Flame cultivation promising as weed control method for cranberry

Open flame torches shown to be cost-effective, non-fatal to crops

2013-09-16

(Press-News.org) WAREHAM, MA--Cranberries are important agricultural commodities in states such as Massachusetts, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Washington, and Oregon. But cranberry-growing operations are challenged by weeds, which compete for precious resources and often decrease fruit yields and revenues. Producers currently rely on weed management strategies such as flooding and sanding cranberry beds, hand-weeding, or applications of pre- and postemergence herbicides. Recent interest in reducing chemical inputs into cranberry growing systems has led researchers to evaluate alternative methods such as flame cultivation as a potential nonchemical weed control option.

University of Massachusetts scientists Katherine Ghantous, Hilary Sandler, Wesley Autio, and Peter Jeranyama designed a study using flame cultivation techniques for weed control in cranberry crops. The results, published in the July 2013 issue of HortScience, showed promise for integrating the weed control technique into "certain situations", including organic farming. The team tested three types of handheld propane torches (one open flame and two styles of infrared torches) and varying exposure times on several species of perennial weeds. "We thought that flame cultivation would cause damage to cranberry plants and that damage would increase with increasing exposure duration and vary by flame cultivator tool used," noted Hillary Sandler, the study's corresponding author. Surprisingly, although the results showed minor response differences between the cranberry varieties tested, all varieties showed recovery from flame cultivation (FC) damage, irrespective of which tool was used or the duration of exposure.

"Our economic analysis showed that the time and cost of using an open flame torch for spot control of weeds was similar to that of the common practice of using a wick applicator to apply glyphosate to weeds," the researchers noted. "In addition to being as cost-effective as glyphosate wipes, the non-fatal response to flame control indicates that it will cause less damage to cranberry plants that are incidentally exposed during spot treatment of weeds than glyphosate."

The experiments determined that flame cultivation could be integrated as a sustainable and economical approach for weed control in some situations. "This technology could be applicable for conventional production as well as organic production, and would ideally be used as a spot treatment for weeds growing in the cranberry canopy as well as on larger non-production areas where cranberry vines are not as abundant, such as bed edges, ditches, and dikes," the researchers concluded.

INFORMATION:

The complete study and abstract are available on the ASHS HortScience electronic journal web site: http://hortsci.ashspublications.org/content/48/7/870.abstract

Founded in 1903, the American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS) is the largest organization dedicated to advancing all facets of horticultural research, education, and application. More information at ashs.org.

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Low level blast explosions harm brain, says new study in Journal of Neurotrauma

2013-09-16

New Rochelle, NY, September 16, 2013—Repeated exposure to low level blasts (LLB) can cause symptoms similar to sports concussion. Soldiers or law enforcement officers called "breachers" receive training in using low level blasts for forced entry. They may be at risk for diminished neurocognitive performance and symptoms caused by the harmful effects of blast-related pressure changes on the brain, as described in a study published in Journal of Neurotrauma, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Journal of ...

Doing research in the pub

2013-09-16

This news release is available in German. Dim lighting, a jumble of conversations, and loud music: bar staff have to master numerous challenges when serving their customers. In a crowded place, they have to identify who would like to place an order and who does not. A Bielefeld research team analysed how the body language of the potential customer helps the bartenders to achieve this. The team found that real-life observations were at odds with the widespread belief that customers wave for signalling that they would like to order a drink. Analysing the real-life data ...

Study indicates space weather may be to blame for some satellite failures

2013-09-16

CAMBRIDGE, Mass-- Is your cable television on the fritz? One explanation, scientists suspect, may be the weather — the weather in space, that is. MIT researchers are investigating the effects of space weather — such as solar flares, geomagnetic storms and other forms of electromagnetic radiation — on geostationary satellites, which provide much of the world's access to cable television, Internet services and global communications. Geostationary satellites orbit at the same rate as the Earth's rotation, essentially remaining above the same location throughout their ...

