Water management is a key factor to optimize fruit quality and yield of processing tomatoes which... more Water management is a key factor to optimize fruit quality and yield of processing tomatoes which are site-specific and influenced by environmental conditions e.g., soil, temperature, precipitation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacity of a low-cost wireless soil moisture sensor in determining the irrigation level for optimizing the marketable yield, fruit quality and economic profit of processing tomato. A two-years (2017–2018) trial was conducted in open field, applying nine drip irrigation levels controlled by wireless soil moisture capacitance sensors. The irrigation levels were as follows: 13.2, 16.7, 25.4, 33.3, 50.0, 62.3, 82.5, 100 and 186.8% of water restitution based on soil moisture sensor readings. Because of the crop stress induced by heavy rainfalls occurring in 2018 growing season, total and marketable yields reached higher maximum values in 2017 than 2018. In 2017, total and marketable yields were maximized by supplying 92.8% and 96.2% of irrigation l...
Plant biostimulants represent an innovative and sustainable solution to address the challenges of... more Plant biostimulants represent an innovative and sustainable solution to address the challenges of the future agriculture, especially when they are used to improve yield and quality of staple crops. The objective of this research was to study, over three consecutive seasons, the effect of a novel fertilization plan (Thesis 2, T2) on the productivity and protein content of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), as compared to the traditional fertilization pattern (Thesis 1, T1), commonly used in Tunisia. T2 was based on the use of a pre-sowing soil bioenhancer (SBE, commercially known as ‘Terios’) and a topdressing with foliar bio-stimulant (FBS, commercially known as ‘Celerios’), obtained by nanotechnology transformation of Y-CaCO3 minerals (called ‘vaterite’); while T1 was based on the use of diammonium phosphate (DAP) at pre-sowing and ammonium nitrate (AN) during the growing season. FBS was applied two times each season and at one rate (3 kg ha−1). In each farm and experimental year,...
Under the high temporal variability of the Mediterranean climate, the prompt emergence of wheat s... more Under the high temporal variability of the Mediterranean climate, the prompt emergence of wheat seedlings and early vigor are pivotal attributes, positively affecting the final grain yield. Phosphorus (P) fertilization at sowing is largely used in wheat cultivation to support the early-season growth and promote a more rapid crop establishment. While conventional farming can rely on a wide variety of synthetic fertilizers, the number of options available for the starter fertilization of organic wheat is restricted and many are often unsuitable. Nanotechnology applied to fertilizers could provide a valuable means to combat this issue. This study aimed to evaluate the starter effect of a granular soil bio-enhancer (SBE) on bread wheat grown in two locations of Northern Tunisia as compared to conventional fertilization with diammonium phosphate (DAP). The SBE was obtained by physically grinding phosphate rocks at a nanoscale level and further mixing it with azotobacters. Aerial dry biom...
Amino acidic alignment of the signal peptide and the five domains corresponding to the 49 α-type ... more Amino acidic alignment of the signal peptide and the five domains corresponding to the 49 α-type gliadins isolated. Heptapeptide QPQLPYP in single copy or duplicated is highlighted in yellow; α-Glia (31–43) in gray; α-Glia (31–49) in gray + light blue; α-Glia (31–55) in gray + light blue + green; α-Glia (44–55) in light blue + green; α-Glia (51–70) underlined; α-Glia (56–75) in italic; α-Glia (206–217) in red; Glia-α in fuchsia; Glia-α2 in orange character; Glia-α9 in the black box; Glia-α20 in the blue box; the 33-mer peptide in the red box; the odd cysteine in bold and red character. (PDF 103 kb)
Jerusalem artichoke, Helianthus tuberosus L. (Ht), has the full set of attributes that make it an... more Jerusalem artichoke, Helianthus tuberosus L. (Ht), has the full set of attributes that make it an important dedicated bioenergy crop. Ht crop offers several management advantages and environmental sustainability services. Despite the crop is widely cultivated and known, the large genetic variability of Ht clones and genotypes makes difficult to define the crop responses under different cropping systems and growing areas. Particularly, the further investigation of specific agronomical aspects such as planting density is required, as they are still relatively known, and no clear information is available for the specific growing area of Southern Europe. The objective of this research was to evaluate the effect of planting density on Ht genotypes over multiple seasons to determine the top¬performing clones and their optimal growing density for the Mediterranean environment. Field trials with 4 genotypes of Jerusalem artichoke (D19HS2, K8HS142, CU3R, Violet de Rennes) and different planting densities were carried out during the growing seasons 2009-2010 in Central Italy. Clones response differed markedly in terms of tubers yield in both years. The genotype 'Violet de Rennes' confirmed its high and constant productivity. The best planting density for tubers yield and stalk dry matter production was 8 plants m-2as compared to lower densities, while not significant differences were found between 8 and 10plants m-2 treatment.
