Proceedings Library

What I have been doing is research on the nursery level. A broader and more embracing job than the name implies. And also a job that is not as common as it should be.

Horticultural research is one of the oldest branches of research in existence. Earliest man carried on research every time he tried a new plant or berry for his menu. It must have been a hazardous job and some undoubtedly did not live to carry cut any more experiments.

Early man also experimented and found that some plants have healing properties. As a result of which he started a line of research which continues to this day. This

Our group was mainly concerned with apples and consequently most of my observations will be on apples. This is not unfortunate because no other plant has undergone so much intensive study or been developed to such a high degree of refinement in

The common lilac Syringa vulgaris has been grown in gardens of the world for centuries. The first botanical description was written by a French naturalist in the year 1554. During the seventeenth century, English gardens were enriched with this shrub from seed collected in the lilac's native habitat of Rumania, Bulgaria, and Greece. The lilac was one of the first ornamentals brought to America by the early settlers. The beauty of lilacs has been expressed in poems and songs and is strongly associated with home, family, and memories of spring. There is little doubt that nurserymen can find the production of lilacs and the introduction of superior varieties quite rewarding.

Within fifty yards of this solitary fifty-foot tall Canadian hemlock, nine slow-growing forms similar in character, were discovered. No other probable parent tree or the remains of one that might have fallen, could be found within a distance of one quarter of a mile. Each abnormal plant was characterized by a single trunk, short branched habit of growth, and small needles darker than usual in color. Although the plants ranged in size from three to five feet tall, they could well be of a like age estimated at about thirty-five years. The parent tree was searched carefully for a witches' broom or the remnants of one, with the thought that seeds producing the variants might have originated in this way. However, no evidence of a broom could be detected.

Canadian hemlock has produced a multitude of slow-growing genetic forms. As an indication of this abundance the Arnold Arboretum in

Far fewer viable seeds were produced than would be expected in normal cones for many were abortive. However, 154 were acquired from the limited number of cones available.

On September 20, 1963 the seeds were separated into two lots and started on a stratification period of three months at 40 degrees. The first lot contained 135 seeds while the

A systemic insecticide was defined by Bennett in 1949 as a substance which is absorbed and translocated to other parts of the plant rendering it insecticidal. Such a definition does not include chemicals which are simply absorbed into the plant, but not translocated. Some insecticide compounds are soluble in plant lipoids and, therefore, are absorbed into plant tissue (Gunther and Blinn, 1956).

The

The rest area facilities being developed by our roads department are very modern. These facilities contain sheltered picnic tables and a heated information rest room building with flush toilets. In the Platte river valley, the water table is just a few feet below the surface and in this area, the road base is constructed by pumping sand to the area. This process leaves a string of sand pit lakes along the interstate route. Many of the rest areas in the Platte Valley are being

All industrial production of any importance uses automatically controlled conveyor systems. The raw materials are continuously fed in on one side and the finished product emerges by the time all the programmed stages have been completed. Furthermore in industrial production every phase must be clearly comprehensive and the progress within a given time must be planned and controlled.

Mr. Ruthner, the Austrian engineer and inventor of the Tower Greenhouse (TGH), developed the idea of setting the plants on a space-filling conveyor system and pass through a number of chambers each providing for a different —

Mist propagation is not a strange term to the International Plant Propagators' Society. In the past 25 years the development of mist has enabled the propagator to root softwood, semi-hardwood, and many other difficult to root cuttings of various plant species. By spraying water into the air and maintaining a film on the cuttings themselves, transpiration is reduced. In this way, the turgidity of the cutting is maintained which is essential for root formation. But by allowing water to come in contact with the surface of the cuttings, leaching of organic and inorganic nutrients from within the plant tissue can occur.

