Mango Powdery Mildew

Unlike anthracnose, which affects mango in wet areas, the powdery mildew fungus occurs primarily in dry areas and must be controlled during flowering to obtain acceptable fruit yields

Awa Dieback in Hawaii

A severe disease of the kava plant caused by cucumber mosaic virus is described. Symptoms are illustrated and integrated disease management options are discussed

New Grading Rubrics for Signature Assignments: Tropical Agriculture and the Environment

The undergraduate programs from two departments, Tropical Plant and Soil Sciences (TPSS) and Plant and Environmental Protection Sciences (PEPS), merged into a single, new program that began in Fall semester 2016. In this poster, the development of grading rubrics for the signature assignments associated with the various tracks of this new program, named Tropical Agriculture and the Environment (TAE), are presented. The signature assignments used were: (1) an internship; and/or (2) an internship plus a capstone course (PEPS 495). Rubric assessment, review, revision and subsequently approval by the TAE curriculum committee in November 2016 are outlined. Findings of the assessment project are provided including successful strategies using a top-down approach. Action plans and next steps are also described

Genetic structure of Cercospora beticola populations on Beta vulgaris in New York and Hawaii

Cercospora leaf spot (CLS), caused by Cercospora beticola, is a major disease of Beta vulgaris worldwide. No sexual stage is known for C. beticola but in its asexual form it overwinters on infected plant debris as pseudostromata, and travels short distances by rain splash-dispersed conidiospores. Cercospora beticola infects a broad range of host species and may be seedborne. The relative contribution of these inoculum sources to CLS epidemics on table beet is not well understood. Pathogen isolates collected from table beet, Swiss chard and common lambsquarters in mixed-cropping farms and monoculture fields in New York and Hawaii, USA, were genotyped (n = 600) using 12 microsatellite markers. All isolates from CLS symptoms on lambsquarters were identified as C. chenopodii. Sympatric populations of C. beticola derived from Swiss chard and table beet were not genetically differentiated. Results suggested that local (within field) inoculum sources may be responsible for the initiation of CLS epidemics in mixed-cropping farms, whereas external sources of inoculum may be contributing to CLS epidemics in the monoculture fields in New York. New multiplex PCR assays were developed for mating-type determination for C. beticola. Implications of these findings for disease management are discussed

LSST Science Book, Version 2.0

A survey that can cover the sky in optical bands over wide fields to faint magnitudes with a fast cadence will enable many of the exciting science opportunities of the next decade. The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will have an effective aperture of 6.7 meters and an imaging camera with field of view of 9.6 deg^2, and will be devoted to a ten-year imaging survey over 20,000 deg^2 south of +15 deg. Each pointing will be imaged 2000 times with fifteen second exposures in six broad bands from 0.35 to 1.1 microns, to a total point-source depth of r~27.5. The LSST Science Book describes the basic parameters of the LSST hardware, software, and observing plans. The book discusses educational and outreach opportunities, then goes on to describe a broad range of science that LSST will revolutionize: mapping the inner and outer Solar System, stellar populations in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies, the structure of the Milky Way disk and halo and other objects in the Local Volume, transient and variable objects both at low and high redshift, and the properties of normal and active galaxies at low and high redshift. It then turns to far-field cosmological topics, exploring properties of supernovae to z~1, strong and weak lensing, the large-scale distribution of galaxies and baryon oscillations, and how these different probes may be combined to constrain cosmological models and the physics of dark energy.Comment: 596 pages. Also available at full resolution at http://www.lsst.org/lsst/sciboo

Lightning Injury to Plants

This publication explains how lightning strikes and damages plants and shows injury on coconut, papaya, and banana

Late Blight of Tomato (Phytophthora infestans)

This fungal pathogen causes devastation of many crops worldwide. In Hawaii it can be severe in locations that experience cool, rainy, and humid conditions; locations or seasons where these prevail should be avoided for sensitive crops. Other crops besides tomato are listed, as are fungicides and other integrated disease management strategies

Mango Anthracnose (Colletotrichum gloeosporiodes)

Wet weather during flowering favors this disease and can severely limit fruit bearing. Symptoms are illustrated and control options, including fungicides, are discussed

Dasheen Mosaic of Edible and Ornamental Aroids

This viral disease affects many ornamental and food crop species in the Araceae, including Colocasia, Xanthosoma, and Philodendron, as well as plants in other families, in Hawaii, the Pacific region, and worldwide

Cephaleuros Species, the Plant-parasitic Green Algae

Two species of horticultural importance, causing leaf and fruit spots, are known in Hawaii, affecting guava, avocado, and other plants