Flax is an interesting agro-industrial product and, in defatted form (flax expeller o flax cake),... more Flax is an interesting agro-industrial product and, in defatted form (flax expeller o flax cake), it sounds as a promising feed ingredient. In Italy, this crop is not well established and all the flax expeller used as feedstuff come from oil extraction of imported flax seeds. However, it has been demonstrated that cropping flax may be performed profitably also in the Mediterranean environment. The main EU importation of flax are from Canada. Thus the aim of this work was to evaluate the environmental impacts related to flax expeller usage as feed ingredient obtained from flax produced in Italy (domestic scenario) compared with flax imported from Canada (imported scenario). For this purpose a Life Cycle Assessment-based approach was adopted to calculate the flax expeller production impacts related to the “field phase” (i.e. from cradle to farm gate) and to the “industrial phase”, including flax transportation from farm to oil-extraction plant, flax processing and transportation to th...
Comparison of Îą-type gliadin genes. Alignment of the 49 full length nucleotidic sequences isolat... more Comparison of Îą-type gliadin genes. Alignment of the 49 full length nucleotidic sequences isolated from the bread wheat cv Pegaso were performed by the Clustal Omega multiple sequence alignment program. (DOC 112 kb)
The caper plant is widespread in Sicily (Italy) both wild in natural habitats and as specialized ... more The caper plant is widespread in Sicily (Italy) both wild in natural habitats and as specialized crops, showing considerable morphological variation. However, although contributing to a thriving market, innovation in caper cropping is low. The aim of the study was to evaluate agronomic and production behavior of some biotypes of Capparis spinosa L. subsp. rupestris, identified on the Island of Linosa (Italy) for growing purposes. Two years and seven biotypes of the species were tested in a randomized complete block design. The main morphological and production parameters were determined. Phenological stages were also observed. Analysis of variance showed high variability between the biotypes. Principal component analysis and cluster analysis highlighted a clear distinction between biotypes based on biometric and production characteristics. Production data collected in the two-year period 2007–2008 showed the greatest production levels in the third year following planting in 2005. In...
Sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench var. saccharatum) is arousing interest as bioenergy cr... more Sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench var. saccharatum) is arousing interest as bioenergy crop because of its versatility, relative drought tolerance, and ability to grow in environmental conditions not suitable for many other crops. The aim of this study was to evaluate sweet sorghum genotypes potential as biofuel feedstock. The experiment was conducted in two growing areas in Europe also to determine the possibility of using the sweet sorghum in cropping systems at high northern latitudes which could be considered marginal areas for C4 plants. The research was performed in 2009 at Berlin, Germany, and in 2010 atViterbo, Italy. The biomass production, fermentable sugar content and ethanol yield potential of 6 sweet sorghum genotypes (Keller, M81E, Dale, Della, Bovital, Goliath) were compared. The experimental design was a randomized block with four replicates.The results suggest that sweet sorghum has good potential as alternative energy cropalso in Central European climates and that the further studies are required. However, lower European latitudes have been confirmed as the crop best growing conditions for high productions.