Leaching of metabolites from intact plants has long been recognized. A great diversity of organic and inorganic materials can be leached from a wide range of plant species, and these losses are influenced by many factors (Tukey 1962). Many workers have published evidence that the mineral nutrient content of cuttings was lowered due to the leaching effects of

I have been doing this, particularly in east central Illinois, since the elm diseases took practically all our native Ulmus off the local streets. We can see now a great many old and younger hackberries, which offer much as hardy, adaptable shade trees for yards, streets and roadsides. Many of them, in my opinion, give a better year-round effect than Ulmus americana, and some clones are very elm-like in general habit. These include some C. occidentalis which are but slightly affected by the hackberry witches'-broom disease. C. laevigata, native in southern and extreme western Illinois is another species of promise, almost never disfigured by witches'-broom. Besides these two, I shall mention some other species with ornamental potentialities for eastern and southern

In the spring of 1955 we happened to have a surplus of seedlings of C. arnoldiana. Two hundred and thirty of these were lined out and budded in August of that year to 27 different species including C. mordenensis ‘Toba’. The catch was only 60% but it was

Aqueous, alcoholic, and acetone extracts were prepared from ground sphagnum moss. A highly active substance(s) was extracted with 50% ethanol or with acetone. The substance(s) was partially purified by paper and thin layer chromatography. Pythium ultimum was used as the test organism to locate the fungistatic substance on the chromatogram.

During the extraction studies, bacteria were isolated from the water extract which produced a very powerful fungistatic substance. All growth of Phythium was blocked for several centimeters

This comparison is made, not for presenting one of these types of endeavor as either inferior or superior to the other, but in the hope that at least partial survey will bring about understanding and mutual advantage on both sides of the picture.

Many of the plant subjects we work with are not stable. Where the instability is understood and laid down in references it would appear that research oriented organizations with more knowledgeable chiefs and staff members would be better equipped to cope with the maintaining of strains and types of plants.

This peculiarity regarding the plants sometimes goes to

The influence of sex in the propagation of plants by cottage has received very little attention. Snow (9) reported that cuttings selected from male trees of the Red Maple rooted at a higher percentage than did cuttings selected from female trees. Neal et al (4) found that in Ilex verticillata male cuttings taken at certain times of the year rooted better than comparable female cuttings. In a somewhat different morphological situation, O'Rourke (5) reported that vegetative wood of Blueberry rooted better than flowering wood.

Since a number of propagators (7, 8, 10) have made reference to the fact that various clones of Taxus are difficult to root, it was decided to conduct an experiment to determine if there was a difference in the rootability of Taxus clones and to see if the difference

1. Introduction

The vegetative propagation of plants by cuttings has attracted the attention of commercial propagators and research workers for many years. As a method of reproduction it has varying degrees of success depending upon the species, cultivar, clone, or growth phase of the plant used (1, 6). Internal and external factors and interactions of these influence the initiation of roots on cuttings (6, 7, 8). The root promoting substances or cofactors, extracted and characterized by Hess (4, 5) are examples of internal factors. Recently the movement of these substances in a downward direction as influenced by the presence or absence of leaves on stem cuttings of juvenile English ivy, was studied. It is this work which we would like to review at this time.

2. Materials and Methods

To determine the activity of substances with root promoting properties, mung bean (Phaseolus aureus) seedlings were grown in a controlled environment chamber. At the end of ten days the seedlings were cut

Our nursery has grown Hybrid Lilac since 1902. In 1935, realizing many nurseries were having difficulties propagating Lilac and we were having fair success, we decided to specialize in Hybrid Lilac and stepped up our propagation. For the past 12 years we have grafted 120,000 to 150,000 Lilac per year, depending on our balanced supply of scion wood which has been a limiting factor, growing mainly for other nurseries under contract. We are now growing 38 out of the 40 top A rated varieties in the 1953 list of The "100 best Lilac for America" and 17 the 39 B rated varieties, and 3 varieties we believe to be on the way up.

The next few slides will give you some idea of contrasting color combinations

We have used Simazine 8OW for five years and have always had complete control of chick-weed, most of the fall grasses, and the early summer weeds. Although Simazine is primarily a pre-emergence herbicide it will eradicate mature chick-weed. I

There are many nurserymen who will consider that this problem has been solved, for we already have huge storages where millions of plants are stacked in shingle tow and shipped to their destination weeks ahead of any chance to have them freshly dig from the open.

