Proceedings Library

During the past five annual meetings of the International Board, I have heard increasing concerns expressed by the Directors over various aspects of the policies and rules under which we operate, such as the relationships of the Regions to each other, and the relationship of the Regions to the International body. Finances, publications, forming new Regions, voting rights, Region's rights, are frequently on the agenda for discussion. This is GOOD! An organization worth supporting is an organization that serves the needs of its members and, truly, an organization must change as the needs of its members change.

Most of us know

Only recently have research dollars been allocated for modeling horticultural crops. This is probably due to the realization that benefits are possible for the horticulture industry. The greenhouse industry has, for example, discovered that a crucial step in the area of automated environmental control is to be able to provide the control computer with some representation of how the plant responds to modifications in the environment. Those interested in production can benefit by having a lot of crop-specific information placed into a package which mimics the crop's response to changes in cultural practices. With such a model it is possible to develop cultivars

In recent years commercial nurseries have been able to exploit the tremendous potential of this crop through the rapid multiplication process of tissue culture. Previous to this technique, clones could only be multiplied by division which was very slow and often led to disease. With tissue culture propagation it is now possible to bulk up thousands of progeny from a single clone in a very short period of time. This process is, however, expensive and a clone must be thoroughly assessed before it is selected for bulking up.

Although

I intend to outline structure, cost, management techniques, and offer an overall assessment of this system 9 months on.

Basically, capillary beds are a watering system where water is made available at the base of the container-grown plant rather than by an overhead sprinkler system. Water availability is an extremely important factor affecting plant growth rates and general plant health. Overhead watering inevitably has variable distribution, resulting in some overly wet and other very dry areas in the nursery. There is also considerable water wastage with fall on standing out areas and pathways. In the capillary system water is available at all times through capillary action from the moist sand of the bed up through the drainage

In pre-European times pingao was a common plant in both the North and South Islands of New Zealand. Now, farm stock and feral animals graze the foreshore and introduced plants, marram grass, buffalo grass and lupins, which have been widely used to control the spread of the sand dunes, have displaced this native plant. Pingao is localised and may become endangered.

Pingao has always been used for a weaving material by the Maori people, for kete, and for tukutuku panelling which lines the walls of the meeting houses. In the last decade, the renaissance of taha Maori, both in the weaving arts, and the refurbishing of marae, have increased the use of the pingao fibre, and in many areas

In this paper I will outline the methods I have developed during those thirty years and now use to propagate this family of plants from seed in my particular climate. In doing so I must generalise as there is insufficient time to go into the finer details for each species and cultivar. In practice one should never generalise about proteas.

Proteas are unique in some of their demands for survival. A basic understanding of where, how, and why they grow in nature will help understand why they need these specific conditions.

Almost all the proteas we know in New Zealand gardens come from the Cape Province of South Africa and are mostly found in an area about 600 km long by 80 km wide, stretching from Capetown eastwards to Port Elizabeth along the coast and

(1) What is biological control? and (2) what can it achieve?

What is biological control? The term biological control can mean rather different things to different people. Like many well worked (or over-worked) terms it has been adapted and modified by various authors to suit their own particular view points. The way in which the term will be used in the present paper should be clear from the following discussion.

The basic ideas, concepts and early applications of biological control were developed primarily by entomologists who, at least 100 years ago, recognised the importance of natural enemies in regulating populations of pest species. To a large extent it is only during the past few decades that such concepts have been extended to organisms other than insects and mites. I will first discuss biological control with respect to pest insects, then consider

By growing the majority of our stock plants on the nursery property we can be sure that:

1. The history and identity of each stock plant is known.
2. Material produced by the stock plants is free of pests and diseases.
3. Cutting material can be collected with ease at the optimum time to ensure best possible results.

As well as our regular stock beds we have employed the available space between areas on banks, etc. to grow plants suited to particular conditions. For example, on a sunny north-facing bank grevilleas thrive in very sandy soil built up from used propagating mix. Banks are also filled with leptospermums and smaller growing conifer cultivars.

In the laying out of stock beds thought should be given to accessibility when collecting cuttings. Plants need a certain amount of room to grow and we need room to be

Now, let me tell you about my personal experiences with a computer because I am not an expert with it. I want to assure you that it does not take a genius to figure out how to use them

A 1% ¹⁵N-urea + 0.1% Silwet L-77 foliar application doubled the amount of nitrogen absorbed. In the absence of L-77, seedlings tolerated 5% urea, whereas in the presence of 0.1% L-77 and urea concentrations higher than 2%, needle burning occurred.

Silwet L-77 ("Pulse", Monsanto) may be a useful surfactant for foliar applications of growth regulators, growth retardants, and nutrients to other plants.

The facts of life of the small nursery (ours is 8 acres) is that you simply do not need a large propagation facility. We currently propagate 95% of our own stock. This includes summer softwood cuttings in mist beds as well as winter hardwood cuttings in bottom-heated beds without mist. These winter, bottom-heated beds also serve to hold the young stock that we graft during the December to March period. We do 100% of our own grafting of both evergreen and deciduous plants. Our

The root zone heating system has a boiler, supply lines, a header system, runs or loops of tubing, a return line to the boiler, a pump, and a quality thermostat. The root zone heating system should not be the only heat supply for the greenhouse. Secondary heaters must be installed to assure warm air temperatures during extreme cold periods and to help melt problem ice and snow. Root damage from high soil

Horizontal air flow, or HAF, is the topic of my subject today. What exactly is HAF? It is simply air circulating horizontally in a column around the house. Fans located on opposite sides of the house provide a gentle but continuous circulation which mixes the air from top to bottom in the structure. We have used HAF in our growing houses since the advent of double poly during the energy crisis. Double poly sealed our houses so tight we found there was no natural air movement. Many articles have been written over the years about HAF in growing houses, so we will move on to cold storage houses.

