The major plant growth regulator ethephon degrades to ethylene and phosphate in aqueous solutions and plants and is spontaneously activated to a butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) inhibitor in alkaline solutions and animal tissues. In the present (31)P NMR kinetic study of the reactions of ethephon in pH 7.4 carbonate buffer, we observed a transient peak at 28.11 ppm. The time course for the appearan...

Ethephon sprayed directly onto pepino fruits (Solanum muricatum Ait., Chilean clone CH8) at 1920 mg lÿ1 advanced colour changes and therefore earliness of the crop. Colour changes evaluated with a HunterLab colorimeter occurred more quickly in ethephon-treated fruits in which a*/b* ratio changed soon after treatment and reached the highest values in treated fruits. Among four visually classifie...

Low and erratic seed germination presents a major production problem in the medicinal plants that collectively are called echinacea or purple coneflower (Echinacea angustifolia and E. pallida). In this study, nine seed lots of each E. pallida and E. angustifolia from a wide variety of commercial sources and germplasm collections were collected and treated with a solution of 1.0 mM [144.5 mg·L-1...

South African sugarcane varieties N23 and N25 were compared against industry standards NCo376 and N19 on soils with low yield potential in four replicated, irrigated trials comprising a total of 17 crops, harvested either early, mid or late in the milling season. Chemical ripeners ethephon (2-chloroethanephosphonic acid) and Fusilade Super (fluazifop-p-butyl) were applied either alone or as a c...

Rice blast, caused by Magnaporthe grisea Cav., frequently limits rough rice yields and cultivar options in Arkansas rice production areas. Rice growers and researchers have long observed that susceptible rice plants are more blast resistant when growing in moisture saturated or flooded soil. In fact, Arkansas growers utilized flood-induced field resistance as their primary blast control measure...

In this study, the effects of nitrogen fertilizer and plant growth regulator (ethephon) application on leaf chlorophyl, stem height and diameter, stalk yield, total sugar and bioethanol of sweet sorghum were determined. Four nitrogen treatments 0, 100, 200 and 300 Kg Urea ha-1 and four ethephon concentrations 0, 800, 1000, and 1200 ppm were applied on sweet sorghum in a split plot on randomized...

The aim of the present investigation was to study the growth, yield and yield components of maize (Zea mays L.) single cross 704 under different levels of irrigation, plant density, and ethephon in southern Iran where this particular crop has not yet been studied in detail. A field experiment was performed in the 2004 5 growing season at the experimental farm of the College of Agriculture, Shir...

S.R. Drake, T.A. Eisele, M. A. Drake, D.C. Elfving, S.L. Drake and D.B. Visser U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Tree Fruit Research Laboratory, 1104 N. Western Ave., Wenatchee, WA 98801 Tree Top Inc., P.O. Box 248, Selah, WA 98942 Department of Food Science, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695 Washington State University, Tree Fruit Research and Exte...