The management of soil chemical properties is very important to sustainable agriculture of many horticultural crops, including cucumber. This study was conducted to find the optimal soil properties of environmentally friendly agriculture in controlled horticulture.

BACKGROUND: Generally, nitrogen (N) fertilization higher than the recommended dose is applied during vegetable cultivation to increase productivity. But higher N fertilization also increases the concentrations of nitrate ions and nitrous oxide in soil. In this experiment, the impact of N fertilization was studied on nitrous oxide (N 2 O) emission to standardize the optimum fertilization level for minimizing N 2 O emission as well as increasing crop productivity. Herein, we developed N 2 O emission inventory for upland soil region during red pepper and Chinese milk vetch cultivation. METHODS AND RESULTS: Nitrogen fertilizers were applied at different rates to study their effect on N 2 O emission during red pepper and Chinese milk vetch cultivation. The gas samples were collected by static closed chamber method and N 2 O concentration was measured by gas chromatography. The total N 2 O flux was steadily increased due to increasing N fertilization level, though the overall pattern of N 2 O emission dynamics was same. Application of N fertilization higher than the recommended dose increased the values of both seasonal N 2 O flux (94.5% for Chinese cabbage and 30.7% for red pepper) and N 2 O emission per unit crop yield (77.9% for Chinese cabbage and 23.2% for red pepper). Nitrous oxide inventory revealed that the N 2 O emission due to unit amount of N application from short-duration vegetable field in fall (autumn) season (6.36 kg/ ha) was almost 70% higher than that during summer season. CONCLUSION: Application of excess N-fertilizers increased seasonal N 2 O flux especially the N 2 O flux per unit yield during both Chinese cabbage and red pepper cultivation. This suggested that the higher N fertilization than the recommended dose actually facilitates N 2 O emission than boosting plant productivity. The N 2 O inventory for upland farming in temperate region like Korea revealed that N 2 O flux due to unit amount of N-fertilizer application for Chinese cabbage in fall (autumn) season was comparatively higher than that of summer vegetables like red pepper. Therefore, the judicious N fertilization following recommended dose is required to suppress N 2 O emission with high vegetable productivity in upland soils.

: This study was analyzed and investigated to evaluate ecological distribution of medicinal plants in Miho Stream of Korea. Totality 463 taxa of vascular plants were appeared in lower part of Miho Stream. Medicinal plants were distributed 253 taxa, which were 54.6% of the total vascular plants appeared. Medicinal plants of official drug compendium(Korean pharmacopoeia) were 85 taxa. Medicinal plants were distributed most of the forest area, and followed field surrounding, stream surrounding and paddy surrounding respectively. The distribution of life form hemicryptophyte was the most frequent. Plant community of appearing area of medicinal plants was classified into Salix

Open AccessRes. Plant Dis. 22 (1) In early June 2014, leaf spot symptoms were observed on black chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa) in Yesan-gun and Geumsan-gun, Chungcheongnam-do in Korea. The initial symptoms on leave surfaces were brown small-circular spots with a yellow halo lesion, and gradually the small spots were fused, all of infected leaves dropped eventually. A fungus were isolated from the initial lesion, and cultured on potato dextrose agar. Colony color on upper surface of plate varied from olive gray to charcoal gray. Size of conidia mostly extend to 19-50×5-9 µm in nature and 20-59×8-13 µm in culture, with 3-8 transverse septa and usually no longitudinal septum or only 1 longitudinal septum in 1-3 of the transverse compartments, and also have a short or long beak. Pathogenicity was investigated using wounded or unwounded black chokeberry and apple leaves. After 7 days of inoculation, leaf spots were similar to the symptoms naturally occurred in the field. On the basis of mycological characteristics, pathogenicity, and ITS rDNA sequence analysis, this fungus was identified as Alternaria mali. This is the first report of Alternaria leaf spot on black chokeberry caused by A. mali in Korea.

Generally, nitrogen (N) fertilization higher than the recommended dose is applied during vegetable cultivation for increasing in productivity. However, excessive N application rate beyond plant requirement could cause adverse environmental impact such as nitrate leaching and nitrous oxide emission. In this experiment, the impacts of N fertilization was studied on nitrous oxide (