This study was conducted to assay the effects of methanol foliar application (0, 10, 20 and 30% v/v) and bed cover (control, white and black covers) on yield and some physiological traits of marigold as a factorial based on RCBD. The results revealed the significant interaction effects of bed cover and methanol foliar application on chlorophyll a content and plant height. The highest plant heig...

Despite evidence for biological control in North America, outbreaks of the invasive soybean aphid, Aphis glycines Matsumura (Hemiptera: Aphididae), continue to occur on soybean (Glycine max L. Merr.). Our objectives were to determine whether natural enemies delay aphid establishment and limit subsequent population growth and whether biological control can be improved by altering the within-fiel...

A field experiment was conducted in a cider-apple orchard to evaluate the effect of six groundcover management systems (pine-bark, plastic and straw mulches, tillage, herbicide and natural soil) on the occurrence of ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae). Eight species of carabids were collected in pitfall traps. The three most common beetles, Steropus gallega Fairmaire (65.8%), Pseudophonus ru...

Absorbent recycled paper products were tested and compared with a sodium polyacrylate gelling agent, Aquatain, for solidifying larval diets of the screwworm, Cochliomyia hominivorax (Coquerel). A recycled newsprint product, Terra-Mulch, when mixed with water and dietary ingredients produced a diet medium of homogeneous texture that supported larval growth and development comparable to the stand...

Banana weevil (Cosmopolites sordidus) is a major pest in East Africa causing yield losses of up to 14 metric tonnes per hectare annually. A study was conducted in Uganda to determine the effect of mulching on banana (Musa spp. L.) weevil, Cosmopolites sordidus (Germar) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), movement relative to pheromone-baited traps. Three treatments were used to create different mulchi...

The effects of different mulch materials applied to compacted and uncompacted soil on the quantity and the quality of deposited earthworm casts were investigated. Biochemical properties and water stability of soil aggregates were compared with the corresponding properties of worm casts. This short-time experiment was conducted in the laboratory, simulating field conditions of mulch management i...

to study the effect of different weed control methods in tomato, an experiment was conducted as completely randomized block design with three replications at the research farm of university of tehran (karaj) in 2008. the treatments consisted of post emergence (at recommended rate) or pre emergence (reduced rate in combination with mulch) application of metribuzin, rimsulfuron and sulfosulfuron,...

Stale seedbeds are used by organic growers to reduce weed populations prior to crop planting. Ryemulches, derived from mechanically killed (rolled and crimped) winter rye cover crops, can serve the same purpose for spring-planted organic crops. Both methods can also be employed by conventional growers who face looming problems with herbicide resistant weeds. The objective of this research was t...

Blowing dust from summer fallow is a major soil loss and air quality concern in winter wheat (Triricum aesrivum L.) production areas of the inland Pacific Northwest (PNW). The objective of our 3-yr onfarm study in a 286-mm precipitation zone in eastern Washington was to determine the effects of tillage mulch depth during fallow on surface soil roughness, residue retention, seed-zone water stora...

We develop an approach to utilize anisotropic metamaterials to solve one of the fundamental problems of modern plasmonics--parasitic scattering of surface waves into free-space modes, opening the road to truly two-dimensional plasmonic optics. We illustrate the developed formalism on the examples of plasmonic refractor and plasmonic crystal, and discuss limitations of the developed technique an...