Vegetable crop advances featured
UNIVERSITY PARK - The
potential for improved
vegetable crops with deep
tillage is being tested at The
Pennsylvania State
University. Vegetables
grown at tillage depths
ranging from 6 to 17 inches
will be compared for yields
and quality during Ag
Progress Days to be held
August 23 to 25 at the
Agricultural Research
Center, nine miles west of
here along Route 45.
Tillage methods being
compared include a disk
harrow, moldboard plow,
chisel plow, and subsoiler.
Crops grown under different
tillage represent the various
rooting habits of vegetables -
potatoes, tomatoes, peppers,
carrots, muskmelons, and
sweet com.
“Conventional tillage
methods and heavy
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Energy Digestion 67% 70%
Protein Preservation 71% 94%
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WHEAT SILAGE
Item Control silaGain
Energy Preservation 85% 93%
Energy Digestion 61% 65%
Protein Preservation 73% 81%
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NFE Digestion 53% 62%
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Protein Preservation 71% 94%
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machinery, coupled with soil
types found in much of
Pennsylvania, often lead to
poor soil structure. This can
result in poor root
penetration which can
reduce crop yields and, in
some cases, quality,”
declared Doyle W. Grenoble,
superintendent of the Hor
ticultural Research Farm,
part of the 1525 acres at Rock
Springs.
Grenoble and associates
are experimenting to
determine whether deep
tillage will enable vegetable
plants to withstand dry
periods better than shallow
tillage. Reduced water
runoff is predicted with
potentially better drainage
than shallow tillage.
Weed control experiments
to find the most effective and
least expensive methods of
weeding vegetables with
chemicals will also be
featured during Ag Progress
Days. Experiments using
herbicides on 10 vegetable
crops will be demonstrated
by Professor C.J. Noll,
Grenoble, and Dr. R.H. Cole.
Improvements in weed kill
would reduce the amount of
energy and labor needed to
produce a crop. This in turn
would reduce the final costs
to the consumer, Professor
Noll said. He added that
some herbicides are in
corporated into the soil prior
to seeding or transplanting,
some are applied im
mediately after seeding or
transplanting, and some are
applied long after the crop is
planted.
Effects of nitrogen,
phosphorus, potassium,
calcium, magnesium, and
zinc on growth and yield of
seven vegetable crops will be
featured in another ex
periment. Nutrients are
being applied as commercial
fertilizer on soil of medium
fertility. -
“Through laboratory
analysis of plants, we are
learning what happens
nutritionally in enhancing or
restricting uptake of a wide
range of nutrients. These
trials are part of continuing
research to determine the
most efficient use of fer
tilizers in growing
vegetables,” declared Dr.
Cyril B. Smith, in charge of
research.
He indicated the practical
result will be to increase
efficiency in vegetable
production, resulting in
better value for consumers.
Elsewhere, Dr. E.L.
Bergman and associates are
experimenting with various
soul levels of calcium,
magnesium, and potassium
on yields of potatoes and
cabbage. Eighteen plots
compare both low and high
levels of calcium - and low,
medium, and high levels of
magnesium and potassium -
for cabbage and potatoes.
Four potato varieties and
three cabbage varieties are
grown side by side.
Dr. Bergman said there
are some questions in
people’s minds about liming
of potatoes, or the growing of
cabbage and potatoes in the
same field, due to dif
ferences in nutritional
requirements. The ex
periments should answer
such questions, he pointed
out, through yield, quality,
and leaf analysis in
formation - as well as by
“keeping quality” in
storage. Research with these
plots was initiated in 1972.
In Penn State horticulture,
evaluation is continuing for
an experimental high sugar
sweet com hybrid developed
by Dr. Douglas L. Garwood
and associates. When
picked, the experimental
hybrid has a sugar content
almost twice as high as
standard sweet com - 24.8
per cent compared to 14.4
per cent. After four days at
room temperature, sugar in
the experimental hybrids
stands at 11.1 per cent, still
almost as high as sugar in
freshly picked standard
sweet com.
If tests of the experimental
Penn State hybrid continue
favorable, seed should be
available within two years.
Garwood said sweetness of
the new hybrid falls
somewhere between another
high sugar sweet com now
on the market and standard
sweet' com. In a Florida
consumer study, 19 per cent
said the high sugar com now
marketed was too sweet.
Likewise, taste panel testers
at Penn State rated the
present commercial high
sugar com too sweet. Plots
of the experimental sweet
com will be seen by visitors
August 23 to 25.
Elsewhere during Ag
Progress Days, factors in
volving the evolution of the
cultivated potato will be
described by Dr. Paul Gran,
professor of cytology and
cytogenetics. When fertile
varieties of cultivated
potatoes are crossed with
wild species in breeding
programs, the hybrids
produced are often sterile.
Dr. Grun and associates are
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, August 20, 1977
Use of herbicides to control weeds in vegetables
will be demonstrated August 23 to 25 during Ag
Progress Days at the Agricultural Research Center
of Penn State. C.J. Noll, in charge of weed control
experiments on vegetables, compares clean row
tomatoes treated with herbicides, center, with
untreated row on right grown six feet tall with red
root pigweed.
studying the inheritance of
these sterilities to leam how
to breed potatoes that are
fully fertile.
Ag Progress Days visitors
will see offspring of crosses
between different potato
varieties and wild potatoes.
The Penn State scientists
have identified a major
source of sterilities and have
started to incorporate fer
tility factors in place of
sterility factors in some
cultivated potato varieties.
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