Mulches are commonly used to control weeds in container nursery crops, especially in sites where preemergence herbicides are either not labeled or potentially phytotoxic to the crop. Parboiled rice hulls have been shown to provide effective weed control when applied 1.25 to 2.5 cm deep over the container substrate surface. The objective of this research was to determine if weed seed placement, above or below the mulch layer, affects flexuous bittercress or creeping woodsorrel establishment. Seeds of both species were placed either above or below rice hull mulch layers 0, 0.6, 1.3, or 2.5 cm deep in nursery containers with a 80 pine bark: 20 sphagnum peat moss substrate. Establishment of both weeds decreased with increasing mulch depth. Establishment of both species was generally greater from beneath the mulch compared to when seed were applied above the mulch. Light penetration through varying depths of rice hulls was determined with a spectroradiometer. Photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) decreased exponentially with increasing rice hull depth, and was less than 1 µmol•m −2•s −1 beneath depths greater than 1 cm. Germination of both species was determined in Petri dishes placed beneath varying densities of shade cloth. Flexuous bittercress germination responded quadratically to decreasing light level, but still germinated (13%) in complete darkness after 3 weeks. Creeping woodsorrel germination was not affected by light level and was high (92%) after 3 weeks. The role of light exclusion by rice hulls as a mechanism for controlling buried weed seed is discussed. Water retention immediately after irrigation, and for 24 hr following irrigation, was determined for a 2.5 cm layer of rice hulls, sphagnum peat moss, and pine bark. Rice hulls retained less water, and dried more quickly than peat moss or pine bark. The volumetric water content of the rice hull layer is less than 0.20 cm•cm −1 and what has been shown necessary for plant growth. Lack of water availability in the rice hull layer is discussed as the primary mechanism of control of weed seed above the mulch layer.How to cite this paper: Altland, J.E., Boldt,

Use of preemergence herbicides for weed control is not always possible; some crops and many enclosed production sites are not labeled for herbicide applications. The objective of this research was to determine the utility of parboiled rice hull mulch for controlling two of the most common weeds in nursery crop production, flexuous bittercress (Cardamine flexuosa With.) and liverwort (Marchantia polymorpha L.). Two experiments were conducted to determine control of flexuous bittercress and liverwort with 0, 0.6, 1.3, or 2.5 cm (0, 0.25, 0.5, or 1.0 in) depths of rice hull mulch applied to the surface of 15 cm (6 in) diameter pots on a greenhouse bench. In both experiments, one group of containers were potted each with a single rose (Rosa ‘Radrazz’) and another group was not potted (only substrate and rice hull mulch). Flexuous bittercress seed and liverwort gemmae were applied to the surface of the substrate or mulch. Rose response and weed growth were monitored for 8 weeks in both experiments. Substrate pH, rose foliar color, and rose growth were not affected in either experiment. Flexuous bittercress and liverwort establishment and subsequent growth decreased with increasing rice hull depth. Containers with either a 1.3 or 2.5 cm (0.5 or 1.0 in) depth of rice hulls provided nearly 100% weed control. Rice hulls provided effective bittercress and liverwort control for 8 weeks with no adverse effects on roses.

Quinoclamine is used in Europe, and was under evaluation in the Unites States for the control of liverwort in nursery crops. Liverwort is a nonvascular, chlorophyll-containing plant that can be problematic in greenhouse and nursery crops. POST-applied quinoclamine controls liverwort. However, liverwort structures vary in their sensitivity to POST-applied quinoclamine. Specifically, archegonial receptacles (female) are much more tolerant of quinoclamine than either antheridial receptacles (male) or thalli (leaflike structures). A series of studies were conducted to, first, document the degree of differential sensitivity between tissues to quinoclamine, and second, to determine the basis of this differential sensitivity. The dose that results in 50% of the population being controlled (I50) of antheridial receptacles and juvenile thalli were estimated to be 1.60 and 1.27 kg·ha−1, respectively. TheI50of archegonial receptacles could not be estimated, but exceeded 10.45 kg·ha−1. Chlorophyll content varied between liverwort tissues, but the content did not correlate to quinoclamine sensitivity. Absorption of14C after application of radiolabeled quinoclamine was less in archegonial receptacles than in either antheridial receptacles or thalli. Scanning electron microscopy of the surface of the liverwort tissues revealed that archegonial receptacles had smaller pores (equivalent to stomata in higher plants) than either antheridial receptacles or thalli. The tolerance of archegonial receptacles to quinoclamine can be partially, but not exclusively, attributed to reduced absorption. This reduced absorption may be attributed to the limited pore size and less total pore area of the archegonial receptacles.

Pelargonium was a priority genera collected by the Ornamental Plant Germplasm Center (OPGC) until a recent reorganization. To preserve genetic diversity for future breeders, OPGC collects heirloom cultivars, breeding lines, and wild species. The current Pelargonium collection at OPGC consists primarily of cultivars originating from P. ×hortorum and P. ×domesticum. Target region amplification polymorphism (TRAP) has the advantage of producing a large number of markers through use of sequence information that is already available. Our first goal was to determine the feasibility of TRAP for the analysis of this large collection, so that in the future the most diverse genotypes may be retained. To achieve this goal, we first modified existing DNA extraction techniques to account for the high levels of phenolic compounds present in some Pelargonium species by combining several washes to remove the phenolics with the addition of high levels of antiphenolic compounds. Second, we evaluated the TRAP procedure using the DNA isolated from 46 accessions. For 44 accessions, one or two primer combinations generated enough fragments to discriminate each of the accessions, and similar clades were produced by cluster analysis of the polymorphic fragments amplified by different primer combinations. All the scorable fragments were polymorphic, for one primer combination there were 148 markers from one image and the other produced 160 markers on two images. These results demonstrate that TRAP is an effective method for molecular characterization of ornamental collections.

The Ornamental Plant Germplasm Center (OPGC) maintains a collection of herbaceous ornamental plants in order to protect future breeders from a loss of genetic diversity. The current Pelargonium collection includes ≈870 accessions. Our preliminary studies showed that TRAP (Target Region Amplified Polymorphism) has promise for analyzing the variation in our collection, and so we have expanded the study to analyze the entire Pelargonium collection. We have used the same primers for this screening of the Pelargonium collection as were used on sunflowers, and TRAP results run on a sequencing gel showed 90–150 bands that segregate the population into groups of similar accessions. In order to facilitate analysis of OPGC's large population, we have converted the method to a high throughput technique that efficiently analyzed the entire population. We used a 96-well DNA extraction kit from Qiagen that produced high quality DNA in spite of the high phenol levels in some Pelargonium species. Also, the use of labeled primers allowed analysis of the gels to be aided by a computer. These results produce a categorization of the collection that, combined with morphology and taxonomy, will form the basis for future studies that will use target genes specific to Pelargonium.