Differential thermal analysis (DTA) was used to characterize primary bud mid-winter cold hardiness of Vitis spp. Bud hardiness reached a maximum and was rather stable during the months of January and February at Geneva, New York. Because cold tolerance increases during periods of prolonged cold, observed freezing temperature was adjusted on the basis of the freezing temperature of cv. Concord on the day of observation. DTA gives reproducible and meaningful estimates of bud freezing temperature. Such data account for at least 50 % of the among-cultivar variance in overall vine cold hardiness.

The effects of three levels of pruning severity, two rates of soil applied nitrogen, and a three spray regime of foliar nutrients were investigated at a commercial `Concord' vineyard during the 1991 and 1992 growing seasons. While increased node number resulted in higher yields of less mature fruit, yield, vigor and fruit maturity were unaffected by rate of soil applied nitrogen. In both years, while yield was significantly reduced by the application of foliar nutrients growth and fruit maturity was unaffected.

In two 4-year studies, `Concord' (Vitis labruscana, Bailey) cane pruning weight, yield, and soluble solids content were similar for vines growing under herbicide and cultivation treatments. In a vineyard with shallow soil, vines grown under mulch had a significantly greater increase in cane pruning weight than did vines grown with sod middles. Growth suppression of sod-managed vines occurred only in relatively dry years. While there was annual variation in vine response to herbicide and cultivation treatments, the cumulative responses over the 4-year study were similar for these treatments. A second vineyard where soil was less restrictive for root growth did not respond to the replacement of clean cultivation with herbicide treatments. In both experiments, there was no apparent advantage of two instead of a single herbicide application, and there was no difference between the budbreak, as opposed to bloom timing, of herbicide application.

‘Horizon’ (Fig. 1) is a high-yielding white wine grape that produces a neutral blending wine. It fulfills the need in the Great Lakes grape growing region for a winter-hardy grape relatively free of cultural and enological defects.

Lentils compete poorly with weeds and yield reductions in excess of 80% due to hcompetition have been recorded. In lentil, due to poor early vigour and short height it is critical to minimise weed populations throughout the whole lifecycle. To manage weeds a range of cultural, physical and chemical practices can been employed, both ‘in crop’ and throughout the farming system. Cultural practices include land preparation, seed preparation, sowing and crop establishment method, nutritional management, management of insects and disease and irrigation scheduling. While physical removal or killing of weeds generally occurs either manually or with the tools designed for inter-culturing. These methods integrated with chemicals applied pre-sowing, post-sowing pre emergence and post emergence, provide a sustainable and profitable long term strategy to minimise weeds and maximise grain yield, particularly when implemented with crop rotations throughout the farming system. This chapter provides an overview and discusses principles behind these strategies in lentils across different production regions

A breeding program to produce seedless grapes was begun by the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in 1919. A major goal of this program has been to combine the seedless character that is derived from winter cold tender, disease susceptible grapes of Mediterranean origin with our native grape varieties so as to produce seedless varieties which are adapted to New York growing conditions. During this period, four white (Interlaken, Himrod, Romulus, and Lakemont) and one red (Suffolk Red) seedless varieties have been released. They all share the attribute of having as one parent a Mediterranean grape variety. This inevitably results in some reduction in the vine's ability to survive winter cold. At best, the above named cultivars are classified as low in winter hardiness. Properly cropped vines will produce fruit in most years at Geneva, NY, but overcropping or unusually cold winter temperatures will result in winter cold damage.