The success of these storages from the dollars and cents point of view is conceded, but I remain unconvinced that they are in the best interest of the plants. There have been too many experiences of plants arriving looking normally healthy, yet failing later to leaf out; too many shipments with etiolated white young growth, that have

I hope you will forgive me if I seem rather brusque in this opinion, but I believe the problem of winter-storage of plants in containers is an elementary one. Permit me to say, when plant materials are grown in containers and winter-stored above ground, then subjected to wide temperature extremes, often coupled with high wind, we cannot expect 100% survival every winter. In simple terms, the environment is unsatisfactory.

What is the answer? In my opinion any nursery stock worth propagating and growing should not be subjected to deep-freeze conditions while above ground. There's no doubt the market for nursery stock in containers will be even greater in the future, so let's

Our method is mound layering, in which the rooting medium is well rotted sawdust instead of soil, and in which the stems remain erect during the rooting process.

We have probably 500 stool plants, the oldest of which are over fifty years old, and we will take an average of about 45 layers from each plant, for an annual production of about 20,000 rooted layers. The oldest plants produce the most stems.

We start our layering in late June or early July, when the stems have obtained a height of about four feet, and a caliper

So the matter rested until the advent of the modern herbicides which for the first time made it possible to control and virtually eliminate weeds in crop rows without even a single cultivation during the growing period. Soil scientists at many experiment stations began to question whether there was any value to cultivation at all, now that weeds could be suppressed by herbicides, and experiments seemed to show that soil moisture was depleted at a greater rate from cultivated than from undisturbed soil.

The coming of the herbicides was enthusiastically received in the nursery world as well

In the discussions that developed this humidity factor was approached from a number of different angles, such as syringing, misting, wetting, and a variety of other details but primarily as I visualize it, and recognize it, it was a matter of some how or another of maintaining a humidity factor close to 100% at all times. Now the structures that came out in this discussion by and large were vapor proofed and they varied considerably. A good deal of emphasis developed out of the area of the Connecticut River Valley where tobacco industry for some reason or other has moved into the production of nursery

Viruses are only potentially disease producing. They can infect a plant, increase in number and spread from cell to cell and may or may not cause disease in the process. Most of us are aware that viruses cause destructive or even mild diseases, but many are not aware that viruses ran exist in certain plants without causing recognizable disease. In such cases the virus is said to

Unfortunately, it is difficult to find dependable varieties in all these categories. Of course, it is also difficult to define

Our cost estimating system reveals some rather interesting facts concerning the cost of hand weeding our seedlings. Although our field inventory showed we had approximately 5,750,000 salable seedlings as of August 15th, 1964, past sales records and transplant production schedules indicated that we could expect to market or use only 3,450,000 of these seedlings. This represents just 60% of our original inventory! The difference is mainly caused by: a. over production of specific items due to lack of market forecasts, coupled with inadequate preparation and use of production schedules. b. destroying of desirable seedlings in the hand weeding operation. c. weed competition. d. winter kill. Since the field

California sends nearly 3 million plants annually to Texas. Among the many varieties sent there is hibiscus, particularly tree hibiscus. Now the tree hibiscus that I noticed in greatest quantities were not necessarily the most beautiful varieties and were on their own roots. I

My colleagues had given me names and addresses, and by contacting the Ministries of Agriculture and Education, I was able to make appointments and have interviews at 28 schools, colleges, and universities where horticulture was taught. I also visited 51 nurseries, 22 arboretums or parks, 16 horticultural markets, 16 private gardens, and 8 flower shows or fairs. In all I drove 5,892 miles.

The trip in the United States included 34 schools, colleges, and universities in those states which lead in the production of horticultural crops. Needless to say, I visited many nurseries parks and arboretums. In all I took 600 colored slides, 400 black and white pictures, and tape-recorded all of my interviews. From these tapes I have made four complete factual notebooks.

In the allotted time

In a survey conducted through the New York State Nursery Notes in 1962 to which 90 nurserymen responded, 80 replies indicated many nurserymen growing Rhododendrons and Azaleas. In New York State, the sale of broadleaf evergreens, many of which are ericaceous plants, increased from 234,000 in 1949 to 615,000 in 1959.

Transpiration is the evaporation of water from plant tissue. Basically it follows the physical laws which govern the evaporation of water; however, there are modifications based on plant structure. Woody twigs may lose water through the lenticels; however, the major path of water loss from the plant is through the leaves.

