A comparative study was carried out to determine the most suitable substrate for breeding of midges (Forcipomyia spp.) and the implications for pollination and yield in a typical cocoa production system in the forest ecological zone of Ghana. For the field experiment, the typically available substrates in cocoa farms which were used as the treatments under cocoa trees were: 1) rotten cocoa leaf...

Bananas are among the most important fruit crops worldwide, being cultivated in more than 120 countries, mainly by small-scale producers. However, short-stature high-yielding bananas presenting good agronomic characteristics are hard to find. Consequently, wind continues to damage a great number of plantations each year, leading to lodging of plants and bunch loss. Development of new culti...

Soft rot on banana fruit caused by Rhizopus oryzae was identified for the first time in Korea. Colonies were white to light brown and formed numerous sporangiospores. Optimum temperature for mycelial growth was 30℃. Sporangia were globose and 30~200 µm. Sporangiophores were usually straight, 8~20 µm, and rhizoids usually in groups of 3~5. Columella were globose to sub-globose and 90~110 µm. Spo...

The most deliberate part of first-language teaching is the business of telling a child what each thing is called. We ordinarily speak of the name of a thing as if there were just one, but in fact, of course, every referent has many names. The dime in my pocket is not only a dime. It is also money, a metal object, a thing, and, moving to subordinates, it is a 1952 dime, in fact a particular 1952...

In vitro asymbiotic seed germination of Dendrobium chrysotoxum varied with fruit harvesting time and culture medium used for germinating seeds. Seeds at different developmental stages were harvested and cultured on five asymbiotic orchid seed germination media i.e. defined and undefined media, namely 1⁄2 MS, KC, M, MS and PDA. Seeds harvested 220 days after pollination showed maximum germinatio...

The foam mat drying is a good way of dehydrating liquids foods in short times. Due to the porous structure of the foamed materials, mass transfer is enhanced leading to shorter dehydration times. This technique can be successfully employed for drying a variety of fruit juice concentration and pulps. The dried powders have good reconstitution characteristics. These studies are particularly appli...

Anoectochilus formosanus is an important ethnomedicinal plant of Taiwan. We have optimized a method for mass propagation of A. formosanus by artificial cross-pollination and asymbiotic germination of seeds. The success of pollination and fruit set was found to be dependent on the developmental stage of male and female gametophytes. Fruit set of hand-pollinated flowers was 86.7%. The seeds from ...

In ripening banana (Musa acuminata L. [AAA group, Cavandish subgroup] cv. Valery) fruit, the steady state concentration of the glycolytic regulator fructose 2,6-bisphosphate (Fru 2,6-P(2)) underwent a transient increase 2 to 3 hours before the respiratory rise, but coincident with the increase in ethylene synthesis. Fru 2,6-P(2) concentration subsequently decreased, but increased again approxim...

Certain varieties of many species of plants develop their fruits parthenocarpically or without fertilization. The apple and pear occasionally produce parthenocarpic fruits but generally under special nutritive conditions (10). In some varieties of grapes, figs, bananas, and oranges, parthenocarpy is of great economic importance (4, 14). Because of this naturally occurring phenomenon, attention ...

In the Amazon region, there is no information on the fertilization of banana plants with boron (B). Besides this, the extractant (hot water) currently used to test B concentrations has many limitations. The aim of this work was to study the effect of B on the fruit yield and quality of banana plants of the Cavendish (AAA) sub-group, grown in dystrophic Yellow Latosol (Oxisol or Xanthic Ferralso...