No abstract

Wood ash from a wood-fired, electrical generating plant was examined as a potential amendment in municipal biosolids and yard waste com posting applications. The rate of composting and the final compost quality (chemical, physical, and plant growth characteristics) were examined. Yard waste (leaves, grass, and wood chips) and a municipal biosolids-chip mixture w ere either not amended or amended with wood ash at eight percent or five percent by weight, respectively, and then com posted outdoors in insulated, 1700L, aerated reactors. Yard waste piles heated rapidly to 60°C within six to seven days, whereas biosolid piles heated more slowly to a maximum of 52 to 57°C within nine to 11 days. Ash had little, if any, effect on the time-temperature response. In general, ash-amended compost had higher pH, plant nutrient, and salt contents. Tomato plants (Lycopersicum esculentum) produced 100 percent more shoot biomass in biosolids than in yard waste compost media. Poor plant growth in the yard waste compost was likely due to the high initial pH and salt content of the growth medium. In yard waste media, tomato plants germinated and produced more shoot biomass in the control compost than in the ash-amended compost.A pH neutralization study indicated that wood fly ash could be used as an economical substitute for lime which is commonly used to stabilize municipal biosolids prior to land filling or land application. Wood fly ash (pH= 13.2-13.4), when added to biosolids at a 2 to 1 ratio by weight, raised the pH of the mixture to 12.0.

Plant Preservative Mixture™ (PPM), a relatively new, broad-spectrum preservative and biocide for use in plant tissue culture, was evaluated as an alternative to the use of conventional antibiotics and fungicides in plant tissue culture. Concentrations of 0.5 to 4.0 mL·L-1 were tested with leaf explants of chrysanthemum (Dendranthem×grandiflora Kitam), European birch (Betula pendula Roth), and rhododendron (Rhododendron catawbiense Michx.). PPM had little effect on the percentage of explants forming shoots and the number of shoots formed per explant in birch and rhododendron, but dramatically reduced both responses in chrysanthemum. Therefore, the effects of PPM must be evaluated for each species of interest prior to use.

No abstract

In order to determine their effects on growth and mortality of instar II Hypsipyla grandella (Zeller), larvae were fed with leaf disks taken from shoots of susceptible species (Cedrela odorata L. and Swietenia macrophylla King) scions grafted onto resistant ones (Khaya senegalensis Desr. A. Juss and Toona ciliata M. Roem.), from their reciprocal grafts, and from both intact and autografted plants. In addition, crude leaf extracts from the susceptible and resistant plants, as well as from C. odorata grafted onto T. ciliata plants, were tested on C. odorata leaf disks. Mortality was evaluated 2, 10, and 25 days after starting the bioassay. Leaf area consumed and weight gain per larva were assessed 2 days after starting bioassay. Time to reach pupation, pupal weight and length 1 day after pupation, and time to adult stage and appearance of wings were determined at the end of the bioassay. Plant species significantly affected mortality (P B 0.04) throughout the test. Eighty to 100% of larvae fed leaf disks from intact T. ciliata and its autograft, or C. odorata onto T. ciliata and its reciprocal graft died in the first 2 days of evaluation. All other factors measured, except pupal weight and length, were also affected (P B 0.01) by the leaf disks. Intact resistant plants and reciprocal grafted plants reduced leaf consumption and caused larval weight loss. Larvae fed on K. senegalensis grafted onto S. macrophylla extended by 8 days the time to pupa and to adult stages and induced abnormal wing formation compared to larvae fed intact leaves of C. odorata. Crude extracts from resistant plants equally affected larval survival and performance compared to crude extract from C. odorata grafted onto T. ciliata plants, and these extracts were more detrimental to larvae than those from susceptible species. This study demonstrated that grafting borer-susceptible species on resistant rootstocks can affect the survival and performance of instar II H. grandella larvae.