An examination of the structure of a leaf will help to understand transpiration more completely (Figure 1). Both the upper and lower surfaces of a leaf are covered with a layer of

Unfortunately for everyone this information is diffuse, and difficult to come by. Most of it is considered to be insufficient in content and scope for publication and when published it appears sparsely scattered and so lost from sight and mind.

My intention is to try accomplish two things today:

1. To illustrate that this scattered information on the subject of my title is of tremendous potential value, and
2. To convince this society that it would be

A few years back, I received letters from some of my Davis friends that indicated there was

When I was younger, growing up in the horticulture trade, one of the big crops was geraniums. It was a common practice for the grower to have all of his geranium plants in one house. As the plants came into bloom they would be sold — the earliest blooming and most vigorous plants selling first. Propagation was done by taking cuttings from those plants that were not sold and the grower's constant complaint was that strain was running out.

I believe that many of us in horticulture have done the same thing. Someone else has taken the early blooming and vigorous young people. Many of those coming into our

If you are successful with your present method of producing good seedlings, don't change; but if you are having trouble, the first thing to do is order Manual 23 (The U. C. System for Producing Container Grown Plants) available for $1.00 from any University of California Agriculture Station.

At Bodgers we grow about 5,000 seedling flats, 40,000 pricked off flats, plus 100,000 pots for seed production of F₁ petunias, F₁ snaps, Coleus, Impatiens and Gloxinias. In our greenhouses we produce seed with a wholesale value of nearly $750,000.

We use equal parts by

To start with — all our propagating material and containers are steam sterilized.

Propagating Material — Olympic sand, peat moss. 50% peat moss and sand, and a modified soil containing peat moss, Colma sand (which is a very sandy loam) with a little super-phosphate added.

Propagation of Philodendron Cane — The cane is cut up into pieces, single eyes. These are potted in Olympic sand and placed in benches with bottom heat and a temperature of 65° maintained. After the plants are placed they are then covered to a depth of about ½ inch with peat moss, which is kept damp at all times.

Dieffenbachia and Chinese Evergreen — These are cut in pieces with one eye and placed in benches with about two inches of peat moss with eyes facing up if possible, especially the Dieffenbachia. If they are not placed this way they have a tendency to develop a curve in the cane when mature.

Dracaena Cane — The cane is cut into short pieces of about 3 inches long and laid on sand and covered

Various root-promoting materials are used, but it must be said that the greatest success is usually with materials of mild strength. There have been many cases where strong concentrations have caused unusual swelling, cracking and discoloration of the stem with unusual elongation between the nodes as well as petiole distortion in the form of a corkscrew effect. Various factors, such as daytime temperature and humidity, will play a role in whether or not a given

1. Heavy shade in summer with cold-water paint. Winter rains will reduce the shade in the winter, but the glass is never allowed to become bare.
2. Sterilizing with steam all propagating mixes, flats, etc. Good sanitary house keeping procedure should follow.
3. Humidity is kept high by wetting walks and under the benches, but never on leaves.
4. Cuttings should be approximately three inches long and spaces sixty cuttings per flat, which is 23" X 41". They are left in flats until plants are large enough to shift into four inch pans for finishing.
5. Temperature — 68°, night
                            80°, days

Water temperature and house temperature never vary more than ten degrees.


Hydrangeas, fit well into our program, and will work the same in most flowering

To further clarify our understanding of the term "June Bud," as

Usually about the 10th of May the seedlings emerge. When the seedlings first come through the ground they are very susceptible to frost. Some years we have had as much as 80% loss by frost. This is why we plant 15 to 20 pits per foot. If germination is good and we have no frost we have far in excess of seedlings necessary for proper stands so we have to thin to 2½ to 3 inches apart. We have had, a spotted stand upon some occasions

To-day the seed laboratory which is properly equipped with modern, automatic light germinators and manned with experienced, ingenious seed analysts can test any kind of tree and shrub seed, no matter how dormant or how difficult they are to germinate. Our New York laboratory tests hundreds of tree and shrub seed yearly now on a service basis for nurserymen, seed dealers, collectors and private planters. Our seed testing service is maintained for residents of New York

If citrus plants are so easy to propagate, why discuss them at all? Well, they are easy to reproduce but any citrus nurseryman can recall a few nightmares about mutations and virus diseases. Anyone can propagate citrus plants if he can control temperature, but few of us in the business have escaped some problems with mutations, or virus. Thus, a citrus nurseryman's primary concern is not with reproducing trees but protecting his customer and the citrus industry from the spread of virus disease and introduction of mutant or variant strain.

