High tunnels, or unheated plastic greenhouses, are becoming increasingly popular among organic vegetable growers across the United States. However, the intensive production typical of these systems presents soil health challenges, including salinization due to high fertilizer or compost inputs coupled with lack of rainfall to leach salts. Legume cover crops may improve soil health in high tunnels by reducing the need for external inputs, while adding organic matter. We tested the soil health effects of a winter hairy vetch (Vicia villosa Roth) cover crop used to replace fertilizer N in an organic tomato cropping system in high tunnels. Studies were replicated across three sites differing in climate and soil type (Kansas, Kentucky, and Minnesota) over three years. We measured vetch cover crop effects on a suite of soil health indicators, including potentially mineralizable nitrogen (PMN), permanganate oxidizable carbon, and microbial biomass. Preliminary results suggest that vetch effects on PMN were highly variable. Soil mineral N, meanwhile, was often lower in the vetch treatment than in a fertilized control, both in spring and in fall. While further work on vetch effects on crop yields is needed, our results suggest that even legume cover crops such as vetch have the potential to reduce nitrate leaching.
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Steps were taken to obtain the Kojic acid crystals from local fungal isolation A. flavus WJF81 by separating the fermentation products from the fungus mycelium from the production plant at the centrifuge at a speed of 5000 cycles for 10 minutes. The extraction was followed by ethyl acetate then supernatant concentrate by using rotary evaporator, and dried with heat oven 37ºC. Long, yellowish, pristine acid crystals were obtained that examined the optical microscope with a magnification force of 10x and 40x. The melting point of kojic acid was determined between 152.9-153.5 °C Results of the diagnosis of Kojic acid by applying High pressure liquid chromatography HPLC technique showed that the acid was at one peak, which was close to the
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Image processing applications are currently spreading rapidly in industrial agriculture. The process of sorting agricultural fruits according to their color comes first among many studies conducted in industrial agriculture. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct a study by developing an agricultural crop separator with a low economic cost, however automatically works to increase the effectiveness and efficiency in sorting agricultural crops. In this study, colored pepper fruits were sorted using a Pixy2 camera on the basis of algorithm image analysis, and by using a TCS3200 color sensor on the basis of analyzing the outer surface of the pepper fruits, thus This separation process is done by specifying the pepper according to the color of it
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Sesame crop, one of the very important oily, industrial, and summer crops that is economically important, has been investigated. The plantation and production of this crop has been studied in Al-Qadisiyah governorate during 2003-218. This is because this governorate is well-known by sesame plantation. Such a study helps to know the geographical distribution of sesame agricultural season in 2017-2018, and explore the most important natural factors that affect its plantation. Different research approaches have been adopted based on that facts that need to be met. A field study approach has been used in studying sesame crop descriptively and conceptually, shedding light on its nutritional and economic importance. Moreover, a descriptive com
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The present research included sampling and analysis of 41 soil samples , the samples cover various areas of Nasiriyah city (industrial,commercial,residential and agricultural ) to estimate pollution levels of lead element and determine the correlation between lead concentration and natural factors in soil which represent sedimentary organic matter content, granular gradient, clay minerals and non-clay minerals . The results of the current study showed that the average concentration of lead in the soil samples was 61.12 ppm , it was noticed an increase in the concentration of lead in environmental components in the area of this study especially in residential , industrial and commercial location and the impact of natural factors of the so
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Cyanobacteria are prokaryotic photosynthetic communities which are used in biofertilization of many plants especially rice plant. Cyanobacteria play a vital role to increase the plant's ability for salinity tolerance. Salinity is a worldwide problem which affects the growth and productivity of crops. In this work three cyanobacteria strains (Nostoc calcicola, Anabaena variabilis, and Nostoc linkia) were isolated from saline soil at Kafr El-Sheikh Governorate; North Egypt. The propagated cyanobacteria strains were used to withstand salinity of the soil and increase rice plant growth (Giza 178). The length of roots and shoot seedlings was measured for seven and forty days of cultivation, respectively. The results of this investigation showed
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In this study predication of crop coefficient (Kc) values through growing season for cucumber plant was conducted. A field experiment was carried out at AL Yusufiyah Township, in the Governorate of Baghdad, (latitude: 33°09' N, longitude: 44°24' E, and altitude: 34 m) in medium loam soil. The plant was cultivated inside the greenhouse under subsurface trickle irrigation system with soil water retention technology (SWRT) during the growing season 2017. Crop coefficient values were guessed from the direct method of measurements of daily crop evapotranspiration, while reference evapotranspiration was obtained from Agricultural Meteorology Project - Station of Baghdad - Abu-Ghraib. The obtained results were showed that crop coeffici
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