Amaranthus cruentus, an annual vegetable crop, is known to be highly productive under rain-fed conditions and during the dry season when supplied with water. However, for good water management, there is need to accurately quantify the water consumed by the crop. This paper investigates the water use and biomass yield of differentially irrigated Amaranthus cruentus at different developmental sta...

Conservation tillage combined with cover crops or mulching may enhance natural enemy activity in agroecosystems by reducing soil disturbance and increasing habitat structural complexity. In particular, weed seed predation can increase with vegetation cover and reduced tillage, indicating that mulches may improve the quality of the habitat for weed seed foraging. The purpose of this study was to...

Producers of horticultural products face new and growing standards regarding food quality and safety as well as environmental responsibility and sustainability. The objective of this research was to reduce environmental pollution by increasing nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) in vegetables without negatively affecting fruit yield or quality. Bell pepper was used as a case study for intensive veget...

In New Zealand, increasing levels of resistance in diamondback moth (DBM) to recommended synthetic pyrethroid and organophosphate insecticides were monitored for five years in vegetable Brassica crops until in 1997 they were associated with control failures in three regions. Subsequently, Crop & Food Research initiated a two-year IPM implementation programme with financial assistance from gover...

Concepts of post harvest physiology and produce storage. Types of produce fruits, vegetables, seeds, grains, spices, roots, tubers, ornamentals, etc. Effect of environment such as climate, soil, pests and diseases on crop growth, maturity indices. Pre-harvest cultural management such as nutrient appropriateness, adequacy of control of pests and diseases, timeliness of farm operation including w...

In Wisconsin, vegetable crops are threatened annually by the aster yellows phytoplasma (AYp), which is obligately transmitted by the aster leafhopper. Using a multiyear, multilocation data set, seasonal patterns of leafhopper abundance and infectivity were modeled. A seasonal aster yellows index (AYI) was deduced from the model abundance and infectivity predictions to represent the expected sea...

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is an important vegetable crop worldwide. Often times, its production is hindered by fungal diseases. Important fungal diseases limiting tomato production are late blight, caused by Phytophthora infestans, early blight, caused by Alternaria solanii, and septoria leaf spot, caused by Septoria lycopersici, fusarium wilt caused by Fusarium oxysporium fsp. oxysporium, ...

The main objective of the present study was to compare fertilizer types in their ability to increase the soil organic matter content without increasing potential P leaching losses. Differences in soil organic carbon content, crop yield, P-CaCl2, P-AL, P export by the crop and P leaching from soil supplied with three compost types, cattle slurry, farmyard manure or mineral fertilizers were compa...

The best way to organize the logistics of harvesting agricultural crops requires considering not only the fact that agricultural commodities in general are highly perishable, but also the fact that the organizational structure of the agricultural system in question can vary from crop to crop and from region to region within a single crop. This paper develops a model for planning the movement of...

Pollinators provide an essential ecosystem service that contributes to the maintenance of biodiversity and ensures the survival of pt species including crop pts. Furthermore, the reproductive success in pts is often pollinator limited. Most of the vegetable crops are cross-pollinated i.e. the flowers of these crops need conspecific foreign pollen for pollination and seed set. Insect pollinators...