The citrus industry does not have any of the virus

Propagators have the basic responsibility to see that virus-free propagating materials are used. Once infected, the tree is infected for life for all practical purposes. Every propagator should be familiar with the symptoms of virus diseases, indexing techniques, and means of achieving and maintaining virus freedom.

Many viruses are significantly spread only through use of infected propagating material, and simple knowledge and use of virus-free propagating material is all that is necessary for control. Where natural spread occurs, control is achieved through isolation from infected hosts vectors.

The key to practical virus control by the propagator, however, is the obtaining of virus freedom in the first

The use of selected rootstocks for dwarfing fruit and ornamental plants has been an established practice in Europe for many centuries (Dana, 1952 and Scholz, 1957). Only recently, however, has the use of dwarf fruit and ornamental plants gained widespread acceptance in the United States. This has developed primarily because of increased production costs in commercial orchards that have relatively tall bearing trees. Contemporary architecture, featuring the single-story dwelling, has also created a demand for low-growing trees and shrubs which will maintain the scale of the home-lot landscape complex.

As a result of continued research and experience, the use of vegetatively propagated dwarf fruit trees has gained popularity. Reasons include (1) reduction in operational cost and damage to trees as a part of the necessary cultural operations, (2) the facility of handling a greater number of varieties per unit area, (3) reduced injury to developing fruit and trees as a result

The Exbury azaleas are predominantly North American in specific origin. Of the nine species involved in their background, the following are native American — R. viscosum, R. nudiflorum, R. calendulaceum, R. speciosum, R. arborescens, and R. occidentale. Of the remaining three, R. molle comes from China, R. japonicum from Japan, and R. luteum from Eastern Europe. In the latter part of the eighteenth century R. viscosum, R. nudiflorum, R. calendulaceum, and R. speciosum were introduced into Europe when they were combined with the European R. luteum by Mortier of Belgium to produce the now famous Ghent azaleas. However, the real advance came about 1859 when Anthony Waterer of England recombined R. calendulaceum with

1. The cutting must have the capacity to form roots when given the proper treatment and environmental conditions.
2. The rooted cuttings must have a viable bud or the capacity to form one.
3. The cutting must have enough leaf surface to promote rooting and the rooted cutting enough leaf surface to promote growth of the bud into a shoot.

If all three requirements are fulfilled a new plant will probably result. If one or more of these requirements is difficult to fulfill the plant will be difficult to propagate by stem cuttings. It is indicated by our general topic "Difficult to Root, General Ornamentals" that it is difficult to fulfill at least one of these requirements for the cuttage propagation of Xylosma congestum.

From personal experience and from observation of the results of other propagators it appears that there are two difficulties in the stem cuttage

Based on Field's success, the Australians began rooting Monterey pine on a large scale. M. R. Jacobs reported on his extensive studies in the Australian Capital Territory in 1939. He predicted that 80% rooting success was possible with six-year-old trees, although few of his reported experiments reached this level of success. Like Field, he relied on an open nursery with little protection beyond maintaining the soil moist by

Eucalyptus rostrata and Eucalyptus polyanthemos represent two species which are in widespread use throughout the lower elevations of southern Arizona. They survive the environment conditions just mentioned, but there has been observed a noticeable change in the appearance of tree shape and foliage characteristics of trees growing in home yards and in parks.

Landscape architects have indicated a need, for

We use the U. C.

All up to date methods of moving and handling flats are utilized as handling is one of the largest items of expense.

We use conventional greenhouses, plastic houses and saran shade houses for growing. One innovation on our saran houses, we have them rigged so that the saran in 20' strips can be quickly taken down. This eliminates the necessity of moving the flats and saves much labor.

