Report on the Agricultural Experiment Stations, 1939 Page: 59
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PROGRESS OF RESEARCH 59
The Michigan station was able to induce the formation of seedless
fruits in the National Pickling cucumber, a variety that very
rarely produces fruit without pollination, by the application of
naphthalene acetic acid applied either as an aqueous solution or in
the form of lanolin paste. Fruits were produced also by the same
methods in the Harris Wonder pepper.
In genetic studies with the tomato, the California station found
that male sterility was completely recessive and depended apparently
on at least two recessive factors both of which were necessary
to bring about the condition. It is suggested that some of the
unfruitful plants that occur in commercial tomato varieties may be
male-sterile segregates resulting from the selling of fruitful and
apparently normal heterozygous plants.
Noting considerable natural crossing in bush and pole varieties
of garden beans in the field, the Alabama station planted varieties
possessing sharply contrasting characters at various measured distances
apart. The percentages of crossing decreased as the distance
apart was increased, but even at 9 yards there was some crossing,
suggesting the need in bean-seed production of isolating parental
stocks by 50 yards or more.
Better cultural methods.-The placement of fertilizer in bands
near the root area of lettuce was found by the Arizona station to
be much more effective than broadcasting. Some of the benefits
were greater uniformity in size and time of ripening of the heads,
and placing the fertilizer where it was most useful to the plants.
Working under greenhouse conditions where soil moisture could be
controlled, the Virginia Truck station found that with snap bean,
cabbage, and pea seeds, placement of the fertilizer was a potent factor
in seed injury. Moisture content of the soil was involved, as certain
placements were much more injurious under low than abundant
moisture conditions. Fertilizers placed 2 inches distant from the
seed row and 2 inches below the seed were relatively harmless irrespective
of soil-moisture content.
Studies conducted by the Virginia Truck station in cooperation
with the Department (B.A.Engin.) showed the desirability in the
case of Henderson Bush Lima beans of placing the fertilizer in
narrow bands from 2 to 3 inches at each side of the seed row and
from 1 to 2 inches below the seed level. The greatest profusion
of blooms and rapidity and uniformity of plant growth and greatest
yields resulted from placement 2 inches to each side of the row and
1 inch below the seed level. Fertilizers mixed with the soil or
broadcast immediately before planting were more or less injurious,
depending on the thoroughness of incorporation and the amount of
soil moisture present during germination.
Of different methods of applying fertilizer to cabbage grown in
rotation with sweet corn and winter rye tested by the New York
State station, working in cooperation with the Department
(B.A.Engin.), the most successful was that in which the fertilizer
was applied, at the time of setting the plants, in bands, 2.5 inches
at each side of the row and from 3 to 4 inches below the surface.
The application of 600 pounds per acre of 4-16-4 material produced
profitable increments in yield each year. Rainfall during August
and September was the most important single factor affecting the
yield of cabbage.
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United States. Office of Experiment Stations. Report on the Agricultural Experiment Stations, 1939, book, June 1940; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc4985/m1/61/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.