Untitled Flashcards Set

Lecture 10: Production of Vegetables  What is Olericulture? 

What are the two main types of vegetable products sold?

 How are most types of vegetables categorized?

 Botanically, what is a vegetable and how is it different from a fruit? 

What are the growing requirements of warm-season vegetables, and what are some examples? What happens if you grow warm-season vegetables too cold? 

What are the growing requirements of cool-season vegetables, and what are some examples? What happens if you grow cool-season vegetables too hot?

 What is the difference between freezing injury and chilling injury?

 What are the main types of vegetable production systems and advantages/disadvantages of each? 

What are the requirements for an organic production system? Can organic growers use pesticides? GMOs? 

When selecting a variety of vegetable, understand the factors/characteristics to consider relating to climate, crop scheduling, the buyer/processor/customer base, disease resistance.

 What are the differences between determinate and indeterminate tomatoes? Why might you want to use one vs the other? 

What are the advantages of mulch?

 What are the advantages/disadvantages of sowing seeds vs. seedlings.

 What is the purpose of blanching in the field? What kind of crops are blanched? 

What are some causes of poor pollination? What can be done to aid pollination?

 Why might too much nitrogen fertilizer be bad for growing fruiting vegetables?  What takes the most water to produce the same weight of crop: fruits, vegetables, or nuts?

 What are some problems that can occur with irregular or excessive watering in vegetables? Lecture 11: Production of Fruit

 What is Pomology?

 What are the two main types of fruit products sold? 

Even though many vegetables are botanically actually fruit, what is the main difference between what the grocery store considers a fruit vs a vegetable? 

What fruits is Michigan known for? 

What are some of the production challenges of growing fruit? 

\Give an example of a nonhardy/annual fruit vs a hardy fruit. 

When selecting a variety of fruit, understand the factors/characteristics to consider relating to climate, maturity period, the buyer/processor/customer base, disease resistance. 

How would a fruit grower avoid disease in their crop (in terms of variety selection)?  What is grafting? What is the scion, rootstock, graft union, interstock? 

What are the three main sizes of fruit trees and the advantages/disadvantages of each?  What are two ways to grow a fruit tree that stays small/short?

 Why is site selection so important for fruit production (and more-so than vegetable production)? 

What is the Lake Effect and how does it help fruit growers in Michigan? 

When is the best time to plant a fruit tree? 

Why are almost all fruit/nut trees clones? 

Why are some fruit and nut trees incapable of self-pollination? What can fruit growers do to aid in pollination? 

What is dioecious vs monoecious? Most nut trees fall into which category? 

If an apple flower is successfully fertilized with pollen from different apple variety, why are the resulting fruit hybrid? What would happen if you planted the seed from the fruit resulting from the above-mentioned cross? 

What are many fruit trees biennial- or alternate-bearing? 

For long-term viability of a fruit orchard, what must a grower do periodically?  What are small fruits? Give some examples. 

Know and understand the differences between the various categories of strawberries. 

Know and understand the differences between the various categories of raspberries.

 What is a polyploid? Are they always sterile? Give an example of a polyploid fruit.

 How would you induce polyploidy?

 In basic terms, how was the seedless watermelon created? Lecture 12: Production of Nursery and Field Grown Ornamentals

 What type of plants are produced in most nurseries?

 What are the differences between propagators, finishers, and retail/wholesale nurseries?

 What is the difference between a liner and a plug?

 What are the two main types of nursery production systems? Which one is most common? What are advantages/disadvantages of each? 

What is pot-in-pot production? What are the advantages? Do they need as much winter protection as containers above-ground?

How is a bare-root tree or shrub processed for sale? What are advantages/disadvantages? 

How is a balled-and-burlapped (B&B) tree or shrub processed for sale? What are advantages/disadvantages? 

What is the most important part of a nursery crop to protect during winter? The roots or the shoots?

 What are methods for protecting nursery crops during winter?

 What makes potting media for nursery crops different from most standard potting mixes? 

Why might you want to prune or train a nursery crop? 

What are some important considerations when planting a tree or shrub?Lecture 13: Guest Speaker, Dr. Ryan Warner on Plant Breeding and Creating New Hybrids

 Why are new plant varieties constantly being created? What are the main goals?

 What are the basics of creating new varieties from controlled crosses? Open pollination? Embryo rescue? Mutation breeding? Induced polyploidy?

 How do you prevent self-pollination when doing a controlled cross? At what point of flower development must this happen? 

What is a hybrid? What are the differences between intraspecific, interspecific, intergeneric hybrids 

What is meant by F1 hybrid? What are the advantages of F1 hybrids? 