Accurate production and sales records are kept so that production may be closely regulated to the season.

Pest control is contracted to a specialist, who comes once a week to keep everything under control. Weeds are controlled using weed oil sprayed on through 3 gallon Hudson sprayers. An automatic clock

Our houses are plastic, mostly poly and some, mylar. All are heated with suspended blowers. Houses are designed so that most of the condensation goes outside. All growing houses are drive thru using Electric trucks.

Seed Storage: Pansy, Viola, Larkspur and most perennials are stored in a refrigerator at approximately 40°F. Others are at room temperature and refrigerated in summer. Getting back to soil mixes, our seed soil is essentially the same as, the planting mix except no bark is used.

Due to our dry climate moisture at germination is our big problem especially in the fall.

W. L. Dorman and M. A. McKenzie (4) treated new June shoots 4 to 6" in length with I.B.A. 50 ppm. These rooted 53% (untreated 34%) while root cuttings were useful in 97.5% of cuttings whose proximal end was exposed. Stem cuttings of U. pumila, U. parvifolia and U. japonica rooted from June cuttings. Buisman Elm failed to respond.

Beginning in 1959 a project of the British Forestry Commission, "Propagation of Elms and Poplars" was reported in their yearbook by J. Jobling (6–11) and has continued through the

The first of these shrubs is Cotoneaster horizontalis var. perpusilla or Ground Cotoneaster. It is a lower growing plant than the species, to about 3 feet, and has a distinct two-ranked habit of branching. This semi-evergreen shrub with pinkish flowers and red berries in fall has smaller leaves than C. horizontalis which turn red in fall also. It is useful as wall covering, on banks, and in rock gardens, growing well in any soil. Cold tolerance to zone 4.

Genista germanica var. prostrata is another bank or ground cover and the mature growth is so spiny

Success in horticultural grafting depends very much upon the condition of the material and how expertly the operations are carried out. I assume the same situation applies to evergreen grafting and that possibly evergreens may be somewhat more exacting in their requirements. In horticultural grafting, failures are due mainly to failing to follow the basic principles.

Steam moves through the soil in an advancing front. If it is introduced beneath the surface of the soil, an egg-shaped heated area will be produced around the point of injection. The temperature in the center will be that of the incoming steam and will be progressively less with increasing distance from the input. The temperature gradient or front may be as narrow as ¼ inch. Aerated steam moves through the soil as a water vapor-saturated air mixture and condenses on the nearest cold soil particle releasing its heat to that soil particle.

When pure steam and a particular quantity of air are mixed, a temperature less than that of pure steam (212° F) will result. For instance, if 12.3 lb. of air are mixed with 1 lb. of steam, a temperature of 120°F will result; 6.5:1

Today, however, we find labor is pricing itself too high for this type of work, and is not constantly available. If you will notice by the slide (SLIDE) the girl is hand watering. She does not look like she is paying much attention to her work, so therefore we are going to have spotty watering of the containers. When this happens, we are sure to get spotty plant growth. (SLIDE) Here we see the some girl turning off the water faucet. She has had to drag a heavy hose throughout the area and back to the hydrant. Notice that while she is turning the water off she is also washing three or four plants out of the containers, due to the fact that she is not

Selection of nematode resistant fruit tree rootstocks
                                                                         —C.J. Hansen

Peach and other fruit tree rootstocks are being tested for resistance to two species of root knot nematodes, Meloidogyna incognita and M. javanica. The species of nematodes are kept in separate containers and the populations are built up by growing tomatoes for about 5 months. The seedlings or cuttings to be tested are then grown for about 5 months, after which time they are measured and the roots graded for number of galls. If galls are present, they are, also examined to see if the nematodes are reproducing on the roots.

Plant pathologists of the University and the United States Department of Agriculture obtain clean stocks by field selection and indexing and where necessary by heat treatment. The Foundation Plant Materials Service maintains the clean stocks in foundation plantings and makes them available to growers, and the California Department of Agriculture supervises registration and certification programs.

Standard host ranges are used to index grapes and stone fruit varieties. The 8 known viruses of grapes can be detected on 5 indicator varieties and some 20 or 25 stone fruit viruses can be detected on 8 indicator varieties. Visual inspection and selection also are important parts of the procedure.

