Garth douston
Grafting Solanum lycopersicum varieties for quality and yield.
Tomatoes are a lucrative cash crop for many vegetable growers, but producing large quantities of these fruits can be challenging. Disease, season length, and yield are concerns for tomato growers. Grafting can provide solutions to problems associated with these concerns.
Tomatoes varieties are either hybrid or heirloom varieties. Hybrid tomato seed is produced by the cross pollination of two separate parent lines. (Get in depth about how gene selection works, good opportunity for good scientific research) Hybrid tomatoes generally have more uniform growth, disease resistance and a longer harvest interval, which are characteristics desirable for those marketing their fruit. Heirloom tomatoes have been selected by humans for many years for their flavor profile and their ability to thrive in a specific climate or territory. Many amateur gardeners save seeds of these varieties along with large commercial seed producers. (Expand on heirloom genetics)
By grafting heirloom tomatoes onto hybrid rootstocks, it is possible to obtain the flavor and corresponding higher price of heirloom varieties with the disease resistance, longer fruiting period, and vigor of hybrid cultivars. Producing grafted seedlings does, however, require extra effort, materials, and knowledge. (Rivard)
Grafting as a means of managing disease and increasing yield has only recently begun to take off in much of the western world. In Asia, however, grafting has been an important agronomic technology since the 1920’s. (Kubota) Farmers in Asia first started grafting cucurbit species and then started grafting solanaceous plants such as eggplant and tomato. Producers in Japan and Korea readil...
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...3). Can grafting in tomato plants strengthen resistance to thermal stress?. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 83(13), 1315-1319.
Leonardi, C., & Giuffrida, F. (2006). Variation of Plant Growth and Macronutrient Uptake in Grafted Tomatoes and Eggplants on Three Different Rootstocks.
Estañ, M. T., Martinez-Rodriguez, M. M., Perez-Alfocea, F., Flowers, T. J., & Bolarin, M. C. (2005). Grafting raises the salt tolerance of tomato through limiting the transport of sodium and chloride to the shoot. Journal of experimental botany, 56(412), 703-712.
Kubota, C., McClure, M. A., Kokalis-Burelle, N., Bausher, M. G., & Rosskopf, E. N. (2008). Vegetable grafting: History, use, and current technology status in North America. HortScience, 43(6), 1664-1669.
GRAFTING GREENHOUSE TOMATOES
By Vern Grubinger
Vegetable and Berry Specialist
University of Vermont Extension
In “Springing Forward”, Barbara Kingsolver says, "whiz-kid hybrid seeds have slowly colonized and then dominated our catalogs and our croplands" (46). Her main point within the article states that today there are few heirloom vegetables because of the increase in genetically modified vegetables. Heirloom seeds are defined as seeds that are saved from the previous generation so that new crops can be grown and Kingsolver states that, "GM is a newer process
Modern biotechnology was born at the hands of American scientists Herb Boyer and Stain Cohen, when they developed “recombinant deoxyribonucleotide, (rDNA), [1] for medicinal purposes. Subsequently, biotechnologists started genetically engineering agricultural plants using this technology. A single gene responsible for a certain trait, from one organism (usually a bacterium) is selected altered and then ‘spliced” into the DNA of a plant to create an agricultural crop consisting of that...
Polyculture is associated with, but not exclusively limited to, the movement in organic farming (Pollan 144). The main drawback is the work required to maintain the different species being grown. Each plant requires its own growing conditions, so maintenance becomes labor intensive. However, this method of farming greatly increases the biodiversity of the fields which reduces susceptibility to disease and pests, and creates genetically diverse species. Polyculture is very different from monoculture in more ways than simply growing more than one crop. Monoculture is the attempt to control a crop to maximize yield. Polyculture is the acknowledgement of nature’s control and the attempt to grow successful crops through changing the process of growing plants based on the ecological system around them. The people who grew early potatoes on the Andes grew a wide variety of different potato species so that not all of them were likely to susceptible to the same disease (Pollan 131). Pollan’s discussion of these methods leans heavily toward the idea that even though monoculture is simpler and more profitable, it is an inferior method to polyculture that is mainly still in use to feed the capitalistic machine of the global food
Since the birth of agriculture farmers across the world have been altering the genetic makeup of the crops they grow. Ancient farmers chose only the best looking plants and
I will examine the importation of tomatoes from Mexico and the social and economic impact it has on the indigenous people involved in its production. I shall also examine the logistics required for it to reach American consumers and the everyday importance of this commodity in the daily lives of Americans.
Any organism that is genetically modified can be defined as a transgenic organism. The two main benefits of transgenic plants are that they can help increase yields without having to select against bad plants, and they can be resistant to toxins. In order to create a transgenic plant DNA ...
After potatoes were widely spread through Europe and Africa, they were introduced into East Asia. Following its introduction into China at the end of Ming Dynasty, potatoes became one of the most popular crops in the country. Ironically, despite of the distance of South America and North America, North...
The Flavr Savr tomato also known as the transgenic tomato created by Calgene was first introduced in 1991 approved by the FDA. The Flavr Savr was distributed throughout US supermarkets in 1994, becoming the first commercialised genetically modified crop. Normal tomatoes exhibit the polygalacturonase enzyme. Polygalacturonase is an enzyme that is expressed during the stage of tomato ripening becoming a predominant factor once the fruit has been picked. The enzyme contributes a significant role in the diminishment of the cell wall, which leads to the softening of the fruit. Therefore the tomato cannot b...
Janick. J. (2011). Center for New Crops & Plant Products - Department of Horticulture and
The "Emperor's New Crops. " Easton and Goldfarb 171-181.
"Home | American Society of Agronomy." Home | American Society of Agronomy. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2014. .
Mangos are propagated either vegetatively or by seed. Two types were identified based on the mode of propagation: mono-embryonic and poly-embryonic. Mono-embryonic types are vegetatively propagated to produce new cultivars containing all of the desired characteristics. On the other hand, poly-embryonic types can be propagated vegetatively or by seed and able to produce two or more plants as mainly used as rootstock (Wanitprapha, K., et. al., 1991; Chia, C. L. et. al., 1988).
For many years, nature has cloned organisms. When a plant sends out a stalk and it takes root, the new ...
By finding out the maximum amount of salt that a plant (lettuce) can tolerate, we will be able to figure out if the soil is usable or not and what the outcome of the plant be, if the plant is planted in the soil with a certain amount of salt.
The study of these quality parameters shows that in controlled tomato, degradation started on 4th day of storage, in 1% concentration edible coated tomatoes degradation started on 8th day of storage, in 1.5% concentration edible coated tomatoes degradation started on 12th day of storage and in 2% concentration edible coated tomatoes degradation started on 16th day of storage. The study showed that there is a regular decrease in the weight of tomatoes. The controlled tomatoes losses weight on a faster pace than the ginger oil coated tomatoes. Although 2% conc. coated tomatoes loses weight but slower than other coated tomatoes. Firmness also decreased like weight in all coated and controlled tomatoes but the rate was very slow in 2% coated tomatoes than others. TSS increased in all coated and controlled tomatoes. In controlled tomatoes the increase rate of TSS is highest and in 2% coated tomatoes the rate is