Chickpea grains may represent an alternative to soybean meals and energetic concentrates in anima... more Chickpea grains may represent an alternative to soybean meals and energetic concentrates in animal feeding, as their nutritional value can help to increase the sustainability of livestock systems. Unfortunately, the presence of bioactive compounds with anti-nutritional effects can prevent its direct use, especially in mono-gastrics. It is known that the synthesis of these compounds depends on genetic expression, which is also influenced by growth conditions. The objective of this two-year study was to assess the effect of sowing date (winter versus spring) and seeding rate (70 versus 110 seeds m−2) on the accumulation of soluble carbohydrates, α-galactosides, trypsin inhibitors, and inositol phosphates in the grains of two Kabuli cultivars, in the Mediterranean climate. The results showed that seeds collected from winter sowing contained more trypsin inhibitors than those seeded in spring (+ 4%, on average), reaching values between 16.1 and 18.6 TIU mg protein−1. The seeding rate af...
In recent years, awareness on sustainable land use has increased. Optimizing the practice of nitr... more In recent years, awareness on sustainable land use has increased. Optimizing the practice of nitrogen fertilization has become crucially imperative in cropping management as a result of this current trend. The effort to improve the availability of organic nitrogen has incurred a bottleneck while seeking to achieve a high yield and quality performance for organic winter cereals. Field experiments were conducted, under rainfed Mediterranean conditions, over a period of two subsequent growing seasons. The objective was to investigate the effect of soil and foliar S application on the performance of three durum wheat cultivars fertilized with either organic or inorganic N. The hypothesis to be verified was if different S fertilization strategies could improve grain yield and quality when coupled with mineral or organic N fertilizer. There were three levels of treatment with mineral N fertilizer (120, 160 and 200 kg ha−1), two levels of organic N fertilizer (160 and 200 kg ha−1), two lev...
Introgressions of Thinopyrum ponticum 7AgL chromosome segments, spanning 23%, 28% and 40% of the ... more Introgressions of Thinopyrum ponticum 7AgL chromosome segments, spanning 23%, 28% and 40% of the distal end of durum wheat 7AL arm, were previously shown to contain multiple beneficial gene(s)/QTL for yield-related traits, in addition to effective disease resistance (Lr19, Sr25) and quality (Yp) genes. In the present study, durum wheat near isogenic recombinant lines (NIRLs), harbouring each of the three introgressions, were included for the first time in multi-location field trials, to evaluate general and environment-specific effects of the alien chromatin on 26 yield-related traits. The results from nine different trials across contrasting environments of Italy, Morocco and South Australia over four years revealed that the overall impact of 7AgL introgressions into the tetraploid wheat background did not imply, except in one environment, major yield penalty. The comprehensive effect of the three 7AgL segments on individual yield-contributing traits, resulted in significant increa...
Wild species are extremely rich resources of useful genes not available in the cultivated gene po... more Wild species are extremely rich resources of useful genes not available in the cultivated gene pool. For species providing staple food to mankind, such as the cultivated Triticum species, including hexaploid bread wheat (Triticum aestivum, 6x) and tetraploid durum wheat (T. durum, 4x), widening the genetic base is a priority and primary target to cope with the many challenges that the crop has to face. These include recent climate changes, as well as actual and projected demographic growth, contrasting with reduction of arable land and water reserves. All of these environmental and societal modifications pose major constraints to the required production increase in the wheat crop. A sustainable approach to address this task implies resorting to non-conventional breeding strategies, such as “chromosome engineering”. This is based on cytogenetic methodologies, which ultimately allow for the incorporation into wheat chromosomes of targeted, and ideally small, chromosomal segments from ...