Heat treatment can be used to free infected

The screenhouse area is used to maintain the various stone fruit tree varieties in isolation. In addition, there is a small Foundation-orchard that was planted this spring in which will be grown two trees of each variety to serve as a source of budwood and graftwood.

Adjacent to the screenhouse are the liner beds in which registered Mahaleb and Mazzard seedlings are grown. The small liners are grown for distribution to nurseries as lining-out-stock; the orchard size liners are raised for growers. About 2 miles west of the

The development and operation of these programs exemplify the cooperation that exists in California between the

The objective of this study was to determine the feasibility of using specific anti-desiccants in reducing water loss and increasing survival of transplanted bare-root plants.

Emerson and Hildreth (2), in 1933, found that corn oil and sulfonated linseed oil reduced transpiration of Austrian Pine seedlings. Thornton

.
1. Maintenance of collections of species, varieties and breeding materials although there is no attempt to maintain a complete collection.
2. Development and evaluation of new varieties with emphasis on commercial orcharding.
3. Study of genetics and inheritance of the fruit and nut species.

Most of the work involves seedling growing but some work is starting in induction of mutations. With the establishment of the radioactive cobalt source on the campus, more work is contemplated. However, there is some doubt as to whether potential usefulness of this method is as great as conventional methods. Probably it will be useful in particular types of plants or in achieving specific objectives.

My own work deals mostly with almond breeding and I would like to tell you something about our efforts relative to the

In the June, 1963 issue of the "Plant Propagator" Dr. H. T. Hartmann, Dr. W. H. Griggs and I published an article describing methods of rooting Old Home and Bartlett pears for use in areas where decline is a problem.

The method for Old Home consisted of taking the cuttings in late October and treating them with IBA (100 ppm for 24 hrs. or 2000 ppm quick dip). Following treatment the cuttings were stored for about 3 weeks in moist peat moss at 70°F and then planted in the nursery. About 72% of the cuttings rooted.

The Bartlett pear would not root satisfactorily by the method used for Old Home. It was necessary to take the Bartlett Cuttings in the late November and hold them upright in peat moss over bottom heat, but with the tops exposed to winter chilling conditions, for 3 week before planting. Best rooting was obtained with bottom heat of 75°F and an IBA treatment of 150 ppm

The reasons for favoring Paradox over J. hindsii in some areas are usually: (1) greater vigor and faster growth especially in mountain districts and on poorer soils and in replant situations; (2) greater tolerancel of root lesion nematodes (Pratylenchus vulnus); (3) greater tolerance of high lime content in soil, excess water, or very heavy soil texture; (4) resistance to crown rot (Phytophthera cactorum). There is considerable evidence indicating better average uptake of zinc, phosphorus and iron by the Paradox than J. hindsii roots. On the other

IBM designs and builds each system to the needs of each customers. For this reason, installation can be painful until the "bugs" are worked out of a system. We did suffer such a period and did not become fully operational until February 10, 1964.

As part of the research prior to the installation, it was determined that one of the areas of information most lacking in the nursery industry was sales analysis. It is from sales analysis that you are able to program production from propagation to finished product. With this in mind, the accumulation of

1. Use sharp shears
2. Use clean polythylene sheets to collect cutting material.
3. Protect the cutting wood against direct sunlight when working in the open.
4. Take cutting wood to propagation shed as often as necessary to prevent desiccation.

1. Wash cutting wood on rack as soon as it is brought in from the field.
2. Keep cutting wood moist with mist until time of use.
3. Use sharp shears or knife to make the cuttings.
4. Length of cuttings are 3–4 inches long.
5. Dip finished cuttings for 10 minutes with Morton's Soil Drench C at the rate of 1 tsp. per 5 gallons of water.
6. Cuttings are placed in a wire bottom box after treated and drained.
7. Cuttings are treated with Hormodin powder 1, 2, 3, or the quick dip method using I.B.A. crystal with 50% alcohol.
8. Sterlilized rooting medium is used for sticking cuttings.
9. Types of rooting media:
1. Perlite 100%
2. Perlite 75%

