Strawberries are only seasonally available in Nebraska (NE). If an affordable heated structure can be designed, then opportunity exists to increase on-farm income by producing strawberries off-season during high-value market periods. A series of university greenhouse trials were conducted from 2010 to 2012. The varieties Evie-2 and Seascape were identified as being most productive under a low technology growing scheme. A new research project, which ran from fall to late spring (2013-2014), was designed to determine if this production scheme would translate to a commercial grower. Varieties Seascape and Evie-2 (each at two grades indicated by +) and San Andreas plants were grown simultaneously at the university research greenhouse and a cooperative specialty crop grower greenhouse, similar structures and production timelines. Top performers for both experiment locations were 'Evie-2MODIFIER LETTER PRIME, and 'Evie-2+' plants, with average harvest berry weights (marketable) per plant (pp) of over 0.454 kg, and 'Seascape' with 0.390 kg. 'Seascape+' plants performed well at the cooperator location (0.399 kg pp), but not at the university location. 'San Andreas' plants performed well at the university location with 0.454 kg pp but not at the cooperator location. Productivity was greatest during the winter-spring season, which accounted for more than 82% of the total berry mass harvested at the cooperator site and 88% at the university site. The results support the concept that the growing system used within a controlled university research setting is representative of the crop productivity a specialty crop grower might expect, particularly when strawberries are grown in late winter and early spring. However, securing low fuel costs, eliminating delivery and having a secondary market for culls is key for profitability.

Summary Enriching the micronutrients, selenium (Se) and lithium (Li), in grapes to improve their nutraceutical properties were implemented by foliar application of organic fertiliser rich in Se and Li onto five grape cultivars. The effects of this biofortification on vine vigour, fruit quality, overall micronutrients and phenolic compounds also were investigated. Agronomic biofortification was found greatly increased the Se and Li content in the whole grape by multiple times, meanwhile it did not significantly affect the vine vigour and fruit quality of grapes. However, the biofortification did impact the Ionome (including all the mineral nutrients and trace elements) and phenolic compounds in grapes and this varied among cultivars. This study demonstrated foliar spray of organic Se/Li fertiliser was a very effective strategy to biofortify these micronutrients in grape berries, particularly in the skin, and therefore might be a promising strategy to increase the consumption and awareness of these grapes.

In many Midwestern vineyards a one meter weed-free strip is maintained directly beneath the vines to reduce vine-weed competition. Conventionally, this strip has been conserved with repeated applications of herbicide, mainly glyphosate. The necessity for this weed-free strip to reduce vine-weed competition has been well documented in more arid climates. However, in areas with higher soil fertility and adequate rainfall grapevines can become overly vigorous and competition with a groundcover (GC) has been shown to be a useful tool to alleviate excess growth. Moreover, stand establishment and early vine growth have not been well documented when planting GC immediately following the vine planting. The main objective of this project was to assess the severity of competition for water between ‘Edelweiss’ grapevines and neighboring permanent GC treatments. In year one (2014), the vineyard and GCs were established, where the GCs were planted immediately after the vines. Generally, GC treatments had lower Midday Leaf Water Potential (Ψmd) than the herbicide sprayed control, however, none of the treatments exhibited even slight water stress between 2015 and 2017. Vine-GC competition was most apparent in the three years of pruning weights, where the most native grass GC treatment had an average of 158% lower weights than the control. Results suggest that planting specific groundcovers in both the alleyways and in-row areas of the vineyard during the first year of establishment can be overly detrimental to vine growth and causes reduced yields but other groundcovers can be a useful alternative to chemical weed control.

The four experiments described here are part of a 5-year program focused on determining whether day-neutral and short-day strawberries would be suitable for commercial off-season/winter (temperate climate) production in greenhouses. All research was performed using container-grown plants fertigated through a capillary mat production system with heat supplied under the benches. The first experiment focused on stolon development. The second experiment investigated the influence of stolon removal on berry production and included the removal of flowers for the first three weeks. The third and fourth experiments were conducted as a comparison of university research (experiment 3) versus a commercial operation (experiment 4). In experiment one, of 13 cultivars, 'AC Wendy' plants produced significantly more stolons than the other cultivars. In experiment two, stolon production peaked at weeks 12 and 13, with 'Chandler' plants producing significantly more stolons (starting at week 9) than the other cultivars. At week 13, 'Seascape' plants produced more total berry weight than the other cultivars. The influence of stolon removal on total berry weight varied, with 'Evie-2+' plants (large crowns) producing higher total berry weight with the stolons on as compared to 'Evie-2' plants, which produced higher total berry weight with the stolons removed. In experiment 2, fruit production was low and was probably a result of deflowering for three weeks. Consequently, it may not be advisable to deflower during the 'off-season' for greenhouse-grown strawberries. In the final two experiments, which involved a commercial cooperator as well as the university greenhouse, it was found that of the five cultivars trialed, the same cultivars at both sites produced the maximum total berry weight. Stolon production differed at the two locations, but the optimal time for stolon removal was similar. Thus, it is recommended that for winter greenhouse production, stolons be removed initially at week 8 and then at weeks 11-12 of the production cycle.