Why would we want to install HAF in these structures? Are there advantages or maybe

Our nursery began in 1956 at Red Bank, New Jersey. We started with an open field, in which a few pegs were placed to indicate roads, frames, etc. We propagated a crop of rhododendrons and in 1957 began to plant out our first beds. Twenty years later we had reached a point at which we were able to help host the summer meeting of the IPPS Eastern Region. That year, 1976, was the apogee of our New Jersey nursery. The previous year we had decided to move, and a farm on the edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains

There are two main divisions in the bamboos based on rhizome habit. The clump growers, or pachymorphs, have constricted rhizomes so that the plant remains in a relatively tight clump. Although the clump increases in size over the years, its increase per year is generally measured in inches rather than feet. The other group, the leptomorphs or running bamboos, spread rapidly by vigorous rhizomes which can extend out from the parent plant several feet, or more, per year. For garden purposes, the clump growers are more desirable, but, generally speaking, they are the tropical of

Plastics and textiles have played an increasingly important role in the continuing search for better ways to grow nursery crops. Continuous films fo clear plastic have replaced glass throughout the industry. Woven polymer shadecloth provides reduced heat and light to sensitive crops, is easier to handle and has become less expensive than wooden lath. Milky white plastics have become an integral part of winter protection for container nurseries. Insulating plastic foams and laminates help nurseries overwinter more valuable or delicate stock.

Today, we are often pumping water through plastic pipe and nozzles onto plants in plastics pots on a plastic groundcover with plastic protection between the plant and the sky. Polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, etc. have become familiar terms during the polymer revolution that has captured us in the past 20 years. This rapid change has occurred because the nurseries must use technology that will perform required tasks as well as or better than

To overcome both of these problems we decided to see if side grafting, as we were using in evergreen grafting, might work. We were grafting around 30,000 evergreens at that time, had plenty of experienced help, and time to train more, as grafting is done during our slacktime—winter.

Let me describe to you the procedure using Morus alba ‘Pendula’, which is grafted onto M. alba or M. alba var. tatarica as

At Monrovia Nursery Company, we are propagating the cultivars by grafting and budding. The propagation method used is determined by the time of year and the size of the scion and rootstock. During late winter, stick budding and side cleft grafts are utilized. In the late summer, chip budding is used.

Stick-Budding. Stick-budding uses a small stick with several sets of buds as a scion. The rootstock must be actively growing and in the bark slip stage for a successful union. This method is particularly useful if there is a caliper difference between scion and rootstock.

In late winter, dormant seedling Acer palmatum rootstocks of approximately pencil thickness are

It makes no difference whether the stock or scion piece is prepared first, however we generally prepare the stock first. This reduces the handling of the scion piece and requires less juggling. The initial cut involves a downward thrust with a sharp grafting knife. The cut begins with a gentle curve until a depth equal to 1/3 of the stock's diameter is reached. Keeping the cut straight, proceed downward until the cut is approximately ¾ in. long. The length of the cut will vary somewhat with the size of the material being used. The second cut

To start out, let's set some parameters on this discussion. The crops which are included are Pachysandra terminalis ‘Green Carpet’, Euonymus fortunei ‘Colorata’ and Polygonum cuspidatum var. compactum. The cuttings are direct stuck in 2 in., 3 in, or quart pots in flats. The

Seeds were sown in the fall in raised ground beds, grown for one growing season and dug the following winter. They were healed-in outside storage beds of sawdust until March 15th when they were planted into 1-gal containers. That November the 1-gal trees were then shifted into 5 gal containers and grown for one more year to saleable size.

Grafts were made in January and February as bench grafts, allowed to callus, and then potted into peat pots and placed inside quonset houses heated to 50°F. This allowed to losses to occur in the less expensive propagation space instead of after planting in containers. The grafts were planted directly into 5-gal containers in May or June once they were actively growing. These grafts were then grown for 2 years in 5-gal

The last 14 years have been very turbulent; our economy has experienced a series of "crises", both real and imagined. There have been problems with energy in production, distribution, and availability. There have been rapid and rather severe "boom and bust" cycles in the economy; at one point the experience has been severe double-digit inflation with high interest rates, followed by severe deflation with an accompanying drop in rates. Consumer demand for

At the Grand Rapids IPPS meeting in 1982, you saw approximately ½ of our Taxus crop stuck as unstripped cuttings and the balance struck traditionally as stripped cuttings. We talked about the reasons and what we had found out to that point on the tour. We have refined our process to balance labor efficiency with rooting efficiency.

The early 1980's saw an imbalance in growth. Production was increasing faster than sales, so we were looking at ways to reduce labor while keeping our quality up. In November 1980, an R&D project was initiated to stick 5,000 cuttings of two Taxus cultivars as unstripped cuttings. The goal was to decrease the cost per cutting by $0.001 cents, while not reducing quality. That first year's experiment was successful, so we increased it in 1981 to 5,000 cuttings of 4 Taxus cultivars. This showed even more favorable results. We not only

The value of the liner crop based on the area occupied (amount of land) is extremely high and it is not cost effective for the herbicide industry to label herbicides for use in liner beds. This means that the nursery industry will need to do most of its own research to determine what herbicides will be effective and safe for use in liner beds.

The use of herbicides in liner beds should be done only after careful evaluation of the existing weed problems, the liner species being grown, and the bed medium. To do otherwise is courting disaster.

The purpose of this paper is to describe how a nursery should develop a weed control system for its liner beds including an in-house research program.

The Chicago Botanic Garden has begun planting a display garden with prairie grasses and forbes. Our display of these plants is not only ornamental but is used as a learning tool for the interested public who chooses to see plants displayed in landscape settings. Classes are held for plant identification as well as prairie construction. In addition to these, a tram stop is being planned for next year to be able to make people more aware of the beauty and ornamental qualities of these plants. We collect seeds in

Since this is a symbiotic relationship, both the plant and the fungi benefit. The plant benefits primarily from increased nutrient and water uptake, while the fungi benefits from the use of the plant as a source of carbohydrates and plant exudates.

Research with ornamental plants has focused on both ectomycorrhizae and endomycorrhizae. Ectomycorrhizae form a visible hyphal sheath around root tips and are responsible for the characteristic branching of ectomycorrhizal roots. Within the root, the hyphae surround, but do not penetrate individual cells. Unlike ectomycorrhizae, endomycorrhizae are not visible without magnification. In

From the time the Taxus cuttings are stuck until they are sold the nursery will lose roughly 20% of them. Much of this loss comes from grading out the weaker or less desirable plants, as opposed to cultural (disease, insects) and mechanical damage. Eleven cultivars of Taxus are stuck each season. The average yearly total for all 11 cultivar is 150,000 cuttings. Within 8 to 9 years, depending on the cultivar, 115,000 plants will be sold.