What happens if you save and grow seed created from and F1 hybrid? What happens in the F2 generation? 

What are positive characteristics of varieties created by inducing polyploidy? Negative characteristics? Lecture 14: Plant Breeding and Hort Controversies, part 2 

What are some of the major controversies surrounding plant breeding? 

What is self-pollination? Cross-pollination? Pure-line selection? Mass selection? 

What are the major goals for breeding new food crops? Ornamental crops? 

What is outcrossing? Inbreeding? 

Be able to provide some examples of common hybrid fruits and vegetables 

What is a transgenic organism (also called genetically modified organism)? 

Why does the creation of transgenic organisms provide opportunities that traditional breeding cannot (both for the breeder and the consumer)? 

The majority of GMO plants fall into which category: commodity crops, horticulture food crops, or ornamental crops? 

Be prepared to provide your opinion on whether or not GMOs should be used/allowed, and back up your opinion with reasons/examples. There is no correct answer. 

Provide some examples of common GMO crops that you could encounter in the grocery store. Why were they created?

 What is greenwashing? 

What is a patent? A trademark? 

What is appropriation and biopiracy, in terms of horticulture? Lecture 15: Floriculture

 What is floriculture and what types of plants are floriculture crops? 

In what kind of facility are most floriculture crops grown? 

In Michigan, what is the peak sales period for floriculture crops? When is the peak production time? 

What is the difference between cool-season, warm-season, and tropical floriculture crops? Be able to give some examples of each. 

Why are plastic containers used for most floriculture production? 

Why is peat moss not sustainable long term? What are some alternative options for potting media?
 What are the advantages and disadvantages of growing in a greenhouse environment?

 Understand the basics of various types of greenhouse technology

 What is sticking? What is patching? Lecture 16: Specialty Production Systems

 What four specialty production systems did we discuss?

 What is the main difference between hydroponic production and other types of horticulture production?

 What is a closed hydroponic system? An open hydroponic system? 

What are the main differences between solution culture and substrate culture? 

In solution culture, what is the difference between static solution, continuous flow solution, and aeroponic techniques? 

In substrate culture, what type of substrates are used? 

Are most cut flowers sold in the United States, produced in the United States?  Why are locally grown flowers becoming more popular? 

What are some plant characteristics that are emphasized in cut flower production?

 What are some of the special growing and postharvest considerations for cut flowers?

 Be able to provide at least two marketing avenues for a cut flower grower.

 What is conventional production/conventional farming and how does it differ from organic production?

 What are the goals of organic farming systems?

 What are the main requirements for organic certification?

 How is soil fertility maintained in organic farming systems? What about pest control?  Can organic farmers use pesticides? If so, which kinds of pesticides?

 Can organic farmers use GMOs? Non-organic seeds? 

What is the main difference between, for example, a cut flower farm vs a farm producing seeds?

 How would you ensure that your seed production system does not get contaminated with foreign pollen?

 Do all plants produce seed the first year?

 What are the four main types of seeds and how are they different from one another?  Are all heirloom seeds open-pollinated? Are all open-pollinated seeds heirlooms?

 How are hybrid seeds produced? 

What are advantages of growing crops from hybrid seeds? 

Can you save and sow seeds from hybrid plants? (Hint: the answer is yes, but what would happen if you planted them?) 

What types of plants are considered houseplants? 

Where in the United States are most houseplants produced and why?

 What are some of the scientifically proven benefits of houseplants? 

Understand the basic differences between foliage plants, tropicals, cacti, orchid cacti, succulents, bromeliads, ferns, orchids 

Why are some houseplants grown via tissue culture? 

What is interiorscaping? Plantscaping? 

What indoor environmental conditions should be considered when planning an interiorscape? 

How might maintenance, safety, or security be issues in an interiorscape? 

Lecture 17: Pruning and Training 

What are pruning and training? What are the main differences? 

What are the main reasons we prune plants?

 What are the main reasons we train plants? 

Be able to provide examples of why we would prune for: o Safety o Appearance o Yield o Plant Health

 What are suckers? Water sprouts?

 What is dormant pruning vs summer pruning? What are positives and negatives of each? 

What is a leader? A codominant leader? 

What is a branch removal cut? A reduction cut? A heading cut? A stub cut? A topping cut? In what situation would you use each type of cut? 

What is pollarding? What is coppicing? Why, historically, were these types of pruning done? What are the similarities and differences?

 During the first 5 years after planting a tree, how should the tree be pruned? 

What are the most common types of training supports? 

What is espalier? What are the advantages? 

What is scoring and why is it done? 

What is hand thinning? Chemical thinning? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?