Growth and flowering of Heliconia psittacorum cv. Parrot in Hawaii. Manarangi, A., W. S. Sakai, C. Gerken, M. Crowell, G Nielsen and R. Short. Growth and flowering of Heliconia psittacorum cv. parrot occurs throughout the year in Hawaii. Maximum shoot (8.1 shoots/plant/month) and flower (5.5 flowers/plant/month) production occurred during the third quarterv (July-August- September) of 1986. The cultivar has a spreading growth habitv with an average increase in area of o.07 m Are rents of pasture land lease sold at auctions too high?. Garrod, P. V., H. K. Marutani and W. Mikilius. The leases of State-owned agricultural land in Hawaii are sold at common auctions. Ranchers and government officials contend that leases sold at auctions are generally "too high", i.e; they do not allow farmers or ranchers to earn a competitive return on their investment. The purpose of this paper is to examine this contention using the winning auction bids of an auction held on August 26, 1975. It presents estimates of the competitive return and compares these estimates with auction winning bids, with estimates based on cost and revenue trends since the auction, and verifies the results against interview responses of ranchers owning the leases. The results show that the winning bids are indeed "too high". Chlorosis in Macadamia induced by lime, phosphate, manganese and aluminum. Fox, R. L., N. V. Hue and W. W. McCall. Commercial production of macadamia (Macadamia integrifolia) has become an important industry in Hawaii. However, knowledge of the plant's nutritional behavior has been considerably deficient. To address this deficiency, an experiment was conducted to study the effects of lime, phosphate, manganese and aluminum on macadamia seedlings grown in 15.5 kg pots. Soils with widely different mineralogy and inherent fertility were used; soil pH was adjusted with either dilute H2 SO4 or CaCO3 to give a range of 4.5 to 7.5; P was applied to yield target levels of 0.008 and 0.5 mg P/L in the soil solution (leachate from the pot). The effect of soil treatments on plant growth was evaluated by several means: (i) chemical composition of leachate, (ii) mineral composition of leaf tissue, and (iii) relative chlorosis rating based on numerical conversion of the Munsel Color Plant Chart. Results suggest that the critical external P concentration for optimum seedling growth was approximately 0.1 mg P/L corresponding to a leaf-P concentration of 0.15%; the "most suitable" soil pH for growing macadamia was not well defined. Nevertheless, normal plants seemed to associate with soil pHs around 6.0. Manganese in leachates decreased with increasing pH but not so abruptly as did Al. Manganese uptake by macadamia seedlings seemed to be plant-related; but soil properties, lime and P effects were also apparent. Manganese was more readily taken up from the manganiferous soil (Wahiawa) than from the high Al soil (Castle Junction) although Mn in leachates from these soils was similar. The greatest incidence of chlorosis was associated with the Wahiawa soil and the extent or degree of the chlorosis was greater if a high level of P was applied. Changes in quality of alfalfa hay treated with a preserver. Tsang Mui Chung, M. and R. Guyton. A bacteria based preserver was tested on high moisture hay. The point of application of the hay preserver was at the baler. Evaluations of hay quality included hay temperature in storage and chemical analyses of core samples of the bales. All treated bales stayed cooler than the controls. After one month in storage, hay baled at a moisture range ot 18 to 23% was higher in quality than hay baled at a moisture range of 30 to 35%. There was no significant difference in quality estimates bewteen the high moisture bales indicating that the preserver was not effective at the high moisture range studied. Non-residual metals in selected soils of agricultural importance in the Puna and in the South Hilo districts, island of Hawaii. Barnard, W. M. and J. B. Halbig. Nonresidual (0.5 M HCL-extractable) concentrations of Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn for 36 soils samples from six soil units (five soil series) in the Puna and South Hilo Districts on the Island of Hawaii are tabulated, statistically analyzed and compared among themselves and to previously reported data for other soils on the Island. Loss-on-ignition value for each of the soil samples is also reported. Two of the soil units (Opihikao extremely rocky muck [rOPE] and Malama extremely stony muck [rMAD] are organic soils [rMAD]) are organic soil (dysic, isohyperthermic, Lithic Tropofolists). Two units of the Olaa series (Old and OaC ; thixotropic over fragmental, isohyperthermic, Typic Hydrandepts) were formed form volcanic ash. Hilo silty clay loam (HoC) and Kaiwiki silty clay laom (Kac) were also formed from volcanic ash, and are in the thixotropic isohyperthermic familiteis, frespectively, of Typic Hydradepts. These soil were selected for study because of thier current and emerging importance in the Island's agricultural production. Mertals were extracted form the <2 mm fraction of oven-dried soil by mechanically shaking 20 g soil: 200 mL 0.5 M HCl mixtures for 16 hours. Following filtration, concentrations in the filtrates were determined by direct current plasma emmission spectrometry; from these results, non-resudual concentrations in the soils were calculated. Although the ranges of concentrations of individual metals in paried emmission soil units often overlpap, and exceptions do occur, the following conclusions may be made; (1) the organic soils (rOPE and rMAD) tend to have the least extractable Pb; (2) Olaa (OlD and OaC) soils tend to have the greatest extractable Cd and Ni, and the least Fe; (3) concentrations of extractable Cr, Co, and Mn increase in the order rOPE/rMAD < OlD/OaC < HoC/KaC; (4) ranges of extractable Cu and Zn are widely overlapping for the three pairs of soils; and (5) the organic soils exhibit a wide loss-on-ignition ranged compared to the relatively restricted range exhibited by the soils developed from volcanic ash. Evaluating the germination of primed onion seeds by oxygen uptake measurements Furutani, S. C., B. Zandstra and H. C. Price. Onion seeds were primed in sodium chloride or mannitol solution for 0,2, 4 and 6 days at 10 degrees C and assayed for germination fand respiration rates. Germiniation and respiration rate of seeds increased with increased duration of priming. This report suggests the useage of respiration rate measurements after 2 hours of imbibition as an alternative means for assessing germination performance Back to previous page Back to the Home Page |