The taking of cuttings begins in mid-November and is usually

Seeds treated with the same coating as above were planted in the field where there no significant effects on germination as a result of seed coatings with any of the species.

The tree and shrub breeding projects of the USNA have been of particular interest to the members of the IPPS and other plant industry associations. The USNA has strived to introduce to the nursery trade plants with improved horticultural characteristics, which are most often meant to rectify deficiencies found in the list of available cultivated plants. The improved trait of a new plant may range from such functional characteristics as increased disease resistance to visual attributes such as novel flower color.

The main role of the shrub breeding project, led by Dr. Donald Egolf and described in previous papers (2, 3), has traditionally been the introduction of new cultivars. Mr.

The thirty-sixth annual banquet was held in the Aztec Room of the Hershey Lodge, Hershey, Pennsylvania.

On behalf of the Society, the research award was presented to Dr. Dennis Stimart, Department of Horticulture, University of Wisconsin at Madison by Dr. Paul Smeal.

Air layering is an ancient and, under favorable conditions, a very sure method of plant propagation for many plants. This method has been practiced in China and other Asian countries for thousands of years. The method has been used mostly with plants native to the tropics and subtropics; however, some hardy perennial plants such as dogwoods, hemlocks, hollies, rhododendrons, viburnums, and wisterias have also been propagated in this manner.

Basically the method involves the stimulation of root development by injuring a stem and surrounding the wound with a medium which is porous enough to admit sufficient air and yet will remain moist enough to provide a good environment

Award of Merit

Our Award of Merit recipient came from a family of small farmers. His life upholds the old adage "You can take the boy away from the farm, but you can't take the farm away from the boy!"

After graduation from high school he entered the army and spent 3 yr in Europe where he became an expert in artillery, travel, and poker—his expertise, however, was not necessarily in that order. With 3 yr of expertise behind him in dealing with numbers and juggling the probabilities of poker he decided to enter Ohio University in 1946 to become an accountant. Upon graduation in 1949 he decided not to become an accountant but entered Stanford Graduate School of Business and graduated in 1951. Being an inveterate gambler and wanting to play for higher stakes but with someone else's money he joined a Wall Street firm as an investment counselor. After 10 years in this position he left to become manager of the Personal Investment Division of another Wall Street firm.

In 1964 the frustrations of picking the

MODERATOR LEISS: We have yellow nutsedge and are not in a position to move our nursery. I understand that Roundup will only burn off the tops and set the nuts into dormancy for one or more seasons. I've also read that Besagran applied when new growth is 4 to 6 in. tall will kill both top growth and nutlets. Can anyone comment on these herbicides?

PHILIP CARPENTER: Roundup is not an effective control. Besagran is an effective control but it has no woody ornamental clearances on the label. I cannot recommend it on that basis.

MODERATOR LEISS: Question for Philip Carpenter on the fumigation of liner beds. The labels on most brands of methyl bromide list application rates between 1 and 4lb/100 sq. ft. In light sandy soils at what rate can we expect control of wild chrysanthemum and yellow nutsedge. Also, at the higer rates, do we chance eliminating beneficial soil fungi and

One of the goals in our earliest selecting and hybridizng programs at Weston Nurseries was to expand the flowering season and color choices for landscape plants. We begn primarily with early blooming species, such as Rhododendron mucronulatum and R. dauricum var. sempervirens and R. carolinianum. Results of those efforts have been gratifying and have given us incentive to continue. The rhododendron hybrids

Acer saccharum ‘Globosum’ is a globe-shaped sugar maple. What makes this tree of interest to the nursery trade is its small eventual size. This sugar maple has the same fine fall color as the species. We have two plants at the Arnold Arboretum. One, a 45 year old plant, is about 25 ft high by 18 ft wide and was grafted low to the ground. It could also be grafted as a standard. I don't know about the history of this cultivar but we received our material in 1942 from the Henry Hohman Nursery in Kingsville, MD. I see this cultivar as an excellent tree for lawn, patio or park use.

Betula grossa, the Japanese cherry birch, is a small tree that has shown no pest problems at our arboretum. It is native only to Japan and is found in the lower three islands but seems to be most common in the central provinces of the large island, Honshu. Its bark, while not being a "commercial white", is a fine silvery-maroon color which resembles the bark of

We graft camellias for one of three reasons. First some cultivars (‘Pink Pagoda’ for example) are very poor rooters or grow poorly on their own roots. Second, we can multiply new cultivars faster by utilizing both softer cuttings and heavier scionwood from the plants where cutting wood is limited. Third, when we receive wood of the new cultivars from other nurseries or arboreta the wood is often unsuitable for cuttings, but better suited for scionwood.

Camellias require considerable care during the grafting process. We have had the best results utilizing the following

It is necessary to propagate these plants vegetatively so that flowering specimens can be produced in an acceptable time span. Seedlings of some species (e.g. Magnolia campbellii) can exhibit juvenile phases of up to 40 years and even then flower quality is not guaranteed. Stem cutting propagation is not reliably documented and what little information is available points to a poor rooting

Then, I want you to join me in directing this receptive mind forward—to where we are going—where to? In preparing for this discussion, I wrote several colleagues inquiring of their thoughts on where the industry is going and what it would be like.

We have at our nursery over 20,000 plants that range from two to 22 years of age. Although a graft taken from a broom would provide a dwarf plant, I prefer to collect seed because of the variability that occurs among the dwarf seedlings.

We have found that not only do the individual seedlings within a progeny exhibit variability, but differences also occur among progenies obtained from different brooms. Seedlings obtained from two red pine (Pinus resinosa) witches'-brooms, for example, have exhibited two different forms of growth.

In one, the plants are all upright while in

Where do horticulturists get new plants? Fruit production is based on a small number of cultivars, developed over long periods of time, usually from a chance seedling or a sport. Only in the past 40 years have organized breeding programs begun to produce new and improved cultivars for commercial production, supplanting the better known and older types.

In contrast, vegetable, flower and turfgrass cultivars have been developed through extensive breeding programs of institutions and commercial companies. Competition is keen, the market is large, and the financial return for success can be substantial

During World War II he served in the military as a flying staff sergeant. Then he returned to California Polytechnic Institute as a teaching assistant and became a permanent instructor in 1947. In 1954 he became Acting Department Head of Horticulture. At about that time he took a sabbatical leave to obtain an M.S. degree at Ohio State University. He took another sabbatical leave in 1963 to complete his Ph. D. degree at Ohio State University. Our recipient was a charter member of the IPPS Western Region and active during its formative years. He was the 6th president of the Western Region in 1965–66.

He has been recognised for his many contributions to

VOICE: It depends upon the cultivar. Some are easy to root — others not. Use 6000 ppm or 3000 ppm NAA. They take a long time to root, 5 or 6 months. Start them late in the season — November.

BRUCE BRIGGS: Do you use talc or the liquid hormone in your rooting?

VOICE: We use all liquid.

BRUCE BRIGGS: If you are rooting Juniperus horizontalis, J. sabina, and J. chinensis, do you take cuttings all at the same time for best rooting, or at different seasons?

VOICE: We start in late summer and early fall with J. horizontalis and J. chinensis, which are easiest to root, then we go into more difficult ones later in the season; when it warms up in the spring we go back and finish the J. horizontalis.

BRUCE BRIGGS: In rooting our rhododendron cuttings, they do not root around the edges of the bench. What is the reason for this?

DUANE SHERWOOD: It could be due for

Banksia coccinea is one of a number of Western Australian species being developed for commercial cut-flower production. Reliable methods of vegetative propagation are required so that selected individual plants can be clonally propagated and trialed by research institutions and growers.

This species is reputedly propagated by cuttings by some nurserymen but so far no published information is available on the best methods. Generally this species, along with several other desirable banksia species, has a reputation of being difficult-to-root and commercial practice is seedling production. (Note the effect of temperature on seed germination of B. coccinea at the end of this paper).

George (2) states that cuttings of many banksia species, including B. ericifolia, B. spinulosa, B. pulchella, B. nutans, B. integrifolia, and B. seminuda, strike root without auxin treatment and that, in some cases, the application of auxin may be lethal. Other authors have reported that auxins

Those figures were used before an adequate statistical analysis was made on the data. This has now been done and the results of a number of other experiments analyzed, as well.

This paper summarizes these results and offers some guidelines for ensuring that your plants are never short of sulphur.

Sulphur—an essential element. Sulphur is an essential nutrient which plants take up mainly through their roots as sulphate ions (SO₄ =). Other forms of sulphur such as elemental sulphur (yellow powder), or sulphur present as part of soil organic matter must first be converted by microorganisms into sulphate ions. Inside the plant, the sulphur of these sulphate ions is used

The Greeks with their "gardens of Adonis" appeared to have had forcing houses in miniature. Plato says that "a grain, a seed or a branch of a tree placed in or introduced to these gardens acquired in eight days a development which could not be obtained in as many months in the open air." Columella, a Roman writer on rural matters, speaks of Rome possessing "within the precincts of her walls, fragrant trees, trees of precious perfumes such as grown in the open air in India or Arabia."

The applicants, who need not be members of IPPS, must outline why they should be given the chance to attend the IPPS Conference. They also have to present a biography and outline their interest in horticulture and plant propagation.

The winner of the award attends the Conference as a guest of the Society and must prepare a paper for presentation at the Conference. The winner also receives a book award.

In 1986 Alison Fuss, a student at the Waite Agricultural Research Institute, won this year's award and presented the following paper:

Following the success of temperate-zone fruits, such as apples and peaches, in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world, it was suggested that they may also be suited to the hot and humid conditions of a glasshouse.

In December 1984, a glasshouse of peaches was established at Murray Bridge. A cultivar of a low chilling Prunus persica hybrid developed in Florida, U.S.A., was budded onto a nematode-resistant rootstock, ‘Nemaguard’. The trees were closely spaced and four main branches were trained from the main stem onto the outer wires of a low, 5-wire T trellis.

Work began in February, 1986, to

1. Nutrient leaching from the leaves
.
2. Cutting media becoming saturated, resulting in decay of cuttings below the surface of the medium
.
3. Wide fluctuations in humidity level, especially when misting is done in conjunction with evaporative cooling or fans
.
4. High volume of water used
.

One method of overcoming these problems is to create a fog which will remain suspended in the air. This maintains a very high humidity and reduces transpiration loss from the cutting.

We have found Sonicore nozzles a cost-efficient method of producing fog which produces particles between 3 and 5 microns in size. These nozzles are air-driven acoustic oscillators for atomising water, by passing sound waves through a convergent/divergent section into a resonator cap where it is reflected back to compliment and amplify the primary shockwave.

The result is

Our crops include miniature carnations, gerberas, and Asiatic lilies, grown under saw-toothed fibreglass structures, plus snap-dragons, delphiniums, and other crops under Saran shade cloth, as well as in the open.

Flowers are shipped to about 350 wholesalers as far west as San Antonio in Texas, and Denver, Colorado, but most are sold along the east coast of the U.S.

Shipments of flowers, mostly by refrigerated truck, begin in October and continue to the end of June each year. All flowers are shipped upright in deionised water with a floral preservative. All flowers are pre-treated prior to shipping and this is considered of great importance to give the consumer good value.

Florida plays a very important role in the U.S. horticultural scene, leading in foliage production

Field Collection.The first step in the research programme is the location and collection of plant material and establishment of a comprehensive seed bank and stock plant collection. At the same

Climatically and geographically China is a land full of surprises. Areas where plants are cultivated range from the permanently frozen tundra in the north to fully tropical zones in the south. China is much larger in area than the whole of Australia, measuring over 5000 km from east to west and more than 5500 km north to south.

In the far west is the Tibetan plateau which remains cold all year. Mountains fill about 33 percent of the Chinese landscape and, because of the rainfall experienced in these mountainous regions, there is a very large number of river systems spreading across the land. One of these, the Chanjiang (Yangtze) River, is the fourth longest river in the world—covering some 6000 km. There are other major rivers such as the Huang He (Yellow) River, and hundreds of smaller ones as well as

However, it is evident from requests to import propagation material from overseas, that many plant propagators, fanciers, or plant breeders are unaware of the advantages of clean propagating material.

Advantages of Clean Propagating Material
—Reduction of "nesting" diseases in propagating benches, e.g. water-borne diseases—Pythium, Phytophthora, Fusarium, and Verticillium.
—Reduction in foliage diseases, e.g. mildews, rusts.
—Improvement in &quotbud-take" with use of virus-tested budwood, e.g. prune dwarf virus and Prunus necrotic ringspot virus-tested peach budwood.
—Better plant growth

In-vitro studies of pollination and seed development may also shed light on problems which may ultimately be overcome by more conventional techniques once we understand the problem.

This paper presents examples of the application of in-vitro techniques to the

The salt level in pots may also change rapidly, even on a daily basis. For example, in heat-wave conditions there may be rapid fertilizer release from controlled-release fertilizers, especially if it has been recently applied. A single heavy watering can also dramatically reduce the salt level. Since salinity readings can be "out of date" quickly, measurement at the actual nursery is very desirable.

A number of techniques for measuring the salinity of potting media are being evaluated by the Department. The techniques are:

1. Saturated paste extract method (SP). This is a widely used

Certain aspects of the fruit and nut market however, encourage the spread of crops into areas where their presence may be considered unusual. For example avocados in the Adelaide area. Avocados are not produced in any quantity or quality in Queensland in January or February, and in these months prices rise sharply as a result. Avocados grown in the Adelaide area are harvested later, and can supply fruit during this period. The high prices obtained compensate for the increased production costs and lower yield.

Producers of unusual fruits and nuts can take advantage of the special interest generated by their produce locally grown. There are

Description of the genus:

The genus Strelitzia was named in honour of the queen of George III of England—Charlotte of Mechlenburg of Strelitz in Germany. This South African genus in the family Musaceae has four species of large perennial herbs with a rhizome or with a woody trunk.

Many years ago Cal Poly found its niche in agricultural education in California through educating young people for immediate employment in agricultural production and management. The "Learn by Doing" philosophy

We decided in 1979 that there was an opportunity to participate in and promote an activity which we believed was in the national interest as well as offering a commercial opportunity. One of the reasons farmers do not plant as many trees as they should for their own economic good is that the whole business of choosing species from lists, planning layouts, and getting the planting done, is unfamiliar to them and requires considerable effort.

We recognized that the farmer needed a product package which simplified their task and allowed them to use their own equipment and labour to keep costs down. Hardy species were needed, grown and hardened off to survive freighting and establishment, often in harsh conditions. From the nursery point of view, flexibility in production was essential to provide for the

There is a lucrative market for bougainvillea in Australia, as they give a beautiful display of colour throughout the summer, which makes them very popular.

To successfully grow this plant a sanitation program to eliminate disease should be used. This should begin before the cuttings are taken from the mother plant, rather than trying to arrest problems after the cuttings have been made.

Mother plants are grown in large shrub tubs in polythene tunnels to produce the correct type of cutting material. They are watered by trickle irrigation, because the sprawling habit and the large thorns make conventional watering very difficult.

When we began our nursery, life was fairly straightforward. Seeds were sown, cuttings were planted, and we enjoyed reasonable success with the majority of lines attempted.

In the summer of 1980/81, however, our results began to deteriorate and in the next two years it seemed that we may have to give up propagation. We could not get roots on Lamium or Maranta. Asparagus densiflorus "Sprengeri" seeds were reluctant to germinate, though Dracaena draco was still cooperative. All the trays on the heated benches were looking dreadful.

The chemical analysis of the propagating mix began to tell a story, though their correct interpretation took some time.

The test result were:

Research is expanding the range of products which can be produced by commercial laboratories and tissue culture is going to become a more routine feature of propagation. Therefore theorists and practioners from both areas urgently need to come to grips with each other's requirements.

A combination of higher capital costs, higher labour costs, rising taxes and on-costs must cause the nurseryman to examine his/her nursery turnover in terms of dollars per square metre of floor space. The true cost of producing cuttings

Banksia species are showing great promise as a plantation-grown cut flower crop in South Australia where currently 56 ha are under cultivation. Two species with outstanding flowers and high export potential are Banksia coccinea (the scarlet banksia) and Banksia menziesii (raspberry frost banksia). Banksia coccinea has a reputation of being difficult to grow and is currently grown commercially only in well-drained acid sands in South Australia and Victoria. The flower is recognized in overseas markets from the export of bush-harvested blooms from Western Australia. There has been little success in cultivation overseas.

In addition to the striking appearance of the bloom, B. coccinea is suitable for export due to its small to medium size, relatively fine straight stems, compact leaves, and terminal flowering habit without side breaks. Considerable variation exists in populations in relation to flowering period (May to December) and color of blooms (yellow, orange to

The clones could feasibly produce a biomass energy tree crop on large areas of abandoned irrigation farmland affected by increasing salinity and rising water tables. There is a perceived future in using superior clonal eucalypt material to rehabilitate degraded lands not only in Australia but also overseas.

A tissue culture laboratory has been established at Macclesfield to complement the existing tubestock nursery operated there by its affiliate, Land Energy Pty Ltd.

Young seedlings of selected species and provenances are first screened for their ability to survive and grow in increasing concentrations of salt water, as high as 80,000 EC

Ireland's mild, oceanic climate is characterised by equable temperature, plentiful rainfall in most seasons, overcast skies, and high humidity. Conditions are suitable for the growth of a wide range of temperate trees and shrubs. In addition, many sub-tropical species, such as banana (Musa basjoo), tree ferns, Echium pininana, Callistemon spp. and Dacrydium spp., thrive in the open in mild areas. With some notable exceptions most of Ireland's best known gardens occur near to the coast.

Although the climate in Ireland is generally favourable for gardening, wind and year-round weed growth are two potentially major handicaps. Gales and strong winds are common; salt damage occurs frequently in coastal gardens and occasionally some distance inland. A wide range of plants is used to form windbreaks including Pinus muricata, Cupressus macrocarpa, Escallonia rubra var. macrantha, and Olearia macrodonta.

Herbicides can be used particularly effectively in Ireland to suppress weed growth. The rainfall, fairly evenly distributed throughout the year, enables soil-acting herbicides such as simazine to be used more effectively than in many other countries. In addition, the generally high organic matter content of the soil reduces the risk of plant damage. Herbicides have a major advantage in landscape maintenance in shifting major weed control activity from the busy late spring/early summer period to the late autumn/winter period when labour is more readily available.

So here is my selection. I have avoided, on the one hand, those rather rampant but worthy plants represented by, for example, aubrietia, arabis and cerastium (though there are a few aristocrats amongst these) and on the other, those choice but exacting plants that demand culture in an alpine house, like the high alpine androsaces and dionysias. I love them all, but I have to come down to earth, and I have endevoured to choose from those that I consider choice enough for the keen plantsman, but not too difficult to grow and propagate. Above all, they

The natural conditions in which mother plants produce cuttings may not fit this desired production timing, but manipulation of the mother plant by altering its environment, and pruning as well, can be used to achieve this goal.

Another method is to take cuttings when optimum conditions prevail and, by manipulating the rooting environment, ensuring that the plant is ready for potting when required. For example, with Helianthemum spp., semi-ripe cuttings taken in September will root in a cold frame and be ready for potting in April. For later potting in May or June, softwood cuttings from forced mother plants can be rooted under

From these figures you will understand that the significant market for greenstock, and indeed most other goods, is in the southeast of Australia. If I tell you that there are a further 1 million people in Perth you will also understand that the rest of the continent is not exactly crowded.

In Perth there are some excellent nurseries in the hot, dry climate that is deal for much nursery growing. Fortunately for nurserymen in the Eastern States, Perth is remote, being separated from the rest of Australia by some 2,500 km of the Nullarbor Plains (nul arbor=no trees), though a small amount of high quality stock is

From the six cultivars used in the trial, quite remarkable differences in growth rates appeared due to varying the amount of dolomitic limestone added to the compost. With this indicating that the compost's pH is critical in obtaining maximum plant growth, pH control can also be used for restricting growth.

With the one Ericaceous cultivar, no difference in growth rates were noticeable, as the addition of dolomitic limestone to the three trial composts was not at great enough extremes to appreciably alter the pH.

Although the explants of the three cultivars under investigation differed in their exogenous growth regulator requirements, it was found that relatively high auxin (2.0 to 4.0 mg 1^-1) and cytokinin (10.0 to 15.0 mg 1^-1) concentrations were necessary to induce adventitious growth.

Caulogenesis of both ‘Nova Zembla’ and ‘Cynthia’ cultures was maximised only if IAA was omitted from the medium. Both cultivars had an absolute requirement for 2iP; the former within the range 5.0 to 15.0 mg 1^-1: the latter, 5.0 mg 1^-1. Maximum propagule development occurred at 1.6 mg 1^-1 for micropropagules derived from shoot tip explants used as the test material.

This means that we can grow a very wide range of plants. Apart from a wide range of native flora, one will find all kinds of European, American, New Zealand and South African plants. All native trees and shrubs are evergreen and many of those flower during the winter months supplying food for many honey-eating birds.

A large proportion of our native plants are eucalypts, which come in all shapes and sizes. Many of them have silvery leaves like Eucalyptus cordata, which reduces water loss during a dry period.

In the rain forest areas tree ferns, Dicksonia antarctica, are abundant and some of

High rooting percentages (60 to 75%) were obtained with the potassium preparation where a 2P: 1S mix was used. Results with IBA alone were poor in all composts.

The cuttings were propagated by rooting in mist and also using warm bench and plastic. When weaned they were potted into 7.5cm pots using a peat-based compost containing 25% sand. The plants established well and filled the pots with a good root ball before going into dormancy. They were overwintered in a cold glasshouse.

By February the mortality rate was 100% even though water requirements, etc., had been carefully monitored. In later years we tried overwintering the plants at various temperature regimes including cold store treatment, but to no avail.

Peat Types. Peat maybe defined as a mass of organic matter at a stage of decomposition. Peat type depends on the source of plants and stage of decomposition. Sphagnum moss peat with which nursery stock producers mainly work is the final stage of a process which began approximately 10,000 years ago. Peat was laid down in a number of stages which may be divided as follows:

1. Tundra conditions prevailed at the beginning with vegetation colonising higher ground. Arctic willow and birch formed the main woody plant life.
2. Mixed forests of pine, oak, and yew gradually covered the areas above flood level while phragmites reed beds encroached the lakes. These constituted the first peat type.
3. As lakes were filled in by reed beds forests began to encroach

Due to the diversity of species being grown in any one compost on any one nursery there is a difficult in defining precise levels of air, water, chemical, or biological activity. Generally a single mix is expected to "do" every species on a particular holding and variations in physical structure only occur among nurseries.

When one studies the early days of the New Zealand nurserymen, it appears that most commenced their business as market gardeners, slowly moving their production in varying directions to the market demands of their districts. Those pioneers who arrived with tree seeds, cherry stones, apple and pear pips, and other horticultural plants combined the growing of one and another and slowly made a beginning of an industry in New Zealand. This, of course, was only one part of the story, because along with the production of plants came the potential customers. These were the farmers grappling with the land and the new problems

Think about this for a moment. In the nursery business, it is the newly named cultivar that is the expensive plant — sometimes this means little more than an unscrupulous nurseryman has renamed a plant, something which happens more frequently than perhaps we are prepared to admit. In many other business it

In the open ground 110 acres are farmed and rotated with arable land every two years. A great advantage we have is a wide range of soil types in such a small area: fen peat, sands, gravels, heavy clays, and good loams. The department has regular staff of 22 people which do mainly seasonal work, e.g. hoeing, planting, splitting, and order-lifting for despatch once the season starts, i.e. September to April.

In the container department, with 950,000 plants being potted we have a fixed staff of 5, dealing with 5 acres of standing ground with some seasonal fluctuations in staff. They mainly deal with despatching orders, growing on, and watering the plants.

The propagation unit and stock growing area has 9 fixed staff which supply material both to the open ground and container

House plants:
     Adiantum capillus-veneris (common maidenhair fern)
     Nephrolepis exalta (sword-fern and the cultivar known Boston fern).
     Asplenium nidus (bird's-nest fern)
     Pellaea rotundifolia (button fern)
     Cyrtomium falcatum (Japanese holly-fern)
     Plus one or two unnamed exotics.

Hardy ferns:
     Athyrium filix-femina (lady-fern)
     Dryopteris affinis (scaly male-fern) — probably a cristate cultivar.
     Polystichum setiferum var. acutilobum (soft shield-fern).
     And occasionally Matteuccia struthiopteris (shuttlecock fern) and Blechnum magellnicum [syn. B. tabulare].

All of this is indicative of a poor state of affairs in regard to fern gardening in Ireland. Since it should

Designs such as these based exclusively on woody plants are stiff and unbending, lack movement

He has collected many species of plants from many parts of the world. Naturally, with China and Japan on either side of South Korea there is a predominance of plants from that area.

My wife and I did get into the hills of the area and we also went south to Kwanju and later flew to the southern island of Cheju and climbed nearly to the top of Mount Halla. Listed below are some interesting plants that we saw¹:

Aesculus species.

Carpinus coreana. I thought this small tree with its bushy habit a winner for landscape work.

Cedrela sinensis ‘Flamingo’ — when this shrub comes into growth in the early spring the glowing

The species with which we have done most work is Rhododendron yakusimanum, which forms a compact, dome-shaped bush up to about 1.2 metre high and the same across. The young growths are silvery, and the mature leaves are dark green above with a brown indumentum underneath. It flowers prolifically in a compact truss, rose-coloured in bud, opening pink and maturing to white. This species is only found in the wild on the wet and windy mountains of Yakushima Island, Japan. It was introduced to the United Kingdom in 1934 and has become a very desirable plant.

Our first attempts at propagation were from cuttings. Cuttings were prepared in the usual way, wounded, and treated with a hormone rooting powder and then stuck in seed trays containing

In 1982 and 1983, we incorporated nutrients in our rooting composts on a trial basis. We had very poor results. At the I.P.P.S. conference in 1983, Tacchi (3) and Down (2) gave papers which indicated that nutrient incorporation in propagation composts was successful for easily produced hardy nursery stock. A picture of Rhododendron ‘Fashion’ in a paper by Carney and Whitcomb (1) convinced us that we

Although I was trained as a grower, I have never been very good at the growing of plants. I have always had a much greater interest in general management and, in particular, in selling and marketing. I have for a long time had the ambition to introduce a new plant and see it established as a brand leader. Although this had been attempted in the United Kingdom before, the job in my opinion had never been done effectively enough. When I analysed the problems, I found that they were two-fold—one was the high risk which would be related to the introduction of a plant, and the second was the finance which was required to initiate and sustain an effective promotional campaign. It seemed to me an ideal opportunity to co-operate with another major nursery in an attempt to spread the risks, improve the distribution capacity, and help reduce the financing of the promotional campaign.

In the spring of 1984 I approached a colleague of mine who is general manager of Fargro Plants to see

Definition of "Color". What is meant by the term "Color"? To us it includes most of the flowering annuals and perennials such as begonias, geraniums, lantanas and plumbagoes. It also includes

Characteristics that I look for in selecting cultivars include:

1. Plant habit—is the growth even and pleasing to the eye?
2. Is the plant sturdy?
3. Are the flowers of sufficient numbers and of a form to be pleasing to the consumer?
4. Are the plant and flowers durable?
5. When does it flower?

The Native Plant Program developed at Lone Star Growers is based on company philosophy that we owe something to the community in which we make our living. We are introducing to the trade plants that are well adapted to their environment. Texas is facing a growing water crisis, and plants must be drought tolerant as well as hardy to survive. Although the skepticism was great at the time that the program would not be economically feasible, Lone Star believed then, as it does now, that native plants are the way of the future.

The program itself started as an introduction department where species could be evaluated in several areas: their ornamental value hardiness, and regional adaptability; and also where their propagation

The system is designed to fog 11 double-poly, gutter-connected houses each 108×21 ft. The total are is approximately 25,000 ft.² There are two fog lines in each house suspended 6 feet from the ground. Copper tubing is used in order to withstand the pressure. The 5 H.P. motor pumps water into the system at the rate of 7.3 gal./min. at a pressure of 900–1000 psi. Maximum pressure is 1000 psi.

There are 20 nozzles in each house, 10 nozzles per line spaced 10 feet apart. There are 2 types of filters built into the system. A bullet filter is placed in the back of each nozzle, and 4 cylinder filters fit into the holding tank. Bromide sticks are used in the holding tank to prevent fungus growth in the fog lines.

The system

In the summer of 1984, we hired an engineering firm to design the system and assist us with the installation. The total area we were going to heat was 25,000 ft.². Our boiler was a Kewanne, 1,800,000 B.T.U. heating capacity.

The system consists of 3-in. main lines running from boiler on the discharge side to the middle of the greenhouse. From there it branches both ways down the middle of the greenhouse with 2½-in., 2-in., 1½-in., and 1-in. pipe. These main lines are

The shovel has given ground to the hydraulic spade. The hand-tied ball has been replaced in part by the wire basket. The in-row tractor has totally replaced the mule and Georgia stock. The forklift and pallet are quickly replacing the strong back and weak mind. Irrigation and anti-desiccants are extending the harvesting time. Various containers and concepts are helping overcome the shelflife problem of unplanted ball and burlap (B&B) material, and advances in the use of herbicides have all but eliminated the eyehoe.

But given these few changes in contrast to the many technical advances that have taken place in the last 2,000 years, in-ground growing of plant material, with its antiquated methods, still remains the very best way to grow and transplant many kinds of plants and trees.

