• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.166-172
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• 2019

BACKGROUND: Increase in the ratio of small berries in blueberry production decreases the farmers' profits due to weakening market competitiveness and lowering harvest efficiency. One of the reasons for increased small berries is over fruit-load. For improving productivity and competitiveness of blueberry in Korea, hand-thinning can be applied to increase fruit quality before the developing adequate chemical thinning methods. This study was conducted to investigate the proper timing and methods for floral buds thinning in rabbiteye blueberry. METHODS AND RESULTS: Eight years old bushes of rabbiteye bluberries 'Brightwell' as a primary cultivar and 'Powderblue' as a pollinizer were used for this study. Fruit size distribution by leaf-to-fruit ratio was investigated by counting the number of leaves and fruits in canes of 127 'Brightwell' plants whose fruit set varied. Fifty percent of flowers/floral buds were removed in four different floral buds stages such as bud swell, late pink bud, full bloom, and petal fall, and the consumed time for thinning and fruit characteristics were recorded to investigate the effect and proper timing of floral buds thinning. Fruit weight and soluble solids content tended to increase in proportion to leaf-to-fruit ratio and the production of the number of fruits less than 13 mm in diameter decreased when leaf-to-fruit ratio was more than 2.5. Manual floral buds thinning by hands was fastest in full bloom stage and slowest in bud swelling stage. In all cultivars, fruit size was significantly smaller in non-thinning treatment than thinning, and there was, however, no significant difference in total fruit yield. The number of fruits less than 13 mm in diameter increased in both cultivars as floral buds thinning was delayed. Consumed time for picking 90% berries out of total berries per bush was shortest in full bloom stage thinning in 'Brightwell' and bud swelling, full bloom thinning in 'Powderblue'. These were 25 and 20 days faster than no thinning, respectively. CONCLUSION: Although the effect of floral buds thinning varied depending on the cultivars, our results confirmed that floral buds thinning was effective for the early intensive harvesting and the increase of the large fruit ratio and the harvesting productivity. Also, in order to increase thinning efficiency, it is recommended to remove the flower buds before the full bloom stage.

• Korean Journal of Weed Science
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.88-99
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• 1996

In recent years dry direct-seeding of rice has been encouraged by the government and increasingly practiced by farmers in Korea. This has been bringing up an increased occurrence of weedy rites. Some farmers in the southern region dare to sow the rice before winter after harvest, while most farmers wish to sow as early as possible in the spring to secure the growing period, and to disperse the intensive labor in early May. The purpose of this study was to determine the feasibility of moving the sowing of rice to an earlier date under dry direct-seeding, and to elucidate the nature of emergence of an old strain of rice, weedy rites, and barnyardgrasses tinder this farming practice and their adaptive competence over present cultivate. The presently recommended rice cultivar, Dongjinbyo and an old rice strain, Dadajo which prevailed in early 1900s, almost could not emerge from soil deeper than 6cm and could emerge to only 5.3% at best from 1cm deep loamy soil field when the seeds were sown on Nov. 28. However, two strains of weedy rites being weedy for over 200 years emerged by 17.0 to 63.0% from the loamy and sandy clay loam field 1 to 6cm deep. Emergence of the weedy rites was greater in the loamy soil and at a shallow depth, and negligible from the soil depth of 9cm. Barnyardgrasses sown on Nov. 28 emerged by 13.4 to 51 % from the 1 to 3cm deep loamy soil, and 8.6 to 46.7% from the 1cm deep sandy clay loam. Echinochloa crus-galli var. crus-galli emerged more than var. praticola, and var. oryzicola least. Most of the non-emerged barnyardgrasses seem to have entered secondary dormancy. Seeding rice a month earlier than the season lowered the emergence of Dongjinbyo by ca. 10, 18, and 26%, respectively at 1, 3, and 6cm soil depths, indicating that moving the seeding date a month earlier is impractical. The old strain, Dadajo sown in the soil at a depth of 6cm responded similarly. However, the strain has shown a significantly higher ability in emergence from 9cm deep soil. Weedy rices sown a month earlier A month earlier sown weedy rices have shown very similar emergence rates at various soil depths to those sown on May 1. Barnyardgrasses have also shown similar emergence rates when sown between April 3 and May 1. Like barnyardgrasses, the old strain and weedy rices apparantly posessed a greater adaptability to emerge under lower temperatures, and from deeper soil ; Dongjinbyo${\leq}$ Echinochloa species in that order. However, emergence- speed under lower temperature(sown on April 3) was faster in the order of weedy rice