Orchard Floor Crops Reduce Growth of Young Pecan Trees

Genetic Diversity of Seed Orchard Crops

Autonomous Orchard Vehicles for Specialty Crops Production

Comprehensive Automation for Specialty Crops (CASC) is a four-year project to develop crop intelligence and agricultural automation technologies for the apple and nursery tree industries. Supported by the USDA Specialty Crop Research Initiative, CASC aims at impacting industry where it matters most: increasing production efficiency and reducing labor costs. In this paper we present our most rec...

Discovery and small RNA profile of Pecan mosaic-associated virus, a novel potyvirus of pecan trees

A novel potyvirus was discovered in pecan (Carya illinoensis) showing leaf mosaic symptom through the use of deep sequencing of small RNAs. The complete genome of this virus was determined to comprise of 9,310 nucleotides (nt), and shared 24.0% to 58.9% nucleotide similarities with that of other Potyviridae viruses. The genome was deduced to encode a single open reading frame (polyprotein) on t...

Improving Growth and Performance of Young Almond Trees in Nursery by Optimizing Mineral Nutrition

Short growing season restricts production of standard-sized fruit trees in nurseries at cold regions. Enhancing plant growth by optimizing program of mineral nutrition may solve the problem. This study evaluated efficiency of fertilizers [urea, sulfur coated urea (SCU), or foliar applications of a NPK compound fertilizer] for optimizing the growth of seedling rootstocks and grafted young almond...

Nitrogen distribution, remobilization and re-cycling in young orchard of non-bearing ‘Rocha’ pear trees

In newly planted orchards, special attention must be paid to fertilization to build up the permanent structure of the trees so that high yield and fruit quality can be reached later on. Nitrogen (N) plays a major role in the fertilization plan, although few studies have assessed its use efficiency in young nonbearing trees, especially in field conditions. In this work, 1–3 years old ‘Rocha’ pea...