Many studies have shown that water potential at planting will affect germination rate and final germination. Much less is known, however, about the effects of different temperatures at planting on seed germination. Our objectives were to compare the influence of different temperatures on the germination percentage and germination rate index of 20 forage legumes. Legume seedlings were grown for 10 d in polyethylene growth pouches placed in germination chambers and held in the dark at constant temperatures of 10, 15, 20, 25, or 30 °C. There were major effects of temperature on germination rate and germination percentage for all 20 legume entries. If we define satisfactory germination as 80% germination at 10 d after planting, 18 of the 20 entries had satisfactory germination at some temperature between 10 and 30 °C. There were no significant effects of temperatures between 10 and 30 °C on germination percentage at 10 d for ‘Arlington’ red clover (Trifolium pratense L.) and ‘Maxidor’ alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) entries. Since temperature had a strong influence on germination, seeding time for some legumes should be selected to match expected temperatures for particular locations.

Legumes with roots that elongate rapidly over a wide temperature range should have improved seedling establishment semiarid regions. We determined effects of 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 °C temperature on main axis and lateral root growth of 12 forage legumes in germination chambers. Legumes differed (P < 0.05) in both main axis root length and lateral root development over temperatures and there were significant (P ° 0.05) entry by temperature interactions. There were significant positive non‐linear correlations with (R2,) of 0.72, 0.68 and 0.76 at 15, 20 and 25 °C temperatures, respectively, between seed weight and main axis root elongation.

Objectives of this research were to (i) develop statistical models for predicting water content at three matric potentials, using three levels of input data; (ii) compare predictive capability of the locally calibrated models with those of three published models; and (iii) illustrate the changes that occur in water retention when texture of sandy soils is altered by deep plowing or wind erosion. At −10 kPa, accuracy of predicting gravimetric water contents increased with increased number of inputs. The R2s and the slopes between predicted and measured water contents for 50 samples increased, and the intercepts came closer to zero as the inputs progress from clay only to soil texture plus organic matter and CaCO3 and on to sand separates plus texture, organic matter, and CaCO3. At the −33‐ and −1500‐kPa matric potentials, the clay‐only model predicted soil‐water content equally as well as the two local models with more inputs. A previously published clay‐only model that had been calibrated using semiarid soils performed almost as well as the locally calibrated models. Two other published models performed unsatis‐factorily in predicting water retention at any of the matric potentials. Deep plowing increased clay content of one specific soil from 4 to 14%. Wind erosion subsequently reduced clay to 6% after 5 yr. Predicted water contents were 0.281, 0.341, and 0.293 kg kg−1, respectively, at −10 kPa, and 0.012, 0.050, and 0.020 kg kg−1, respectively, at −1500 kPa.

Because rooting characteristics are difficult to investigate, little research has been done on the root development of legume seedlings. Both the growth pouch and slant tube methods may provide rapid and relatively inexpensive methods for investigating seedling root development. Our objective was to determine the relationship between rooting depths of forage legumes grown in growth pouches and slant tubes with rooting depths in the field. Forage legumes were grown in slant tubes in the greenhouse and in growth pouches held in the dark at constant temperatures ranging from 10 to 30 °C and compared with rooting depths of the same legumes grown in the field. At 10 d after planting (DAP), root length in pouches for 20 and 25 °C were correlated (P < 0.01) with rooting depth (r2 = 8.87) in the field at 32 DAP. Root lengths in slant tubes at 14, 18, and 25 DAP were correlated (P < 0.01) with field rooting depth at 32 DAP and r2s were 0.69, 0.71, and 0.62, respectively. Thus, both growth pouches and slant tubes appear useful for screening rooting characteristics of forage legume seedlings.

Two muskmelon (Cucumis melo L.) cultivars, Mission and Laguna, were direct-seeded in spring plantings separated by 30 days at the TAES farm in Weslaco. Females were tagged each morning for 8 consecutive days beginning on the first day of flowering and evaluated for fruit set 15 to 20 days later. Mean numbers of flowers and fruits produced on individual plants were compared across cultivars and planting dates. The flowering patterns appear to be bimodal with the majority of blooms occurring during the first 5 days followed by a sharp decline on day 6 and gradual increase, thereafter. The majority of the fruit is set during the first 5 days of flowering and failed to increase with the subsequent rise in flowering. Mission produced approximately 30% more female flowers per plant than Laguna; however, fruit numbers were the same for both cultivars. The environmental conditions associated with earlier plantings suppressed flowering in Laguna but had no effect on the daily rate of fruit-set. Fertilization and fruit set appear to be relatively unaffected by the population dynamics of female flowering.