Climate/environment Rootstock/scion Planting design Pruning practices Pest management Irrigation Plant growth regulators Plant nutrition The goal for postharvest physiologists, whether they are working in basic or applied research, is to maximize the postharvest quality of horticultural commodities. Quality relates to several factors that can be commodity specific and mean different things to d...

The epidemiology of sclerotinia rot of carrot was investigated on carrot ‘Cellobunch’ during 1999 and 2000 in Ontario. Apothecia were first detected in the crop in early August to mid-September, after the carrot canopy closed and after 7–11 days with soil matric potentials between –0.1 and –0.4 bars and soil temperatures between 14 and 23 °C. Ascospores were first detected in mid-July to mid-Au...

Preharvest sprouting of wheat results in significant financial loss at all steps in the production and marketing chain. Due to its intermittent nature in many wheat-growing regions, direct selection for tolerance to preharvest sprouting is difficult. DNA markers linked to genes conditioning tolerance offer a more consistent and reliable approach to genetic improvement in tolerance. This investi...

Reverse transcription quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) as the accurate and sensitive method is use for gene expression analysis, but the veracity and reliability result depends on whether select appropriate reference gene or not. To date, several reliable reference gene validations have been reported in fruits trees, but none have been done on preharvest and postharvest longan fruits. In this study, ...

The objective of this study was to determine the time period that Escherichia coli O157:H7 survives on the hides of cattle. Extensive research has been conducted and is ongoing to identify and develop novel preharvest intervention strategies to reduce the presence of E. coli O157:H7 on live cattle and subsequent transfer to processed carcasses. If a reduction of E. coli O157:H7 levels in feces ...

The benefits of calcium applications pre and postharvest on fruit storage ability have been mentioned in the bibliography. It was objective of this work to study the effect of calcium preharvest application in two different forms and calcium chloride application postharvest on ‘Hayward’ kiwifruit storage ability. Kiwifruit vines were sprayed with 0.03% CaCl2 or 0.03% CaO at one, three and four ...

Escherichia coli O157:H7 is a zoonotic pathogen that is an important cause of human foodborne and waterborne disease, with a spectrum of illnesses ranging from asymptomatic carriage and diarrhea to the sometimes fatal hemolytic uremic syndrome. Outbreaks of E. coli O157:H7 disease are often associated with undercooked beef, but there are other sources of transmission, including water, produce, ...

Aflatoxin contamination of corn in the field is influenced by several factors. In the southern U.S., insect populations are usually large every year. Drought caused by warmer and drier than normal weather is conducive to A. flavus infection and aflatoxin contamination of corn, Zea mays L. When loose-husked hybrids are used in the southern U.S., they accentuate insect damage and aflatoxin contam...

Aspergillus jlavus and Aspergillus niger commonly co-occur in preharvest maize and one report suggests that this association promotes a greater incidence of aflatoxin. Other studies have shown that Aspergillus niger can prevent, or substantially reduce, aflatoxin formation by Aspergillus jlavus in autoclaved maize kernels, and this led us to examine the effect of A. niger on aflatoxin formation...