Video: Geranium Cutting Propagation

Video: Propagating Forsythia by Layering

Philippines: Tripling yields, placing mangoes on world market year-round

For his many contributions that have had unprecedented impact on agriculture, Dr. Ramon C. Barba, now 72, was awarded the 2011 Umali Award by the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) last Wednesday in Los Baños. The plant scientist from the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) is the first Filipino to receive the award and the third recipient in Southeast Asia. The $10,000-award, given to outstanding Southeast Asian scientists, is named after the late National Scientist Dioscoro L. Umali, a founding Director of SEARCA and former Assistant Director General of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Foremost among Barba’s researches was a breakthrough discovery in 1974 of mango flower induction by potassium nitrate, making it possible for fruits to be available all year round.

The use of potassium nitrate is low-cost and benefits both farmers and consumers: flower production is profuse and fruit production can be programmed according to market demands. "Although Dr. Barba holds a patent for this technology, he has foregone royalties due him so that mango farmers can use it without additional cost," the award observed. "Dr. Barba is known to perceive simple solutions to complex problems and produce results with minimum resources," the citation noted. "His research on induced mango flowering was a private initiative that cost less than P500 to complete." His achievements include banana micropropagation and sugarcane and calamansi tissue culture; all have impact on the agribusiness potentials of these crops in the world market.

Read full article at source: FreshPlaza.com

Australian native trees course offered at the Australian Correspondence School

THE AUSTRALIAN Correspondence School (ACS) holds an Australian native trees course, within its plant varieties and horticulture courses.

According to ACS, the 100 hour course is designed to identify Australian native trees, in addition to seed propagation and germination.

The course covers the range of uses for Australian native trees, and how to better utilise them for landscape applications and biological control of pests and disease.

ACS says the course includes planting and establishing techniques for the trees, in addition to soils, feeding, watering. Participants will learn tree identification and the general characteristics of Australian native trees.

Source: Landscape Design News>

Video: Gardening Tips & Tricks : How Does Water Lily Reproduce?

Water lilies reproduce very easily, as they can drop seeds to be pollinated and they can multiply without pollination, which makes them very susceptible to overtaking a pond. Contain water lilies well to prevent invasive growth with plant tips from a sustainable gardener in this free video on gardening.

New Mexico: Native Plant Society hosts noted botanist

William A. Weber, a noted botanist, world traveler and professor emeritus at the University of Colorado in Boulder, will talk about mentoring young botanists during his keynote speech at the annual meeting of the Native Plant Society of New Mexico in Taos, Aug. 6-9. The meeting also features a trip to the Aldo Leopold house, a garden walk with landscape designer Judith Phillips and other trips to explore Rio Grande riparian areas and sub-alpine sites at Wheeler Peak. Weber, who turns 91 in November, is a noted naturalist and lichen expert. He has named dozens of the little symbiotic joinings of fungi and algae or cyanobacteria. Weber, who speaks several languages, has published or edited more than 20 books and 200 scientific papers. The Native Plant Society of New Mexico works to educate people about the importance of native plants. Workshops at the annual meeting will cover such topics as seed collection and propagation, grass identification and photographing native plants. To register, contact Ann Smith at 575-737-9611. The annual meeting will be at the Best Western Kachina Lodge in Taos. Rooms are available by calling 575-758-2275.

Taisugar opens virus-free orchid farm

Central News Agency 2009-07-23 08:32 PM

Taipei, July 23 (CNA) The state-run Taiwan Sugar Corp. (Taisugar) opened a virus-free orchid propagation farm in southern Taiwan's Tainan County Thursday that officials said will be able to produce 6 million virus-free seedlings per year. The 3,300-square-meter farm in Houpi township is equipped with two virus detection and examination systems -- ELISA and biochip technology -- a Taisugar official said. "It marks the first time in Taiwan that virus detection and examination systems have been integrated into a seedling culture farm's quality control mechanism," said the official. Read more>

IITA introduces new yam planting technique

By Ayodamola Owoseye Nigerian yam farmers are set for future bumper harvests if the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) succeeds in its trials of yam propagation. A source at the IITA confirms to NEXT in Lagos on Tuesday that researches into the new technique were concluded in February, and that the institute was now partnering with some farmers from Niger State on the trials which involve cutting the stems and replanting them. Read more:
IITA introduces new yam planting technique Source: 234next.com

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Video - Principles of Propagation by Cuttings

Dr. Fred Davies
Department of Horticultural Sciences
Texas A&M University
College Station, Texas

Part 1




Part 2

Venus' flytraps: Comeback of the clones

By Michael Futch

Staff writer

WHITEVILLE -- The creepy, subterranean Venus' flytrap has blossomed into a rock star at Southeastern Community College.

