Vegetable plug seedling has become the most important way to produce vegetable seedlings in China. This seedling method can significantly improve the quality and yield of vegetables compared to conventional methods. In the process of plug seedling, chemical fertilizers or pesticides are often used to improve the yield of the seedlings albeit with increasing concerns. Meanwhile, little is known ...

The effects of herbivores and diversity on plant communities have been studied separately but rarely in combination. We conducted two concurrent experiments over 3 years to examine how tree seedling diversity, density and herbivory affected forest regeneration. One experiment factorially manipulated plant diversity (one versus 15 species) and the presence/absence of deer (Odocoileus virginianus...

A series of seed priming experiments were conducted to test the effects of different pretreatment methods to seed germination, seedling growth, and seed yield traits in maize (Zea mays L.). Results indicated that the seeds primed by gibberellins (GA), NaCl, and polyethylene glycol (PEG) reagents showed a higher imbibitions rate compared to those primed with water. The final germination percenta...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS The date of emergence may have far-reaching implications for seedling performance. Seedlings emerging early in the growing season often have a greater rate of survival or grow better if early emergence provides advantages with respect to an environmental cue. As a result, the benefits of early emergence may be lost if the environmental stress creating the differences among c...

Crop breeding plays an important role in modern agriculture, improving plant performance, and increasing yield. Identifying the genes that are responsible for beneficial traits greatly facilitates plant breeding efforts for increasing crop production. However, associating genes and their functions with agronomic traits requires researchers to observe, measure, record, and analyze phenotypes of ...

In tropical forests light and water availability are the most important factors for seedling growth and survival but an increasing frequency of drought may affect tree regeneration. One central question is whether drought and shade have interactive effects on seedling growth and survival. Here, we present results of a greenhouse experiment, in which seedlings of 10 Ghanaian tree species were ex...

The investigation was conducted on wet and dry seasons of Ethiopia during the year 2012/2013 at Wondo Genet Agricultural Research Center Nursery site. Four levels of cutting size and three levels of cutting positions were arranged in randomized complete block design with three replications. Data on seedling height, branch number/seedling, root number/seedling, root weigh/seedling, root length/s...

A laboratorial study was carried out to investigate the effect of NaCl priming on seed germination and seedling growth of canola. Canola seeds were primed with 1% NaCl solution for 24 hours, at 20°C. Then primed and non-primed seeds were irrigated with seven different saline solutions consisted of 0 (control), 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, 1.00, 1.25 and 1.50% concentrations of NaCl. Results indicated that...

Montane and subalpine grasslands are prominent, but poorly understood, features of the Rocky Mountains. These communities frequently occur below reversed tree lines on valley floors, where nightly cold air accumulation is spatially coupled with fine soil texture. We used field experiments to assess the roles of minimum temperature, soil texture, grass competition, and ungulate browsing on the g...