African Journal of Agriculture

African Journal of Agriculture ISSN 2375-1134 Vol. 6 (9), pp. 001-006, September, 2019. © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Storage of apple pollen and in vitro germination

Ali. Imani^1,2*, Kazem. Barzegar³, Saeed Piripireivatlou² and Seiyed Hassan Masomi⁴

¹Horticultural Department of Seed and Plant Improvement Institute (SPII), P. O. Box 31585-4119 Karaj, Iran.

²Islamic Azad University, Abhar branch, Department of Horticulture Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Abhar, Iran.

³Faculty of Agriculture Department of Horticultural Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.

⁴Islamic Azad University, Takestan branch, Department of agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture, Takestan - Iran.

Accepted 04 May, 2019

Abstract

Temperate fruits including pome fruits, especially apple are important fruit crops which mostly for fruit set needs the pollination of flowers and followed by pistil fertilization. Therefore, pollen viability and its germination capability are essential. For that reason, examination to optimize the pollen medium of apple and determination of the best medium was carried out with 16 types of culture medium containing different concentrations of boric acid (0 and 100 mg/1), calcium nitrate (0 and 300 mg/l), magnesium sulphate (0 and 200 mg/l), potassium nitrate (0 and 100 mg/l), sucrose (15%) and agar (1%) in the In vitro using random complete design with three replications. The results showed that maximum germination was in combination medium B2M1K1C2S (100 mg/l boric acid, 0mg/l sulphate magnesium, 0.0 mg/l potassium nitrate, 300 mg/l calcium nitrate, 15% sucrose and 1% agar) with 100%, and lowest germination medium in combination B1M2K2C1S (0.0 mg/l boric acid, 100 mg/l potassium nitrate, 200 mg/l magnesium sulphate, 0 mg/l calcium nitrate, 15% sucrose and 1% agar with 13.30% occurred. The viability of pollen of 4 apple cultivars, three and seven months after maintenance at 3 temperatures (4°C, - 20°C and -80°C) showed that 3 months after storage, maximum germination was in Primgold Pollen stored at -80°C with 96.21% and the lowest germination (58.33%) in Northern Spy pollen stored at 4°C, but 7 months after storage, maximum germination was in Primgold Pollen stored at -80°C with 90.66% and the lowest germination (36.67%) in Northern Spy pollen stored at 4°C.

Key words: In-vitro, pollen germination, apple.

African Journal of Agriculture ISSN 2375-1134 Vol. 6 (8), pp. 001-006, August, 2019. © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) hybrids seeds distribution modelling: Normal, lognormal and weibull models

Hussein Oraki*, Iraj Alahdadi and Fataneh Parhizkar khajani

Department of Plant and Animal Science, College of Abouraihan, The University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

Accepted 09 April, 2019

Abstract

Sunflower (Helianthus annus L.) is one of the most cultivated oil crops in the world. Seed oil of cultivated sunflower has good quality that they are important source of unsaturated oil. Various types of cleaning, grading and separation equipment are designed on the basis of the physical properties of grains or seeds. However knowing the average of seed dimensions are important in designing some apparatuses, but knowing the dimensional distribution is necessary for designing apparatuses such as sorters, separators, and planters. The aim of this study was to model the size distribution of two hybrid of sunflower (hysun33 and hysun25) dimension by three statistic models namely, Normal, Lognormal and Weibull distribution functions. For comparison the goodness of fit of the models, three statistic tests namely, Kolmogrov-Smirnov, Anderson-Darling and Chi- squared tests were used. The results showed that for hysun33 Hybrid, the length, width and thickness of seeds varied from 6.36 to 12.87, 4.02 to 7.57 and 2.65 to 5.52 mm, respectively. Corresponding values for Hysun25 variety were 7.57 to 10.99, 2.54 to 6.82 and 2.03 to 4.93 mm, respectively. According to the results, the normal function was the best model to predict the length, width and thickness distributions of the two hybrids.

Key word: Sunflower seed, physical properties, size distribution, statistic distribution.