Introduction Costs of transportation and food safety concerns have spawned an increase in public support of locally grown vegetables and fruit. With this in mind, a two-phase investigation was planned with the goal of combining low start up costs for sustainable greenhouse production with selection of strawberry cultivars that would provide the greatest number and largest size of berries. Additionally, berries from each cultivar will be analyzed for their beneficial nutraceutical properties to determine if there is a difference among cultivars.

The objectives of this research were to identify alternatives to glyphosate for intra-row (under-trellis) vineyard floor management and to evaluate the potential for intra-row and inter-row (alleyway) groundcovers to reduce vegetative vigor of ‘Marquette’ grapevines (Vitisspp.) in a southeast Nebraska vineyard. The experiment was a randomized factorial design with five intra-row treatments (crushed glass mulch [CG], distillers’ grain mulch [DG], creeping red fescue [CRF], non-sprayed control [NSC], and glyphosate [GLY]) and three inter-row treatments (creeping red fescue [CRF], Kentucky bluegrass [KB], and resident vegetation [RV]). Treatments were established in 2010–2011 and measurements were conducted during 2012 and 2013 on 5- and 6-year-old vines. Soil temperatures were mostly higher under mulches and lower under intra-row groundcovers, compared to GLY. Weed cover in CG, DG, and CRF treatments was the same or less than GLY. At most sampling dates, inter-row soil moisture was lowest under KB. Intra-row soil moisture was highest under DG mulch and lowest under CRF and NSC; CG had the same or lower soil moisture than GLY. Surprisingly, we did not detect differences in mid-day photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) reflectance, despite visual differences among the intra-row treatments. Mid-day vine water potential did not differ among treatments. We concluded it is not necessary to maintain a bare soil strip under established vines in this region, where soil fertility and moisture are non-limiting.

'Edelweiss' is an important grape cultivar grown in the Midwestern part of the USA. It is one of the earliest cultivars in the vineyard to break bud, making it very susceptible to late spring freezes. 'Edelweiss' primary buds produce a significant amount of fruit, while unlike many other hybrids, the secondary and tertiary buds will have little to no yields, thus making it important to protect the primary buds from a late freeze. The objective of this research was to determine if multiple applications of Amigo Oil or naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) achieve a greater bud delay when compared to single applications. 'Edelweiss' vines were treated in January, January and February or January, February and March. Amigo Oil was applied at 10% (v/v) and NAA at 1000 ppm with a custom built all-terrain vehicle (atv) sprayer. All treatments of oil led to a significant bud break delay ranging from 1 to 8 days as compared to the control. None of the treatments were phytotoxic to buds or negatively affected yield or fruit characteristics. Grape growers in climates with the potential of late spring freezes may consider the use of Amigo Oil or NAA as a potential means to protect their vines from freeze injury. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Holocarboxylase synthetase (HLCS) is the sole protein-biotin ligase in the human proteome. HLCS has key regulatory functions in intermediary metabolism, including fatty acid metabolism, and in gene repression through epigenetic mechanisms. The objective of this study was to identify food-borne inhibitors of HLCS that alter HLCS-dependent pathways in metabolism and gene regulation. When libraries of extracts from natural products and chemically pure compounds were screened for HLCS inhibitor activity, resveratrol compounds in grape materials caused an HLCS inhibition of >98% in vitro. The potency of these compounds was piceatannol>resveratrol>piceid. Grape-borne compounds other than resveratrol metabolites also contributed toward HLCS inhibition, e.g., p-coumaric acid and cyanidin chloride. HLCS inhibitors had meaningful effects on body fat mass. When Drosophila melanogaster brummer mutants, which are genetically predisposed to storing excess amounts of lipids, were fed diets enriched with grape leaf extracts and piceid, body fat mass decreased by more than 30% in males and females. However, Drosophila responded to inhibitor treatment with an increase in the expression of HLCS, which elicited an increase in the abundance of biotinylated carboxylases in vivo. We conclude that mechanisms other than inhibition of HLCS cause body fat loss in flies. We propose that the primary candidate is the inhibition of the insulin receptor/Akt signaling pathway.