Azarian Journal of Agriculture
Volume:2 Issue: 3, Jun 2015

Cucurbita L. species of the pumpkin and winter squash are grown all over the world. Winter squash and pumpkin are two of the most important Cucurbit vegetable crops in Turkey. Turkey is one of the important diversity areas, for the cultivated cucurbits because of their adaptation to diverse ecological conditions as a result of both natural selection and also the selection by farmers. Farmers have maintained the local population of winter squash and pumpkin, which are mainly sold in local markets. Only one improved cultivar of the winter squash is currently grown commercially in Turkey. It is a traditional vegetable often grown in small gardens. In this contribution, the last status of winter squash and pumpkin production in Turkey, the growing techniques and problems of these winter squash and pumpkin species, their genetic collection and characterization, and the utilization of the presented species in Turkey are examined.

Assessment of water requirement and irrigation schedule for tomato with the support of FAO-CROPWAT simulation model was carried out for Yola, Nigeria with the aim of planning irrigation schedules for tomato and develop recommendations for improve irrigation practices. The climatic data for 2012/2013 and soil properties of the study area were input into the program. Tomato crop properties were updated by the FAO data and three irrigation intervals were tested (7 and 10 days irrigation intervals and irrigation schedule of 10 days interval during initial and development stage and 6 days interval at mid and late season stages of tomato crop). The simulated results analysis for tomato according to the irrigation schedule showed that highest yield reduction of 16.2% was recorded with 10 days irrigation interval treatment and the least of 0.4% with irrigation interval of 10 days at first two growth stages and 6 days at last two stages. FAO-CROPWAT 8.0 can be used in planning proper irrigation schedule for tomato in Yola, Nigeria.

Antifeedant, malformations, and growth inhibition induced by leaves and seeds methanolic extracts of Solanum elaeagnifolium against Spodoptera littoralis were investigated. Seeds and leaves extracts were added to an artificial diet which was found to have an inhibitory effect on the growth of the larvae. The highest growth inhibition was recorded on larvae treated with seeds extract (59.68%) compared to leaves extract (45.17%). The toxicity was demonstrated by a reduction of the weight do to the anti-feeding activity, an elongation of the larval stadiums until development stopping and larval mortality. The seeds extract shows strong antifeedant activity (28.50%) as compared to leaves extract tested (6.64%). The larval mortality was caused by seeds extract (100%) in response to exuviation difficulties. While, the leaves extract caused various degrees of morphogenesis abnormalities in pupae, with mortality rate around 80%. Our results suggest that seeds methanolic extract of S. elaeagnifolium shows an effective insect growth inhibiting and exhibits great promise in suppressing the population of S. littoralis.

Fulvic acid is a natural tampon and an appropriate chelating agent that has high ion-exchange ability and increasing absorption of minerals in plants. This paper examined the effects of extractants (sodium hydroxide, sodium polyphosphate, urea and EDTA) and the extraction time (1, 7 and 9 days) on the physicochemical properties of vermicompost-produced fulvic acid. Finally, various methods were compared to the universal method of humic substances. Different qualitative and quantitative analysis such as detecting the functional groups (FTIR), measurement of functional groups, spectrophotometric ratios and humification indices were carried out on fulvic acid. Results showed that the highest and lowest amounts of fulvic acid were extracted by the sodium hydroxide and urea, respectively. Various extractants made negligible changes in the type and quality of the Fulvic acid functional groups. Results indicated that sodium hydroxide was the best extractant and the minimum amounts of fulvic acid were extracted by the urea. Urea-extracted fulvic acid had the most functional groups of total acidity and phenolic OH. The most carboxyl functional groups and spectrophotometric ratios were detected in EDTA solution. At the end, by the comparison of various methods, universal method despite the low extraction amount had more functional groups and higher efficiencies compare to others.