In the transition zone, warm-season grasses are often overseeded with diploid perennial ryegrass ... more In the transition zone, warm-season grasses are often overseeded with diploid perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L., 2n = 2x = 14) to provide a temporary green surface for winter sporting activities. Because improved cultivars of perennial ryegrass will often persist into summer in overseeded turf, alternative cool-season grasses have been developed to facilitate more rapid transition back to the warm-season species. Limited information is available on these alternative species, especially with regard to their germination characteristics under shade and performance under limiting factors, such as low temperature and restricted photoperiod. Greenhouse and growth chamber studies were designed to test four alternative overseeding grasses in comparison with diploid perennial ryegrass, to verify their potential use in the artificial environment of modern stadiums. Meadow fescue (Festuca pratensis Huds.), tetraploid perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L., 2n = 4x = 28), annual ryegrass (Lo...
Abstract Groundcovers play a very important role in the creation of urban green spaces. They prov... more Abstract Groundcovers play a very important role in the creation of urban green spaces. They provide many agronomic and environmental benefits while simplifying the urban landscape management. In the areas with a Mediterranean-type climate, the development of low-input landscapes, with the ability to maintain their functions and aesthetical appeal, is pivotal. The aim of this study was to identify groundcover species that could be suited to the local environmental conditions and to evaluate the effect of different mulching systems on plant growth and weed suppression. Digital image analysis was used to measure the green cover percentage of four species (Hedera helix L., Hypericum calycinum L., Rosmarinus officinalis L., Vinca minor L.) grown on two different types of mulch (EcoCover® and wood-chips) and on bare soil. Changes in plant coverage, NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) and weed biomass were recorded over a two year period. The prostrate R. officinalis established rapidly and reached more than 80% of coverage within 3 months after planting. Also, it was not affected by weed competition. Non-native H. calycinum also exhibited a quick spread, but it was unsuitable for low-input Mediterranean landscapes because it died during late summer from fungal disease. H. helix and V. minor were also adversely affected by pathogens and, due to their slow initial growth and low percent cover in the second year, they did not control weeds during the study. With the exception of R. officinalis, mulching materials did not significantly improve the establishment and cover ability of the tested species, but had significant effects on weed suppression. Digital image analysis and spectral reflectance proved to be reliable and objective techniques to assess groundcover performance.
Water management is a key factor to optimize fruit quality and yield of processing tomatoes which... more Water management is a key factor to optimize fruit quality and yield of processing tomatoes which are site-specific and influenced by environmental conditions e.g., soil, temperature, precipitation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacity of a low-cost wireless soil moisture sensor in determining the irrigation level for optimizing the marketable yield, fruit quality and economic profit of processing tomato. A two-years (2017–2018) trial was conducted in open field, applying nine drip irrigation levels controlled by wireless soil moisture capacitance sensors. The irrigation levels were as follows: 13.2, 16.7, 25.4, 33.3, 50.0, 62.3, 82.5, 100 and 186.8% of water restitution based on soil moisture sensor readings. Because of the crop stress induced by heavy rainfalls occurring in 2018 growing season, total and marketable yields reached higher maximum values in 2017 than 2018. In 2017, total and marketable yields were maximized by supplying 92.8% and 96.2% of irrigation l...
Plant biostimulants represent an innovative and sustainable solution to address the challenges of... more Plant biostimulants represent an innovative and sustainable solution to address the challenges of the future agriculture, especially when they are used to improve yield and quality of staple crops. The objective of this research was to study, over three consecutive seasons, the effect of a novel fertilization plan (Thesis 2, T2) on the productivity and protein content of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), as compared to the traditional fertilization pattern (Thesis 1, T1), commonly used in Tunisia. T2 was based on the use of a pre-sowing soil bioenhancer (SBE, commercially known as ‘Terios’) and a topdressing with foliar bio-stimulant (FBS, commercially known as ‘Celerios’), obtained by nanotechnology transformation of Y-CaCO3 minerals (called ‘vaterite’); while T1 was based on the use of diammonium phosphate (DAP) at pre-sowing and ammonium nitrate (AN) during the growing season. FBS was applied two times each season and at one rate (3 kg ha−1). In each farm and experimental year,...
Under the high temporal variability of the Mediterranean climate, the prompt emergence of wheat s... more Under the high temporal variability of the Mediterranean climate, the prompt emergence of wheat seedlings and early vigor are pivotal attributes, positively affecting the final grain yield. Phosphorus (P) fertilization at sowing is largely used in wheat cultivation to support the early-season growth and promote a more rapid crop establishment. While conventional farming can rely on a wide variety of synthetic fertilizers, the number of options available for the starter fertilization of organic wheat is restricted and many are often unsuitable. Nanotechnology applied to fertilizers could provide a valuable means to combat this issue. This study aimed to evaluate the starter effect of a granular soil bio-enhancer (SBE) on bread wheat grown in two locations of Northern Tunisia as compared to conventional fertilization with diammonium phosphate (DAP). The SBE was obtained by physically grinding phosphate rocks at a nanoscale level and further mixing it with azotobacters. Aerial dry biom...
Amino acidic alignment of the signal peptide and the five domains corresponding to the 49 α-type ... more Amino acidic alignment of the signal peptide and the five domains corresponding to the 49 α-type gliadins isolated. Heptapeptide QPQLPYP in single copy or duplicated is highlighted in yellow; α-Glia (31–43) in gray; α-Glia (31–49) in gray + light blue; α-Glia (31–55) in gray + light blue + green; α-Glia (44–55) in light blue + green; α-Glia (51–70) underlined; α-Glia (56–75) in italic; α-Glia (206–217) in red; Glia-α in fuchsia; Glia-α2 in orange character; Glia-α9 in the black box; Glia-α20 in the blue box; the 33-mer peptide in the red box; the odd cysteine in bold and red character. (PDF 103 kb)
Jerusalem artichoke, Helianthus tuberosus L. (Ht), has the full set of attributes that make it an... more Jerusalem artichoke, Helianthus tuberosus L. (Ht), has the full set of attributes that make it an important dedicated bioenergy crop. Ht crop offers several management advantages and environmental sustainability services. Despite the crop is widely cultivated and known, the large genetic variability of Ht clones and genotypes makes difficult to define the crop responses under different cropping systems and growing areas. Particularly, the further investigation of specific agronomical aspects such as planting density is required, as they are still relatively known, and no clear information is available for the specific growing area of Southern Europe. The objective of this research was to evaluate the effect of planting density on Ht genotypes over multiple seasons to determine the top¬performing clones and their optimal growing density for the Mediterranean environment. Field trials with 4 genotypes of Jerusalem artichoke (D19HS2, K8HS142, CU3R, Violet de Rennes) and different planting densities were carried out during the growing seasons 2009-2010 in Central Italy. Clones response differed markedly in terms of tubers yield in both years. The genotype 'Violet de Rennes' confirmed its high and constant productivity. The best planting density for tubers yield and stalk dry matter production was 8 plants m-2as compared to lower densities, while not significant differences were found between 8 and 10plants m-2 treatment.
Flax is an interesting agro-industrial product and, in defatted form (flax expeller o flax cake),... more Flax is an interesting agro-industrial product and, in defatted form (flax expeller o flax cake), it sounds as a promising feed ingredient. In Italy, this crop is not well established and all the flax expeller used as feedstuff come from oil extraction of imported flax seeds. However, it has been demonstrated that cropping flax may be performed profitably also in the Mediterranean environment. The main EU importation of flax are from Canada. Thus the aim of this work was to evaluate the environmental impacts related to flax expeller usage as feed ingredient obtained from flax produced in Italy (domestic scenario) compared with flax imported from Canada (imported scenario). For this purpose a Life Cycle Assessment-based approach was adopted to calculate the flax expeller production impacts related to the “field phase” (i.e. from cradle to farm gate) and to the “industrial phase”, including flax transportation from farm to oil-extraction plant, flax processing and transportation to th...
Comparison of Îą-type gliadin genes. Alignment of the 49 full length nucleotidic sequences isolat... more Comparison of Îą-type gliadin genes. Alignment of the 49 full length nucleotidic sequences isolated from the bread wheat cv Pegaso were performed by the Clustal Omega multiple sequence alignment program. (DOC 112 kb)
The caper plant is widespread in Sicily (Italy) both wild in natural habitats and as specialized ... more The caper plant is widespread in Sicily (Italy) both wild in natural habitats and as specialized crops, showing considerable morphological variation. However, although contributing to a thriving market, innovation in caper cropping is low. The aim of the study was to evaluate agronomic and production behavior of some biotypes of Capparis spinosa L. subsp. rupestris, identified on the Island of Linosa (Italy) for growing purposes. Two years and seven biotypes of the species were tested in a randomized complete block design. The main morphological and production parameters were determined. Phenological stages were also observed. Analysis of variance showed high variability between the biotypes. Principal component analysis and cluster analysis highlighted a clear distinction between biotypes based on biometric and production characteristics. Production data collected in the two-year period 2007–2008 showed the greatest production levels in the third year following planting in 2005. In...
Sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench var. saccharatum) is arousing interest as bioenergy cr... more Sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench var. saccharatum) is arousing interest as bioenergy crop because of its versatility, relative drought tolerance, and ability to grow in environmental conditions not suitable for many other crops. The aim of this study was to evaluate sweet sorghum genotypes potential as biofuel feedstock. The experiment was conducted in two growing areas in Europe also to determine the possibility of using the sweet sorghum in cropping systems at high northern latitudes which could be considered marginal areas for C4 plants. The research was performed in 2009 at Berlin, Germany, and in 2010 atViterbo, Italy. The biomass production, fermentable sugar content and ethanol yield potential of 6 sweet sorghum genotypes (Keller, M81E, Dale, Della, Bovital, Goliath) were compared. The experimental design was a randomized block with four replicates.The results suggest that sweet sorghum has good potential as alternative energy cropalso in Central European climates and that the further studies are required. However, lower European latitudes have been confirmed as the crop best growing conditions for high productions.
Chickpea grains may represent an alternative to soybean meals and energetic concentrates in anima... more Chickpea grains may represent an alternative to soybean meals and energetic concentrates in animal feeding, as their nutritional value can help to increase the sustainability of livestock systems. Unfortunately, the presence of bioactive compounds with anti-nutritional effects can prevent its direct use, especially in mono-gastrics. It is known that the synthesis of these compounds depends on genetic expression, which is also influenced by growth conditions. The objective of this two-year study was to assess the effect of sowing date (winter versus spring) and seeding rate (70 versus 110 seeds m−2) on the accumulation of soluble carbohydrates, α-galactosides, trypsin inhibitors, and inositol phosphates in the grains of two Kabuli cultivars, in the Mediterranean climate. The results showed that seeds collected from winter sowing contained more trypsin inhibitors than those seeded in spring (+ 4%, on average), reaching values between 16.1 and 18.6 TIU mg protein−1. The seeding rate af...
In recent years, awareness on sustainable land use has increased. Optimizing the practice of nitr... more In recent years, awareness on sustainable land use has increased. Optimizing the practice of nitrogen fertilization has become crucially imperative in cropping management as a result of this current trend. The effort to improve the availability of organic nitrogen has incurred a bottleneck while seeking to achieve a high yield and quality performance for organic winter cereals. Field experiments were conducted, under rainfed Mediterranean conditions, over a period of two subsequent growing seasons. The objective was to investigate the effect of soil and foliar S application on the performance of three durum wheat cultivars fertilized with either organic or inorganic N. The hypothesis to be verified was if different S fertilization strategies could improve grain yield and quality when coupled with mineral or organic N fertilizer. There were three levels of treatment with mineral N fertilizer (120, 160 and 200 kg ha−1), two levels of organic N fertilizer (160 and 200 kg ha−1), two lev...
Introgressions of Thinopyrum ponticum 7AgL chromosome segments, spanning 23%, 28% and 40% of the ... more Introgressions of Thinopyrum ponticum 7AgL chromosome segments, spanning 23%, 28% and 40% of the distal end of durum wheat 7AL arm, were previously shown to contain multiple beneficial gene(s)/QTL for yield-related traits, in addition to effective disease resistance (Lr19, Sr25) and quality (Yp) genes. In the present study, durum wheat near isogenic recombinant lines (NIRLs), harbouring each of the three introgressions, were included for the first time in multi-location field trials, to evaluate general and environment-specific effects of the alien chromatin on 26 yield-related traits. The results from nine different trials across contrasting environments of Italy, Morocco and South Australia over four years revealed that the overall impact of 7AgL introgressions into the tetraploid wheat background did not imply, except in one environment, major yield penalty. The comprehensive effect of the three 7AgL segments on individual yield-contributing traits, resulted in significant increa...
Wild species are extremely rich resources of useful genes not available in the cultivated gene po... more Wild species are extremely rich resources of useful genes not available in the cultivated gene pool. For species providing staple food to mankind, such as the cultivated Triticum species, including hexaploid bread wheat (Triticum aestivum, 6x) and tetraploid durum wheat (T. durum, 4x), widening the genetic base is a priority and primary target to cope with the many challenges that the crop has to face. These include recent climate changes, as well as actual and projected demographic growth, contrasting with reduction of arable land and water reserves. All of these environmental and societal modifications pose major constraints to the required production increase in the wheat crop. A sustainable approach to address this task implies resorting to non-conventional breeding strategies, such as “chromosome engineering”. This is based on cytogenetic methodologies, which ultimately allow for the incorporation into wheat chromosomes of targeted, and ideally small, chromosomal segments from ...
In the transition zone, warm-season grasses are often overseeded with diploid perennial ryegrass ... more In the transition zone, warm-season grasses are often overseeded with diploid perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L., 2n = 2x = 14) to provide a temporary green surface for winter sporting activities. Because improved cultivars of perennial ryegrass will often persist into summer in overseeded turf, alternative cool-season grasses have been developed to facilitate more rapid transition back to the warm-season species. Limited information is available on these alternative species, especially with regard to their germination characteristics under shade and performance under limiting factors, such as low temperature and restricted photoperiod. Greenhouse and growth chamber studies were designed to test four alternative overseeding grasses in comparison with diploid perennial ryegrass, to verify their potential use in the artificial environment of modern stadiums. Meadow fescue (Festuca pratensis Huds.), tetraploid perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L., 2n = 4x = 28), annual ryegrass (Lo...
Abstract Groundcovers play a very important role in the creation of urban green spaces. They prov... more Abstract Groundcovers play a very important role in the creation of urban green spaces. They provide many agronomic and environmental benefits while simplifying the urban landscape management. In the areas with a Mediterranean-type climate, the development of low-input landscapes, with the ability to maintain their functions and aesthetical appeal, is pivotal. The aim of this study was to identify groundcover species that could be suited to the local environmental conditions and to evaluate the effect of different mulching systems on plant growth and weed suppression. Digital image analysis was used to measure the green cover percentage of four species (Hedera helix L., Hypericum calycinum L., Rosmarinus officinalis L., Vinca minor L.) grown on two different types of mulch (EcoCover® and wood-chips) and on bare soil. Changes in plant coverage, NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) and weed biomass were recorded over a two year period. The prostrate R. officinalis established rapidly and reached more than 80% of coverage within 3 months after planting. Also, it was not affected by weed competition. Non-native H. calycinum also exhibited a quick spread, but it was unsuitable for low-input Mediterranean landscapes because it died during late summer from fungal disease. H. helix and V. minor were also adversely affected by pathogens and, due to their slow initial growth and low percent cover in the second year, they did not control weeds during the study. With the exception of R. officinalis, mulching materials did not significantly improve the establishment and cover ability of the tested species, but had significant effects on weed suppression. Digital image analysis and spectral reflectance proved to be reliable and objective techniques to assess groundcover performance.
Uploads