University of Florida Potato Variety Trials Spotlight: ‘Harley Blackwell’

‘Harley Blackwell’ is a potato variety that is commonly grown for the potato chip market. It was selected from the progeny of a cross between B0155-24 and B9935-8 and tested under the pedigree B0564-8. It was released and named jointly by the Agricultural Research Service, the United States Department of Agriculture, the Agricultural Research Service of North Carolina, the Agricultural Experiment Stations of Virginia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Florida, and New York, and the Maine Agricultural and Forest Experiment Station in 2000. Tuber production and quality results provided in this spotlight are summarized from various variety trials conducted at the UF/IFAS Hastings Agricultural Extension Center between 1998 and 2019.This is a minor revision with an author addition, last updated 5/2017. https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/hs1298

University of Florida Potato Variety Trials Spotlight: 'Peter Wilcox'

‘Peter Wilcox’ is a fresh market potato variety selected from progeny of a cross between B0810-1 and B0918-5 and tested under the pedigree B1816-5 by the United States Department of Agriculture. In 2007, ‘Peter Wilcox’ was joint relesead with the North Carolina Agricultural Research Service, the Agricultural Experiment Stations of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Florida, and New York, and the Maine Agricultural and Forest Experiment Station. In Florida, ‘Peter Wilcox’ demonstrates good tuber characteristics and high yields. Tuber production and quality results provided in publication are from Florida Potato Variety Trials conducted at the UF/IFAS Hastings Agricultural Extension Center between 2001 and 2019.

Reflections on the contributions of Populus research at Rhinelander, Wisconsin, USA

The United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service established three regional Institutes of Forest Genetics in the United States in the 1950s to improve trees for reforestation and improve the management of forests. The institute in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, started in 1956 as part of the Lake States Forest Experiment Station. Since that time, the “Rhinelander Lab” has undergone changes in research priorities, organizational changes, and name changes while becoming an international center of forest scientific excellence. Many of the researchers’ key findings over the years were published in the Canadian Journal of Forest Research. In this paper, for the 50th anniversary edition of the Journal, we reflect upon one part of those accomplishments: the history of the contributions of Populus L. research at Rhinelander. We discuss major research programs and the scientists conducting this work, including (i) physiology of wood formation, (ii) short rotation intensive culture and short rotation woody crops, (iii) intensively cultured plantations, (iv) physiology and utilization of short rotation poplar yields, (v) breeding and selection, (vi) biotechnology and molecular genetics, (vii) atmospheric pollution and climate change, (viii) phytotechnologies, and (ix) ecosystem services. Also, we describe four major international conferences held in Rhinelander and (or) hosted by Rhinelander researchers.

Height development of shade-tolerant conifer saplings in multiaged Acadian forest standsPublication 2954 of the Maine Agricultural and Forest Experiment Station, University of Maine, Orono, Maine.

Understory growth dynamics of northern conifer species were studied in four stands managed under multiaged silvicultural systems in eastern Maine. Height growth of Picea rubens Sarg., Abies balsamea (L.) Mill., and Tsuga canadensis (L.) Carr. saplings between 0.5 and 6.0 m in height was related to the proportion open sky (POS), using sapling height as a covariate. Height growth of T. canadensis equaled A. balsamea and exceeded P. rubens under very low light levels (POS < 0.1) but is much less responsive to both increasing POS and taller heights, reaching 50% of its maximum height growth at a POS of only 0.09. Abies balsamea outgrew P. rubens under similar dark conditions; at higher light levels (POS > 0.10), both species grew similarly. Evidently, no feasible overstory manipulation of light alone can promote more rapid height development of P. rubens saplings over A. balsamea. A nonlinear light-prediction model using stand basal area is linked with height-growth prediction equations to quantify sapling development from 0.5 to 6 m. Depending on overstory density, P. rubens requires a height advantage of 0.14–0.33 m over a 0.5 m tall A. balsamea to reach a height of 6 m over the same time period.