Near the heart of where the carnivorous plant once thrived, students are cultivating these wonders of nature in campus laboratories.
The propagation program creates tens of thousands of cloned Venus' flytraps using tissue cultures.

"It's our signature plant - the Venus' flytrap," said Becky Westbrooks, the lead faculty member of the college's natural resource area. "It will always be one of my rock stars."
The Venus' flytrap grows naturally only in an eight-county region of the coastal plain, within 70 to 90 miles of Wilmington. It is found nowhere else in the world.

The plants love high humidity and thrive in the nutrient-poor soil of this unique ecosystem.
Though not an endangered species, the plants are listed as ones of "special concern."

"It's rare, but it's not endangered. It's a step down from endangered," said Laura Gadd, a botanist with the N.C. Plant Conservation program.

Gadd cites three main reasons for the decline of Venus' flytraps in the wild: fire suppression, coastal development and poaching. Development wipes out the plant's natural habitats.

Poaching occurs on protected lands, including the Green Swamp Preserve and the Boiling Spring Lakes Preserve.

Westbrooks, who is 57, is keen on thwarting the poachers.

"If we could mass-propagate the plant and maybe flood the market, maybe we could put the poachers out of business," she said.

Students in the college's environmental science technology and biotechnology programs clone flytraps using micropropagating - a plant tissue culturing technique that uses microscopic cuttings. The process has shown to eliminate many diseases caused by viruses, bacteria and fungi.

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Training Workshop of Propagation and Cultivation of Floriculture and MAP

Over the years, it has been noticed that people of Bhutan has developed affinity to flowers which can be gauged by the number of people visiting shops which are keeping potted plants in Trade fair and any fair organized in Thimphu. Also the numbers of requests to BAFRA for giving clearance to applicants for import permit for the import of ornamental and flower plants have gone up year after year. The export market for flowers is estimated to be worth $ 10 billion which is increasing at the rate of 6-9 % every year. The market is not only for potted plants but also includes cut flowers, dry flower and flower related products like potpouri. There is an ever increasing flower market the world over, however, almost no research and development work has been done in Bhutan so far although Bhutan is a home to numerous sources of flowers because of its vast biodiversity of flowering plants.
There is a vast potential for flowers for the domestic as well as export market especially in India. We can take advantage of the festival season in India for export of cut flowers as we have a very conducive growing climate and environment to grow flowers.

The CoRRB has been doing mainstream research on Horticulture especially on fruits and vegetable. In order to address the demand for ornamental and flower plants first within the country, CoRRB had been contemplating to carry out some research on flowers. However, due to lack of technical expertise in the field, we could not do much so far. Now, with the intention of initiating some work on floriculture, four-days training workshop on Floriculture and MAP (Medicinal and Aromatic Plants) was organized by the Council for RNR Research of Bhutan at RNRRC-Jakar from 2-5 June, 2009 with financial support from UNESCO and CFC-MAP. There were 3 resource persons namely Dr. S. Jaganath, Chief Scientific Officer from University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore; Dr. Nishritha Bopana, Science Officer, Indo-US Science and Technology Forum, New Delhi and Mr. Tshitila, MAP Specialist, RNRRC-Yusipang. The participants mainly consisted of researchers from four Research Centres, Agriculture Extension Agents and Farm Managers.

The objective of this training workshop was to make the participants aware about the various aspects of floriculture and to enhance their technical capacities on the cultivation and propagation of floriculture and MAP. It is expected that the participants will be able to take up the research on floriculture henceforth although in a small scale. For the first time, research on floriculture has featured as one of the activities of the 10th five year plan.

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