In apples, the rapid changes occurring in fruit metabolism when approaching maturity affect their quality at harvest and after storage. The interest in the newly introduced cultivars, 'Gala', 'Braeburn' and 'Fuji' has initiated the following study on maturity indices and storage in the conditions of the Pacific Northwest. 'Gala', 'Braeburn'...
The bacterium Pseudomonas syringae affects different crops worldwide. In the
Willamette Valley of Oregon, P. syringae causes bacterial canker in sweet cherry,
severely limiting its production. High grafting of susceptible sweet cherry cultivars to
resistant rootstocks is practiced in the Willamette Valley to reduce incidence of this
disease. The research...
Pollen development is an important process in male flower development, the timing of which may be correlated with time of pollen shed in hazelnut (Corylus avellana L.). Early to very late blooming cultivars were identified and the relationship of microsporogenesis and microgametogenesis, and time of pollen shed were studied in...
Saturated hydraulid conductivity (Ks) is a central soil physical property in determining water movement and contaminant transport through soils; hence modeling this system requires an accurate determination of K. Decimeter-scale KS measurements employing cores or infiltrometers are used frequently, but field-scale KS values are required to encompass the full range...
The timber and Christmas tree industries are important components of the Pacific Northwest economy. A goal of both industries is to produce high quality trees with high growth rates. Accomplishing this requires increased genetic quality of the trees grown. Tissue culture provides the most promise for propagating these superior genotypes....
Age-related decline in the capacity of endogenous antioxidant systems
complicates pharmaceutical use by the elderly by potentially increasing the toxicity of
some compounds. Of particular interest is chemical detoxification via glutathione (GSH)
and attendant GSH-requiring detoxification enzymes, e.g. GSH peroxidases (GPX) and
GSH S-transferase (GST). These enzymes have been shown...
Kincaid's lupine (Lupinus sulphureus ssp. kincaidii [Smith] Phillips) is a federally listed Threatened plant of Willamette Valley prairies. Both low reproduction, due to seed coat dormancy, and competition from invasive plants may threaten the longterm viability of this species. In separate studies, I investigated seed germination and an invasive species...
