Powered by Blogger.

How mustard seed meals can be used to kill weeds

New studies have suggested that that sinalbin and other compounds released into soil by applications of white mustard seed meals can kill or suppress certain weedy grasses and annual broadleaf weeds.

Sinalbin is the same compound that gives white mustard its pungent flavor.

The studies, by Agricultural Research Service (ARS), suggest that sinalbin and other compounds released into soil by applications of white mustard seed meals can kill or suppress certain weedy grasses and annual broadleaf weeds.

Agronomist Rick Boydston, with the ARS Vegetable and Forage Crops Research Unit in Prosser, Washington, is conducting the studies with plant physiologist Steven Vaughn, at the ARS National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research in Peoria.

They evaluated the effects of three mustard seed application rates: half a ton, one ton and two tons per acre.

Of the three, the one-ton and two-ton rates worked best in peppermint, reducing barnyard grass, green foxtail, common lambsquarters, henbit and redroot pigweed populations by 90 percent several weeks after application.

Although young peppermint plants sustained minor damage from the treatment early on, they recovered and resumed their normal growth.

In trials with potted rose, phlox, coreopsis and pasque flower, the treatment killed or reduced the growth of annual bluegrass, common chickweed, creeping woodsorrel and liverwort.

In treated plots, 86 to 98 percent of common chickweed seedlings died; those that survived were shorter and weighed less than treatment-free chickweed seedlings.

Besides white mustard, the researchers also evaluated the weed-control effects of field pennycress seed meal and dried distiller grains (DDGs), derived from corn ethanol production.

Like white mustard, field pennycress also has potential as a biodiesel crop.

The aim of the research is three-fold: provide organic farmers with an alternative to hand-pulling, burning and other laborious methods of weed control in specialty crops including peppermint and potted ornamentals; develop value-added uses for seed meal, should mustards prove useful in making biodiesel; and diminish environmental risks possibly resulting from conventional herbicide use. (ANI)

Recession specials

If there's one, defining lifestyle change in urban India this last decade, it's the birth of the Indian foodie: someone who spends a sizeable portion of his income to satisfy a newly developed, but highly adventurous palate. Of late, novelty has become the most important flavour. In a decade of almost 8 per cent annual economic growth with India's young professionals confidently splurging on having fun, there's been an explosion in the number of stand-alone, fine dining restaurants in Mumbai, Goa, Delhi and Bangalore where a meal for two usually costs upwards of Rs 5000 with taxes. Food is huge business. In Delhi and NCR itself over a hundred restaurants opened in 2008, serving cuisines from far-flung areas of the world - Brazil, Mexico and Chile among them. But is the big-city consumer as willing to embark on expensive gastronomic adventures in tough economic times?

Since liberalisation, a daring new breed of Indian restaurateurs has come up, who have successfully kept pace with global trends in cuisine and fine dining. Innovations at every level of eating out have been interesting: the small plate concept, for example, where you sample smaller portions of a variety of different cuisines was a hit in Delhi. Several food courts in malls started loyalty cards. A bar in Gurgaon copied the Thailand model: of marking your bottle of whisky which you can come back and claim anytime. Sushi has become a household word. Happy Hours (half rate) ensured a crowd even at 4 in the afternoon. Till recently, the wackier the place, the snootier the restaurant, the better. It seemed like everything worked: eateries where the venue was shaped like a ship or a lounge bar, where you had to recline on a white bed and gaze at an aquarium with only white fish did just fine, despite their lousy food. There was enough business to go around, and a merry sentiment that convinced new entrepreneurs to enter this highly volatile business. Not anymore.

Gimmicks and contrived menus no longer fool the jaded consumer who's well travelled and on a diet of Nigella Lawson and Jamie Olivier anyway. These days the chances are when you ask someone where they had their last best meal, they're likely to recall a restaurant which combined fine dining with value for money. Since 2004, the 200 per cent growth rate of restaurants has been nothing short of phenomenal, but in the coming year, it certainly looks like the party's close to over. A cursory visit to a well-located mall on a Saturday night at 8, that houses two of Delhi's most exclusive restaurants serving European and Japanese food, revealed open tables and empty seats. At one of them, the hostess and other staff, impeccably attired in black, have always maintained an expression of cold aloofness with guests in an attempt to highlight how coveted reservations at their place are. They now greet the rare client with a beaming smile. Given absurd rents, high overheads and diners who haven't been stepping out because of terrorist attacks and financial issues, most stand-alone restaurants cannot survive this economic slump - unless they slash rates and give in to the worst scenario in the restaurant trade: private parties. And alas, with corporates' cutting back, and walk-in customers drying up, more and more places where you couldn't get a table on a Thursday night six months ago, are turning into banqueting halls even at weekends.

Even in good times, fine dining restaurants have a high failure rate and a honeymoon period that lasts, if you're lucky, six months. Like the movie business, diners remain wholly unimpressed by names (that explains the disaster that is Tendulkar's in Mumbai) and why Bukhara remains the leading Indian restaurant, focused as it is solely on food almost to the exclusion of everything else. Sporting events like the IPL and the World Cup help during lean months, but unlike restaurants in hotels, which work on a combination of in-house guests and outsiders, restaurateurs are entirely dependant on word-of-mouth recommendations. They also need to spend a lot on publicity to stay in the limelight and draw in the clients. Hotels, also hit by the slowdown, still have high occupancy thanks to an alarmingly low number of branded rooms available that ultimately translates into business for their cafes. A lot of the restaurants that fold up in 2009 won't be missed. The ones that added to India's gourmet map, making Delhi and Mumbai truly international hubs, those with jazz singers from Cuba and the best DJs from England, will. yahooindia

S. Africa says that it has Haydos 'strangled'

South Africa's bowlers have a suffocation plan in place that has helped them to dismiss Australian opener Matthew Hayden in the Sydney cricket Test.

Hayden is almost certainly playing his last Test after scratching his way to 31 in almost three hours of painstaking batting at the SCG.

South African bowling coach Vinnie Barnes revealed the Proteas bowlers had a plan to frustrate the struggling opener into playing rash shots.

South Africa has bowled wide of the wicket to Hayden and deployed a barrage of off-side fielders, including short covers, to frustrate the 37-year-old.

"We are trying to just block the runs and it's working," Barnes said, adding "We have put fielders in positions that we felt were the areas he was looking to score."

Hayden never looked like the batting bruiser of old as he eked out his runs off 78 deliveries yesterday, finally dragging a Dale Steyn delivery on to his stumps to end the agony.

Simon Katich, who opened the batting with Hayden, insists that Hayden is simply trying to spend time in the middle to bust through his batting doldrums.

Hayden's wife, Kellie said: "Matthew's way is to give his best every time. Nothing changes there."

Hayden has amassed 8555 Test runs at an average of over 50, and his 30 Test centuries have been surpassed by only two Australians, Ricky Ponting and Steve Waugh.

But he has struggled for runs since an achilles injury sent him home from the West Indies in 2008. (ANI) yahoo india

Total Pageviews