African Journal of Agriculture ISSN 2375-1134 Vol. 6 (8), pp. 001-010, August, 2019. © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Yield and quality of garden cress affected by different nitrogen sources and growing period

Özlem Tuncay¹*, Dursun E iyok¹, Bülent Ya mur² and Bülent Okur²

¹Ege University, Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Horticulture, 35100, Izmir-Turkey.

²Ege University, Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Soil Sciences, 35100, Izmir-Turkey.

Accepted 10 April, 2019

Abstract

The effects of different months of the year and nitrogen sources on garden cress (Lepidium sativum L.) yield, quality and nitrate accumulation were investigated during the years 2002 and 2003. In both years, seeds were sown on the first days of September, October, November, January, February and March. Three different nitrogen sources were used: Farmyard (cattle) manure (100 ton·ha^-1), Ca(NO₃)₂-15.5% N (150 kg N·ha^-1) and (NH₄) ₂SO₄)-21% N (150 kg N·ha^-1). Yield, leaf color, dry matter, vitamin C, total glucosinolate content and nitrate accumulation were assessed. No interaction between sowing date and nitrogen form was observed for any of the assessed parameters. Growing period affected all parameters significantly. Plants obtained from January and February sowings resulted in better yield, leaf color, dry matter and vitamin C content. But the nitrate contents also increased. Highest total glucosinolate content was observed during the warmer months. Nitrate nitrogen application increased yield, leaf greenness, vitamin C and nitrate content while farmyard manure application raised dry matter and total glucosinolate contents. Nitrate content of the garden cress plants did not exceed 391 mg kg^-1 fresh weight, which is below the accepted daily intake of 3.7 mg nitrate per kg^-1 bodyweight set by European Commission’s Scientific Committee on Food.

Key words: Lepidium sativum L., farmyard manure, nitrate, glucosinolate, vitamin C.

African Journal of Agriculture ISSN 2375-1134 Vol. 6 (7), pp. 001-008, July, 2019. © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Use of rainfall indices to analyze the effects of phosphate rocks on millet in the Sahel

Charles F. Yamoah^1,2*, Andre Bationo^3,4, Barry Shapiro^4,6 and Saidou Koala^7,8

¹International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Niamey Niger.

²Mekelle University, Addis Ababa Ethiopia.

³Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility, Nairobi, Kenya.

⁴Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), Accra, Ghana.

⁵Natural Resources Programme, ICRISAT, Bamako Mali.

⁶Citizen Network for Foreign Affairs (CNFA), Washington D.C, USA.

⁷Desert Margins Program, ICRISAT Niamey, Niger.

⁸Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility – African Soil Biology and Fertility Network (TSBF-AfNET), Nairobi. Kenya.

Accepted 11 March, 2019

Abstract

Two critical factors that explain low crop productivity in the Sahelian agro-ecozone are inadequate moisture and poor soils, particularly phosphorus (P) deficiency. The purpose of this long-term study was to explore the use of both local phosphate rock (PR) and inorganic P on yields and risk of millet returns under the uncertain rainfall regimes in the Sahel. Using the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and Percent Confidence Limits (PCL) of the mean rainfall, the 10-year experimental period was grouped into rainfall classes. Results showed that the inorganic P fertilizers, that is, single superphosphate and triple superphosphate (SSP+N and TSP) gave the highest average yields. Also, millet yield increased with increasing P rates. However, typical farmers in the Sahel barely use P rates above 20 kg ha^-1 in view of the high cost of imported fertilizers. A low application rate of the local PR, 10 kg P ha^-1, increased millet yield between 44 and 67%. Stability analysis using yields from 15 farmers’ fields indicated that the traditional method of growing millet was the least stable (s.e. = 225) and had the lowest yield (314 kg ha^-1). Generally, millet responded to P better when the preseason (May-June) were wet than dry, except where the non- acidulated PR (PRA) was applied every year (R²=0.99, P < 0.01) for both dry and wet preseasons. Risk analysis showed that acidulated PR regardless of rates gave the highest millet returns over variable cost of P fertilizer. The study recommends the promotion PR in order to guarantee stable yields and income for small farmers in the Sahel.

Key words: Phosphate rock, Sahel, millet, variable rainfall.