2 NASA satellites track Typhoon Man-yi across Japan

2013-09-16

NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites captured images as Typhoon Man-yi made landfall in southern Japan and moved across the big island. Typhoon Man-yi was approaching Japan when NASA's Aqua satellite passed overhead and captured a visible image on Sept. 15 at 0410 UTC/12:10 a.m. EDT. Man-yi weakened to a tropical storm as it quickly crossed Japan dropping heavy rainfall and causing deadly mudslides when NASA's Terra satellite passed overhead on Sept. 16. Man-yi is now headed northeast into the Sea of Okhotsk. When Aqua passed overhead, a visible image was taken by the ...

Birth of Earth's continents

2013-09-16

VIDEO: This computer simulation spanning 2.5 billion years of Earth history is showing density difference of the mantle, compared to an oceanic reference, starting from a cooler initial state. Density is... Click here for more information. New research led by a University of Calgary geophysicist provides strong evidence against continent formation above a hot mantle plume, similar to an environment that presently exists beneath the Hawaiian Islands. The analysis, published ...

High debt load anticipated by majority of medical students; African-Americans most affected

2013-09-16

September 16, 2013 --The cost of a medical school education in the United States has been on the rise over the past 10 years. However, given racial and ethnic inequalities in access to financial resources, increases in the student debt burden may not be assumed equally. To evaluate the issue, researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health analyzed data from a sample of over 2% of the U.S. medical students enrolled at 111 accredited American medical schools. In the sample of 2,355 medical students in 2010-2011, 62.1% of the medical students overall ...

Gut microbes closely linked to proper immune function, other health issues

2013-09-16

CORVALLIS, Ore. -- A new understanding of the essential role of gut microbes in the immune system may hold the key to dealing with some of the more significant health problems facing people in the world today, Oregon State University researchers say in a new analysis. Problems ranging from autoimmune disease to clinical depression and simple obesity may in fact be linked to immune dysfunction that begins with a "failure to communicate" in the human gut, the scientists say. Health care of the future may include personalized diagnosis of an individual's "microbiome" to ...

Non-traditional mathematics curriculum results in higher standardized test scores, MU study finds

2013-09-16

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- For many years, studies have shown that American students score significantly lower than students worldwide in mathematics achievement, ranking 25th among 34 countries. Now, researchers from the University of Missouri have found high school students in the United States achieve higher scores on a standardized mathematics test if they study from a curriculum known as integrated mathematics. James Tarr, a professor in the MU College of Education, and Doug Grouws, a professor emeritus from MU, studied more than 3,000 high school students around the country ...

New world map for overcoming climate change

2013-09-16

NEW YORK -- Using data from the world's ecosystems and predictions of how climate change will impact them, scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society, the University of Queensland, and Stanford University have produced a roadmap that identifies the world's most vulnerable and least vulnerable areas in the Age of Climate Change. The authors say the vulnerability map will help governments, environmental agencies, and donors identify areas where to best invest in protected area establishment, restoration efforts, and other conservation activities so as to have the ...

Juggling act between work and home responsibilities cause problems for American doctors

2013-09-16

Spare a thought for American doctors and their partners: because of long working hours and dedication to their work, they seem to have more squabbles over home and family responsibilities than people in most other professions. This constant struggle to balance work and home life are felt especially by those whose life partners also work, or by female physicians, younger doctors and physicians at academic medical centers. It manifests as burnout, depression and lower levels of satisfaction about their quality of life. This is according to Liselotte Dyrbye of the Mayo Clinic ...

Children who grow up with pets or on farms may develop allergies at lower rates because their gut microbiome develops with more anaerobic commensals, per fecal analysis in small cohort study

North American Early Paleoindians almost 13,000 years ago used the bones of canids, felids, and hares to create needles in modern-day Wyoming, potentially to make the tailored fur garments which enabl

Higher levels of democracy and lower levels of corruption are associated with more doctors, independent of healthcare spending, per cross-sectional study of 134 countries

Flame cultivation promising as weed control method for cranberry

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: