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ARS is cooperating with
NASA on a five-year research project involving plant growth in zero
gravity. NASA wants to grow produce on space shuttle flights as a source
of food for the astronauts and to provide an extra source of oxygen. The
problem is getting plants to grow in low-gravity environments. Gravity
affects calcium balance in plants and people. In humans, it can damage
bones, and in plants, it may interfere with root development. ARS
scientists will be using a clinostat to test how plants adapt to
weightlessness. A clinostat rotates the plant slowly so the net gravity
effect is close to zero. Another way to disrupt gravity for plants: simply
turn them on their sides. ARS scientists will be cooperating with other
researchers at the Kennedy Space Center and several universities. The
project is in its earliest stages with experiments being designed and
coordinated between agencies.
Soybean and Nitrogen Fixation Lab,
Raleigh, NC
Steve Huber, (919) 515-3906
 Cultivated
sunflowers may become a common sight on land that's now unproductive or
produces poor crops because it's overloaded with mineral salts. ARS
geneticists have identified genes in a species of wild sunflower called
Helianthus paradoxus that enable seedlings to withstand the salts.
That salinity tolerance trait has been bred into some experimental
sunflower lines. This trait could also provide drought tolerance that
would boost acreages capable of producing sunflowers. Salts build up
usually in soils in dry areas that have been irrigated excessively.
Oilseeds Research, Fargo, ND
Jerry F. Miller, (701)
239-1321
Farmers and ranchers
can fire up the productivity of land coming out of the federal
Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) at the end of the year by burning dead
grasses and weeds off the surface this spring. In grassland management
experiments, ARS scientists pinpointed "prescribed burning"--a
fire set under carefully controlled conditions--as the most cost-effective
and efficient way to remove accumulated dead grasses and weeds from
government set-aside land. Burning old vegetation encourages growth of
forage grasses and suppresses weeds. The first of thousands of CRP
contracts are due to expire this year. The CRP was initiated in 1986 to
protect highly erodible crop land.
Wheat, Sorghum and Forage Research,
Lincoln, NE
Bob Masters, (402) 472-1546
The first bale of cotton
harvested
in the United States last year was a new, early-maturing, commercial
variety, bred from germplasm developed and released by ARS a couple of
years ago. The new cotton offers some natural protection against
silverleaf whiteflies. Growers need every possible edge to reduce the
damage done by these voracious pests that attack many crops including
cotton, citrus, melons, tomatoes, other vegetables and ornamentals. Cotton
plants of the ARS germplasm line--and the new variety called Texas
121--mature a week earlier than other varieties. This allows the crop to
partially escape the usual lateseason buildup of whitefly
populations in south Texas cotton fields. Other characteristics of the new
variety, such as smooth leaves, make the plants less attractive to
whiteflies as sites to feed and lay eggs. For producing hybrid cotton
seed, ARS released different germplasm--called fertility-restorer lines.
These lines also have the smooth-leaf and other traits. The traits will
be passed on to offspring even if only one parent is a hairy-leaf
type.
Conservation and
Production Systems Research, Weslaco, TX
Charles Cook, (210)
969-4812
Asparagus growers in the Pacific Northwest can stop tilling
fields--thereby cutting soil erosion--without losing yields. Tillage
uproots weeds but leaves soil bare and vulnerable to wind and water
erosion. So, ARS scientists modified techniques used by Midwestern
asparagus growers to control weeds with minimum use of safe herbicides.
Some farmers near Prosser, WA, now are using these methods. Washington
farmers had been reluctant to drastically change their time-honored
tillage farming until the scientists showed the techniques worked. In
Washington, asparagus valued at about $56 million a year is grown on
30,000 acres. Much of the acreage is sandy, easily eroded soils. Several
effective herbicides now are registered for use on the crop.
Irrigated Agricultural Research and Extension Center, Prosser, WA
Rick
A. Boydston, (509) 786-9267
Carrot seed growers who give their plants precise amounts of water will
produce more clean, live seed. A three-year ARS study of carrots--water
demands documented key differences in the requirements of two carrot
types--"Imperator," the tapered carrots popular in the United
States, and the cylindrical, European-style "Nantes." The tests,
based on analysis of 2,000 plants grown from transplanted carrots at a
central California research field, also showed that the carrots raised in
a hot, dry climate similar to the study site need about 22 to 25 inches of
water from the time the transplant goes into the ground until seed
harvest. Related findings from the study allow seedgrowers at other sites
in California, Idaho, Oregon, Washington and elsewhere to calculate
optimum irrigation for carrots. For the l995 carrot crop, American
seedgrowers produced about 400,000 pounds of carrot seed with a farm-gate
value of about $16 million. The l995 carrot harvest of 3.8 billion pounds
was worth about $448 million to producers. Carrots, America's sixth most
popular vegetable, provide a low-calorie source of fiber, potassium and
beta-carotene--the nutrient that our bodies use to form vitamin A. We each
eat about 11 pounds of carrots a year.
Water Management Research
Laboratory, Fresno CA
Robert B. Hutmacher (209) 453-3100
National
Forage Seed Production Research Center, Corvallis, OR
Jeffrey J.
Steiner (503) 750-8734
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