Interaction of air and root temperatures on shoot growth, flower cluster development, and berry growth in potted‘Muscat of Alexandria’vines was investigated.
Root temperature was maintained at 20, 25, and 30°C with ambient temperatures of 20, 25, and 30°C throughout the growth stage from bursting to setting. Irrespective of root temperature higher air temperature resulted in vigorous growth of both shoots and flower clusters in the early stage. However, the shoots of vines kept at 30°C air temperature stopped their elongation even at the early stage and resulted in short shoot length at the end of treatments in any root temperature. When air temperature was kept at 20 or 30°C, higher root temperature resulted in vigorous development of flower clusters, but there was little difference among root temperatures at 25°C air temperature. Irrespective of root temperature the berries at harvest were larger at 20°C than at 30°C of air temperature, although higher air temperature resulted in larger berries at the end of treatments. At 30°C air temperature the longitudinal growth of berries was markedly depressed at any root temperature, so that the berry shape at harvest was spherical.
Throughout the growth stage from setting to veraison root temperature was maintained at 18, 25, and 32°C with ambient temperatures of 20, 25, and 30°C. At any air temperature leaf area on main and lateral shoots was the smallest at 18°C root temperature, and was also smaller at 30°C than at 20°C of air temperature in any root temperature. At 25° and 30°C of air temperature higher root temperature resulted in larger number of new roots, whereas at 20°C air temperature differences among root temperatures were slight. Regardless of root temperature, enlargement of berries in the early stage was the most vigorous at 30°C air temperature. However, at 30°C air temperature the berries at harvest were small in size and spherical in shape, because the berry growth was markedly depressed at the later stage, especially in the longitudinal growth.

抄録全体を表示

The human waste was used as the manure formerly, and the silicate in the soil composes the skelton of diatoms. It is presumed that multiplication of diatoms is activated by human waste as a nutrient and the soil. In this study, the effects of the human waste and various soils on multiplication of diatoms were investigated.
Diatoms in the seawater was multiplied by the addition of the human waste. After 15 days, multiplication rate increased depending on the concentration of the waste. Diatoms in the seawater containing the human waste was multiplied by the addition of sodium silicate. The multiplication ratio of diatoms was the highest when sodium silicate of 8 SiO₂ mg/l was added. When various soils were added into the seawater containing the human waste, green algae and rotifers multiplied markedly in comparison with those without the soil addition. Moreover, life times of green algae and rotifers were extended by the addition of various soils.

抄録全体を表示

Decomposition of the human waste was investigated by the method used for the quantitative understanding of the humus degree. COD, BOD, and absorbance of the human waste were measured for 22-30 days.
COD and BOD were reduced with the increase in the elapsed time. It was made clear that the organic matters which had absorbance at 600-1000 nm were decomposed to those absorbing at 370-550 nm from the change of log absorbance.
Difference between log absorbance at 400 nm and at 600 nm (SLOD) was related to COD measured for 20 days by following equation, dlog COD/dlog SLOD=-2.7. The relationship between SLOD and BOD was dlog BOD/dlog SLOD = -4.2.
SLOD is able to determine quantitatively the decomposition rate of the human waste, instead of COD or BOD, because concentration of the waste have no effects on the values of SLOD.

抄録全体を表示

Various methods have been tried to measure plant growth and swelling. For example, a rule has been used to measure plant elongation and calipers to measure fruit swelling. Recently, many electrical sensors such as differential transformer have been tried in order to use computer for data logging and analysis.
In this report, the non-destructive and continuous measurements are described as following. The measured data will be reported in the following paper.
(1) Measurement of shoot elongation,
(2) Measurement of fruit swelling,
(3) Measurement of leaf development,
(4) Measurement of flower bud swelling.

抄録全体を表示

Many plants change color due to growth or environmental stress. We thought it would be useful to be able to control growth environment by using color changes in the plant's surface layer.
We developed a color sensing system that can continuously measure color change of a plant's surface layer.
This sensing system is composed of an optical fiber, a halogen lamp, a semiconductor color detector and an electronic circuit. It outputs DC voltage that reflects color onto the surface layer of plants.

抄録全体を表示