Study recommends strategies for improved management of fresh market spinach

Soil NO3 testing can improve nutrient use efficiency of spinach crops

2013-09-16

(Press-News.org) SALINAS, CA -- Throughout California's fertile central coast region, fresh spinach is a high-production, high-value crop. Spinach can be finicky, requiring sufficient nitrogen fertilizer and irrigation to ensure ideal growth, and to meet industry quality standards such as its defining deep green color. These production practices -- combined with a shallow root system and the crop's intensive production cycle -- can increase the potential of detrimental nitrate leaching. Recent water quality monitoring in the region has found widespread incidences of NO3 levels that exceed the Federal Drinking Water standard. As a result, growers have come under increasing pressure to improve crop nutrient use efficiency (NUE), and thereby minimize NO3 losses from production fields. In an effort to inform future spinach production practices, scientists Aaron Heinrich, Richard Smith, and Michael Cahn evaluated spinach nutrient uptake and water use in the Salinas and San Juan Valleys of California.

The team explained that spinach producers can improve nitrogen use efficiency by applying fertilizer at the optimal time and rate to match crop nitrogen uptake, but that data needed to make these critical fertilizer decisions was not available prior to their study. "No studies had evaluated high-density planting of clipped or bunched spinach grown on 80-inch beds," said lead author Aaron Heinrich. "Our study was specifically designed to provide data on the nitrogen uptake characteristics of spinach and to evaluate ways to improve nitrogen fertilizer management."

Heinrich, Smith, and Cahn evaluated grower fertilizer programs, and measured spinach nitrogen uptake over an entire production season with a range of soil conditions, climatic conditions, and cropping histories. They also conducted four replicated fertilizer trials of first -- and second-cropped fields.

"Over the growing season, NO3 levels in the soil can build up due to a combination of unused fertilizer and mineralization of crop residue and soil organic matter," the team reported "Our evaluations showed that soil NO3 testing can be used to improve the nutrient use efficiency of spinach. We found that soil testing would be most effective in spinach production at two critical points: at-planting, and before the midseason fertilizer application when nitrogen use by spinach greatly increases." The comprehensive report, including additional implications for nitrogen fertilizer management of fresh market spinach, can be found in the June 2013 issue of HortTechnology.

###

The complete study and abstract are available on the ASHS HortTechnology electronic journal web site: http://horttech.ashspublications.org/content/23/3/325.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:

Chemistry magic promises better medicine with fewer side-effects

2013-09-16

A gentler new chemistry promises cleaner and subsequently far safer pharmaceuticals. The ground-breaking method, developed by a chemistry research group at the University of Copenhagen, is now published in the internationally renowned journal, Chemical Communications, as "Site-selective three component reaction for dual functionalization of peptides". Knud J. Jensen, the group's leader, is convinced that the method will become pivotal in the development of new pharmaceuticals. "This method opens a new chest of tools. I believe, it will be applied to pharmaceutical research ...

Could oxytocin be useful in treating psychiatric disorders?

2013-09-16

Philadelphia, Pa. (September 16, 2013) – The hormone oxytocin could play a role in treating psychiatric disorders such as autism and schizophrenia, according to a review article in the September Harvard Review of Psychiatry. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health. Among other biological effects, oxytocin is "an important regulator of human social behaviors," according to the research review by Dr David Cochran of University of Massachusetts Medical School and colleagues. They discuss the preliminary but encouraging ...

Graphene photodetector integrated into computer chip

2013-09-16

This news release is available in German. Today, most information is transmitted by light – for example in optical fibres. Computer chips, however, work electronically. Somewhere between the optical data highway and the electronic chips, photons have to be converted into electrons using light-detectors. Scientists at the Vienna University of Technology have now managed to combine a graphene photodetector with a standard silicon chip. It can transform light of all important frequencies used in telecommunications into electrical signals. The scientific results have ...

As opioid use soars, no evidence of improved treatment of pain

2013-09-16

A new study led by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health finds that during a decade when prescription opioid use has skyrocketed, the identification and treatment of pain has failed to improve, and the use of non-opioid analgesics has plateaued, or even declined. The study was published online September 13 in the journal Medical Care. "There is an epidemic of prescription opioid addiction and abuse in the United States," notes G. Caleb Alexander, MD, MS, associate professor of Epidemology and Medicine and co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Drug ...

Specific sugar molecule causes growth of cancer cells

2013-09-16

In co-operation with a research group from Singapore, scientists at University of Copenhagen have shown that immature sugar molecules in the form of truncated O-glycans aid growth properties of cancer cells. Previously, scientists have not been able to decode the significance of these truncated O-glycans, and therefore, the results, which were recently published in the journal PNAS, represent an important contribution to understanding the growth of cancer cells as well as the work towards developing a cure that can limit or stop the growth. Catharina Steentoft, PhD student ...

Schizophrenia: It's in the wiring of the brain

2013-09-16

Philadelphia, PA, September 16, 2013 – Just as wires must be insulated to effectively carry electrical impulses, nerve cells must be insulated by myelin to effectively transmit neural impulses. Using typical magnetic resonance imaging or MRI, one can visually distinguish parts of the brain that look white and parts that look gray. Myelin is most prevalent in the white matter because this component of the brain tissue is principally comprised by the nerve cell projections (axons) that are covered by myelin and that transmit information from one part of the brain to another. ...

Intelligent use of electronic data helps the medicine go down, say researchers

2013-09-16

Electronic data routinely gathered in hospitals can be used as a warning system for missed doses of prescribed medicine and making improvements to patient safety, says a new study. A team from the Universities of Leicester and Birmingham found that the secondary use of data from an electronic prescribing and decision support system in an English hospital led to a 'substantial and sustained' reduction in rates of missed or delayed doses of medicines. Published in the world-leading health policy journal Milbank Quarterly, the study looked at how using the electronic ...

Hospital study finds connection between dementia, delirium and declining health

2013-09-16

More than half of all patients with pre-existing dementia will experience delirium while hospitalized. Failing to detect and treat their delirium early leads to a faster decline of both their physical and mental health, according to health researchers. "This study is important, as delirium is often overlooked and minimized in the hospital setting, especially in persons with dementia," said Donna M. Fick, Distinguished Professor of Nursing at Penn State and principal investigator for this study. "And it illustrates that delirium is deadly, costly and impacts patient functioning." ...

Environmentally friendly cement is stronger than ordinary cement

2013-09-16

New research from the Niels Bohr Institute shows that cement made with waste ash from sugar production is stronger than ordinary cement. The research shows that the ash helps to bind water in the cement so that it is stronger, can withstand higher pressure and crumbles less. At the same time, energy is saved and pollution from cement production is reduced. The results are published in the scientific journal, Scientific Reports. Cement is comprised of chalk and clay, which are mixed together and heated at high temperatures in a cement kiln. The mixture is then crushed ...

New model should expedite development of temperature-stable nano-alloys

2013-09-16

Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new theoretical model that will speed the development of new nanomaterial alloys that retain their advantageous properties at elevated temperatures. Nanoscale materials are made up of tiny crystals, or grains, that are less than 100 nanometers in diameter. These materials are of interest to researchers, designers and manufacturers because two materials can have the same chemical composition but very different mechanical properties depending on their grain size. For example, materials with nanoscale grains ...

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

Study recommends strategies for improved management of fresh market spinach

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: