Volume 9 (2021), Issue 1

Gladiolus is commercially propagated through corms and occurrence of dormancy in freshly harvested corms creates hindrance in their cultivation. Present study was designed to compare the effect of different chemicals to alleviate the dormancy of corms in a short time. Gladiolus corms were collected from two growing sites and subjected to chemicals methanol, benzylaminopurine (BAP), gibberellic acid (GA3), indole acetic acid (IAA), salicylic acid, potassium nitrate and thiourea at different concentrations alone or in combinations. The treated corms were planted on sand and placed under dark conditions at 26°C. The treatment of 60% methanol in combination with 0.9 mM BAP showed maximum germination (72.71%). Descaled corms showed 85% germination compared to 60.42% scaled corms, while the corms collected from Faisalabad showed better germination 83.75% compared to corms from Rawalakot (61.67%). The application of 60% methanol also induced 29.65% and 42.43% deterioration in scaled and descaled corms, respectively. The treatments of 0.3 mM BAP in combination with 0.6 mM GA3 exhibited 88.33 % germination in corms collected from Faisalabad as compared to 55% in corms from Rawalakot. Overall, application of BAP and GA3 in combination was found effective in shortening the period of dormancy in both cultivars of gladiolus compared to other tested chemicals or growth regulators

Clover plant is a perennial plant and can be harvested 3-6 times depending on growing area. Because of this feature, it is very less used in growth studies. This study was carried out in Yozgat ecological conditions where, 4 harvesting can be taken. Bilensoy (registered variant in Turkey) alfalfa variety growth analysis was made depending on time for each cut. At growth analysis, leaf area index, leaf area ratio, leaf growth ratio, plant growth ratio, relative growth ratio and net assimilation ratios were measured. Growth analysis was made on 5 plants taken from each plot. Measurements were taken at 6 different times of each cut. Richards, Logistic, Weibull, MMF, Gompertz, Exponential, Power, Gaussian, and Rational growth models were used for evaluating. Determination coefficient (R2) and Mean square error were used as comparison criteria. As a result, Weibull and Richards growth models explained very well plants growth of alfalfa. Leaf area index 96.3; Leaf area ratio 96.1; leaf growth rate 9.4; In the Weibull model with the coefficient of determination, the net assimilation ratio of 95.9 and the plant growth rate of 96.8 have the highest explanation value in the Weibull model

Twenty pomegranate accessions of Southern and Eastern zones of Afghanistan were selected to explore their biochemical properties. Physico-chemical analysis of juice of all accessions revealed range from 11.60 to 18.60 °Brix for TSS, 2.83 to 4.40 for pH, 1.22 to 2.81% for titratable acidity, 10.65 to 14.28% for total sugars, 5.47 to 7.67% for reducing sugars and 3.48 to 7.63% for non-reducing sugars on average basis. Phytochemical analysis also showed variation among different accessions. AFG0388 had the highest antioxidant activity (88.29%), total phenolic contents (332.56 mg/100g) and total carotenoids (61.44 mg/100g), while AFG0390 and AFG0763 had the highest total flavonoids (136.28 mg/100g) and ascorbic acid (45.34 mg/100g). Contrary, AFG0383 had the lowest total phenolics (52.418 mg GAE/100g) and total carotenoids (9.65 mg ß-carotene/100 g). Antioxidant activity, total flavonoids and ascorbic acid was lowest in AFG4082 (69.91%), AFG0297 (53.21 mg CE/100 g) and AFG5021 (16 mg/100g), respectively. Antioxidant enzymes i.e., SOD, POD and CAT and soluble protein contents in twenty pomegranate accessions ranged 9.05-47.15 IU per mg of protein, 0.44-2.45 IU per mg of protein, 3.98-18.26 IU per mg of protein and 4.14-19.40 mg/100g, respectively. It was concluded that all the accessions of Afghanistan possess a good quantity of nutritive compounds and can be considered in breeding programs to improve nutritional status of marketable varieties.

Cydia pomonella L. (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) is one of the most important pests that causes economic loss in apple production. Chemical insecticides are used extensively to control C. pomonella. This study investigated the oviposition deterrent effect of extracts obtained from Tagetes patula L. (Asteraceae), Tanacetum vulgare L. (Asteracea), Aleo vera (L.) (Liliaceae) and Hyoscyamus niger L. (Solanaceae) on C. pomonella under laboratory conditions. For this purpose, green apple fruits of the similar size were selected for the experiment. Apples were sprayed with two concentrations (5 and 10%) of either one of the plants extracts with a small hand sprayer and placed in Petri dish (one apple per dish). Distilled water was used as control spray treatment. After the sprayed apples dried, each petri dish was placed in small cages in which two male and one female of C. pomonella were released for coupling for 24h. Daily monitoring was conducted for next fourteen days in controlled growth cabinet and the total number of eggs laid was recorded. The extract of A. vera exhibited the highest deterrence effect (89.92%) at maximum concentration (10%). The extracts of H. niger and T. vulgare, were 88.48% and 84.89% deterrent respectively with the same concentration. Whereas, deterrence effect of extracts from T. patula, was 69.06% at the same concentration. The percent oviposition deterrence increased with increased concentration of plant extract. The highest index of egg laying was with extract of A. vera.

Potato is one of the most important crops serving a source of food for millions of people all over the world. It is cultivated on various agricultural conditions around the world. It is one of the four staple food crops which have major impact on domestic consumption and food needs among major population around the world. Despite of easy cultivation practices and low labour requirements, production of potato in Pakistan is not promising as compared to the world as well as to other South Asian countries like India and Bangladesh. Low crop productivity in Pakistan is the result of biotic and abiotic stresses and relatively less land to produce potatoes. Various biotic factors like fungal and viral diseases have a significant effect on potato production. Extreme temperatures, poor soil, drought, salts and less irrigation water, are some of the abiotic stresses that encounter potato production. The basic aim of this review is to pinpoint the influencing factors in potato production and to suggest the possible ways to address the issues that are related with potato production, yield and crop losses in Pakistan

In Pakistan, potato production has become an important industry both for farmers and consumers. Potato cultivation in Pakistan is always taken on priority among the other vegetables due to its high yield, having high nutrient values and mostly increasing the income of the farmers. First time we documented the incidence of foliar diseases from the hub of potato growing areas. We selected 5 potato fields from each district of Okara, Pakpatan and Sahiwal to collect passport data of foliar diseases after 30, 60 and 90 days intervals. The incidence of late blight was the maximum in all selected districts followed by black leg and early blight. In district Okara the incidence of late blight was the maximum (30%) while the minimum incidence (7%) was recorded in district Sahiwal. The maximum (6%) incidence of black leg was recoded in district Sahiwal followed by Pakptan and Okara districts. This study concluded that late blight is serious threat to potato industry in district Sahiwal, Pakpatan and Okara and it can be minimized by good agricultural practices.

The Image Processing technique have been extensively used for the detection of defects, classification, quality evaluation, and grading in the agriculture field. External defects and infections in fruits have reasonable economical losses in the agricultural production worldwide. Identification of defects and continuous monitoring of fruits are important for sustainable agricultural business. In modern days’ image processing technology and computer vision-based procedures have been useful progressively for fruits defect identification. Researchers have proposed and used many image processing methodologies and tools for the detection of defects in fruits; every algorithm and tool has a different accuracy level. In this paper, a computerized tool is developed, which can identify defects and grade the different types of fruits based on color, figure, and size features by digital image processing procedure. MATLAB was used as the programming tool for visible defects detection and grading of fruits