The destruction of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) is critical to ensure effective remediation of PFAS contaminated matrices. The destruction of hazardous chemicals within incinerators and other thermal treatment processes has historically been determined by calculating the destruction efficiency (DE) or the destruction and removal efficiency (DRE). While high DEs, >99.99%, are deemed acceptable for most hazardous compounds, many PFAS can be converted to other PFAS at low temperatures resulting in high DEs without full mineralization and the potential release of the remaining fluorocarbon portions to the environment. Many of these products of incomplete combustion (PICs) are greenhouse gases, most have unknown toxicity, and some can react to create new perfluorocarboxylic acids. Experiments using aqueous film forming foam (AFFF) and a pilot-scale research combustor varied the combustion environment to determine if DEs indicate PFAS mineralization. Several operating conditions above 1090 °C resulted in high DEs and few detectable fluorinated PIC emissions. However, several conditions below 1000 °C produced DEs > 99.99% for the quantifiable PFAS and mg/m3 emission concentrations of several nonpolar PFAS PICs. These results suggest that DE alone may not be the best indication of total PFAS destruction, and additional PIC characterization may be warranted.

Long days are known to hasten flowering of Petunia hybrida. However, breeding of modern standard-type petunia cultivars has reduced this response. With the introduction of new genetics involved in the creation of trailing-type petunias, many cultivars have been observed to have a strong photoperiodic response to the point that it is an issue for late winter or early spring flowering cropping cycles. In order to characterize this photoperiodic response in modern seed-grown trailing-type petunia cultivars, seed of 51 cultivars of trailing petunias (Petunia hybrida) were sown in November in 288 plug trays. When established about 4 weeks later, uniform plants were selected and transplanted individually to 15-cm pots. Plants were exposed to either natural days or a 4-hour night interruption using incandescent light from 2200 to 0200 HR each day until flowering. A minimum night temperature of 17 °C was maintained. Days to first flower from sowing ranged from 72 to 117 days. Generally, the night interruption treatment hastened flowering. However, the degree of hastening ranged from 4 and 5 days for `Ramblin' Burgundy Chrome' and `Ramblin' Lilac Glo', respectively, to 27 and 32 days for `Tidal Wave Cherry' and `Tidal Wave Hot Pink', respectively. Effects of night interruption treatment on plant architecture will also be presented.

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A strain of Rhizoctonia solani was isolated from wax begonia (Begonia Semperflorens-Cultorum hybrids) plants in garden evaluation trial plots. This strain was then used to test for disease tolerance in a controlled environment experiment. Inoculated plants of 12 cultivars were evaluated for disease development and the area under the disease progress curve was calculated. No plants were disease free, but `Stara White', `Stara Pink', and three colors from the Party series exhibited greater disease tolerance than `Ambassador Coral', `Ambassador Deep Rose', and two experimental varieties. `Stara White', `Party Pink Bronze Leaf', and `Party White Bronze Leaf' were more tolerant than `Cocktail Vodka', an industry standard. When the same cultivars were grown in field garden evaluation plots, `Cocktail Vodka', four colors from the Stara series, and three colors from the Party series exhibited superior garden performance and flowering ratings to `Ambassador Coral' and an experimental `Rose' cultivar. For most cultivars, garden performance was correlated to disease tolerance. However, `Cocktail Vodka' exhibited good garden performance despite having a high level of disease in the inoculation experiment, indicating that other factors may be involved in determining garden performance.