Peat Moss 25%
3. Propagation grade sand 100%
10. All tools are disinfected twice daily with 1 quart of 37% commercial

1. Initially Oki Nursery was predominantly a bare root and B & B grower with a few acres of container grown stock. The requirements, at that time, for soil of container grown stock was met under the following conditions:
1. Equipment: Stationary five yard cement mixer and scoop loader tractor.
2. Sterilization: Methyl Bromide.
3. Type of soil: U.C. Mix.
2. When Oki Nursery underwent the transition to complete container growing, 50 acres of containers necessitated a greater volume of soil under the U.C. Mix specifications.
1. The U.C. Soil specifications are the following:
1. Soil must be uniform.
2. Soil must be free of weeds and disease.
3. Soil's basic ingredients must be economically and readily obtainable.
4. Soil must be free from salinity.
5. Soil must be usable soon after mixing.
2. Sterilizing methods used by the Oki Nursery to fulfill the above specifications are as follows:
1. Weed control — methyl bromide for rice hull.
2. Composting — natural heating within the soil mass.
3. Steam — liner mix and propagation media.
3. Factors of the mixing

We here at our nursery, in evaluating equipment, consider life time, labor saved, and taxes. It's a shame our industry isn't large enough for machine manufacturers to build specialized equipment. Most all of our equipment is built here in our shops. All parts we use are new and are readily available at any dealer.

First, I'd like everyone to observe the two-row Pneumatic Canning Machine. At this rate of speed, this crew will plant over 17,000 cans in an eight hour day. Except for the hoppers and pot dies, the parts for this whole machine may be obtained through any machine shop supply house. The parts that get the most wear on this machine are the chains and sprockets.

This truck was built in our shop. It has a Chevy II, four cylinder motor with an

We at Oki Nursery under the advise and counsel of Mr. Fred Petersen of Soil and Plant Laboratories have installed the BIF metering system. This apparatus is a commonly used technical equipment used by many water districts throughout the country to chlorinate drinking water. All component units were of a stock shelf item and only fertilizer was used instead, of the chlorinating reagent.

These are the 3 basic pieces of equipment necessary.

1. The transmitter which responds to a differential pressure created by a primary flow element of the "DALL" flow tube and converts the pressure differential into time impulses proportionate to flow accuracy is ± 0.1% of maximum flow.
2. The Dall flow

The Oki Nursery of Sacramento decided to build a system to irrigate 15 gallon containers and asked for assistance in designing it. They wanted the system to irrigate 12,000 containers from a pump delivering 200 g.p.m. containers to be spaced on 4 foot centers.

The first step was to determine the amount of water needed and the rate of application to uniformly wet the soil mix in the container. Plastic tubing with 1/16 and 1/8 inch inside diameter was tried, but at, low pressure the rate of application was too slow. There was no spreading in the coarse soil mix, so the water traveled down from

For years I was convinced that seedlings and transplants could be most economically and feasibly produced on the light, nearly level alluvial soils that occur where creeks empty upon the bottom ground. For over a century these creeks deposited an out-wash eroded from the nearby hills. While these "made" soils are indeed suitable for most nursery crops, it took years of observation to demonstrate any species or variety would perform as well on our hills and many items would

One of the questions asked by nurserymen is as follows: What form does Oki Nursery use to anticipate varieties to grow? We at Oki Nursery use the Annual Production Schedule. In this form we have information such as:

1. Variety
2. Method of Propagation
3. Approximate per cent of rooting or germination
4. Approximate amount to cut or seed
5. Best month to cut or plant seeds
6. Alternate month to cut or plant seeds

Another common question asked is how do we determine when to make the cuttings, plant the liners, and plant the gallons? We use our Crop Projection Sheet in which for each variety the sales date and quantity needed is first determined; then we work back

As Mr. Kubo has told you, he maintains production records on all crops grown at Oki Nursery and during the last year we have been gathering sales data as a result of doing the basic accounting jobs of order writing and invoicing. This first venture into data processing is an important one, for while it is economically performing the routine accounting functions of order writing, invoicing, accounts receivable, accounts payable, it also enables a nursery to gather sales data which can later be used with production records to forecast sales and project production requirements.

The modularity of IBM data processing systems is