At Windmill Nurseries

Root Control fabric containers evolved from an idea of Dr. Carl Whitcomb, Stillwater, Oklahoma. The objectives were to devise a system of growing that would allow for quick harvest of specimen trees, build a superior root system and be simple to operate.

In 1980, after learning of Dr. Whitcomb's idea, Ralph Reiger of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, had fabric containers made from a spun-bonded fabric material. The fabric containers' measurements were 16-in., 18-in., and 22-in. in diameter, with an 18-in. height and a fabric bottom. After some of the trees were harvested two years later, it was apparent that the fabric bottom was not

Now that the rose is officially the floral emblem of the United States, I can say the nursery industry certainly has a rosy outlook!

I foresee a strong and growing demand for our products and services. In this I include all ornamental horticulture and floriculture. We are gaining more and more appreciation of and desire for all that plants and flowers can do for us in our daily lives both indoors and outdoors. Horticulturally, we are beginning to be a developed country.

I don't pretend to know what the future holds for our industry or any other. However, I can see the changes that have taken place in the years I have been a part of the nursery industry and can see the signs of future changes, which are likely to be much more dramatic on a year-by-year basis. These include:

1. Computers. Production operations as well as office administration and management functions will be computerized.
2. Plant Growth Modeling. Better sensors are being developed and programs written that

Contrast these techniques with the practices most used in the nursery business. The wholesale

There are several ways of accessing the profitability of a business. Some monitor bank accounts; others produce periodic income and expense statements. Johnson Nursery is concerned about the profitability of every plant. It is the sale of plants that produces income for this business. If the nursery is going to be profitable, the plants we sell must be profitable. To determine this degree of profitability we have developed a method of cost allocation in which all expenses incurred in the nursery are allocated to all plants.

Before discussing the cost allocation procedure, examine Table 1; this is the end result. The table lists the various container sizes we grow, separates the containers according to the size plant which they were potted, and shows the cumulative expense allocated to each size over 18 months

Container plant production of woody ornamentals has expanded rapidly in recent years and now represents more than 50 percent of all landscape plants sold in the United States (15). Technological advances have, and are, revolutionizing the nursery industry. However, as growers are keenly aware, temperature extremes and devastating

At Cottage Hill Nursery most cuttings are started

Why use the air root-pruning system? First, it produces a superior root system without the winding common in other types of container-grown seedlings. Second, it offers accelerated growth through controlled growing conditions. Third, the liners can be moved to the next step in the production cycle without shock or loss of the momentum gained from the accelerated growth. Fourth, the transplanting can be done in the late summer or early fall when the nursery work load is at its lowest point. This system was brought to management's attention by the writer, who had observed the work of Dr. Carl Whitcomb and his students in experimenting with growing seedlings in milk cartons. These

Currently we are growing 350 cultivars of woody ornamental plants. This number does not include the seasonal color or the native plants, which is a significant number more. Of these 350 cultivars, it seems that each one is just a little different in its needs to root and grow.

The Propagation Department at Lone Star Growers consists of 108,000 ft.² of intermittent mist space. We have Biotherm bottom heat on 35,000 ft.² of mist, enabling year-round cutting production.

Our average annual production in propagation is 3.7 million 2&frac14-in. rose pots and 300,000 4-in. pots. The

The commercial use of plant tissue culture today primarily involves the micropropagation of ornamental species and the production of early generations of disease-free transplants. Although the number of commercial laboratories in the United States and Canada have been estimated to be as high as 250, there are probably not more than five or ten which produce more than five million plantlets per year.

The commercial micropropagation of agronomic crops is not at the same volume level as ornamentals but is growing in the overall market. Examples include sugar cane, date palm, oil palm, several types of fruit trees, jojoba, and potato

While micropropagation has been the principal form of tissue culture utilized at the commercial level, other aspects of tissue culture technology and other advanced biotechnological techniques will be

Cold Damage. Cold damage to young pecan trees most often occurs on the trunk near the soil line in the fall. Moderately damaged trees develop vertical splits in the bark, with loss of phloem and cambium in the damaged area. Severely damaged trees may be completely girdled, resulting in the loss of the top and

At Stark Brothers we employ the following four asexual propagation techniques in combining scions to stocks:

1. T-Budding
2. Chip budding
3. Bench grafting (whip and tongue)
4. Crown grafting (whip and tongue)

All understocks used by Stark Brothers are purchased as liners from outside vendors except for peach and nut understocks, which we propagate as seeds obtained from both in-house and external sources.

Scionwood is obtained exclusively from our in-house scion orchard blocks, which are maintained as non-fruiting, hedgerow trees. Budsticks are cut and de-leafed one day prior to being used. Our budding season runs from early July through late September. Dormant wood to be used in our winter bench grafting and spring crown grafting operations is harvested from the scion orchards in early

DAVID SABALKA: No. As Carl Whitcomb has pointed out, we can pick up all we need from other sources, such as water.

RICHARD ODOM: Have you tried rooting using Micromax, but no Osmocote?

CARL WHITCOMB: Yes. However, I do not recommend using Micromax unless you also use at least 4 lb. Osmocote 18-6-12/yd. Start out at the low rate. Also, be careful about mixing large batches as Osmocote may begin to release. We have found supression of rooting when most other fertilizers or formulations of Osmocote were tried and therefore use only 18-6-12 Osmocote.

RICHARD ODOM: When do you begin to see trouble from Osmocote if the rate or application method has been wrong?

DAVID SABALKA: It depends on the watering and soil temperature. We don't ordinarily have problems in the winter. Most of the time toxicity problems will show up within the first four to six weeks.

JIM BERRY: What is a dangerous salts level?

Most diseases and many pests have been carried here by man. Some exceptions are rust diseases and insects which have blown across the Tasman Sea from Australia.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF) quarantine role is to prevent the entry into New Zealand of unwanted parasites not already established here. This cannot be done alone so cooperation is required from the industry and the travelling public.

Legislation under which MAF controls plant imports and quarantine include: The Plants Act 1970, Introduction and Quarantine of Plant Regulations 1973, and The Noxious Plants Act 1978.

Wasabi is grown on all major islands of Japan except Hokkaido, and is also grown in Taiwan and North Korea.

In Japan the area planted in