sufficient water to remove excess salts from the root zone above that required to meet crop demand. Excess salts decrease growth and yield in trees and vines and may lead to more severe effects such as leaf bum and even plant death. The salt tolerances of many crops h...