Study about plant physiology and its implications for crops, post harvest management and more. This course explains the explicit principles and processes of plant physiology and their practical applications. It builds on prior studies in Botany A to examine the effects on flowering and other plant physiologic responses of light, length of day, temperature, respiration with relevance to cropping, yield, post-harvest management and more.
Course Aims:
- Investigate the physiology of growth development and flowering.
- Examine the nature of phytochrome and its effect on flowering in the phytochrome reaction.
- Examine the photoperiodic responses of flowering plants to differing dark and light periods.
- Examine the effect of temperature on the onset of flowering and flower development.
- Understand and describe the causes of dormancy in seeds and plants and describe the methods of breaking dormancy.
- Understand plant associations and competition and their effects on quality and marketable yield.
- Explain the process of respiration in plant cells and its effect on post-harvest storage and transportation of crops.
- Describe physiological processes in post-harvest crops in relation to the storage conditions.
- Investigate the effect on plants of endogenous and synthetic growth regulators.
- Understand risk assessments relevant to plant growth manipulation.
What will you study?
There are 10 lessons in this course:
- Flower physiology
- Introduction
- The flowering response
- Genes control flowering
- Physiological age
- Minimum leaf number
- Photoperiodism
- Terminology
- Phytochrome
- Light sensing systems
- Blue light responses
- Red light responses
- Other light responses
- Phytochrome
- Photoreceptor forms: Pr, Pfr
- How molecules change
- Relevance to commercial horticulture
- Controlling light
- Terminology
- Photoperiodism
- Light
- Measuring light
- What wavelengths do plants need
- Typical photoperiod responses
- Photoperiodic responses in seasonal flowering plants
- Photoperiodic classification of plants: short day plants, long day plants, day neutral plants
- Detection of photoperiod
- Critical photoperiod and flowering
- Research facts
- Other photoperiodic effects
- Terminology
- Control of flower bud initiation and development
- Stages in flower bud growth
- What can affect flower bud initiation
- Differentiation
- Development
- Anthesis
- Effect of temperature on growth and flowering
- Vernalisation
- Thermo-periodism
- Research reports or reviews of specific plants
- Terminology
- Dormancy
- Dormancy in plants
- Abscisic acid and dormancy
- Breaking dormancy
- Dormancy in seeds
- Factors affecting seed dormancy
- Breaking seed dormancy
- Terminology
- Effects of plant associations and competition
- Introduction
- Competition
- Parasitism
- Coevolution
- Mutualism
- Plant herbivore and pathogen interactions
- Crop spacing and crop yields
- Crop canopy and plant density
- Impact of weeds
- Protected environments
- Greenhouses
- Shade houses
- Respiration and post harvest physiology
- Respiration
- Glycolysis
- Aerobic respiration
- Anaerobic respiration
- Bioluminescence and Fluorescence
- Post harvest respiration
- Terminology
- Post harvest storage, transport, retailing and shelf life
- Effect of growing conditions on post harvest life
- Controlled storage conditions: temperature, atmosphere, humidity
- Normal atmospheric conditions
- Controlled and modified atmospheres
- Effect of oxygen levels Effect of carbon dioxide levels
- Ethylene
- Controlling ethylene levels
- Modified Atmosphere Packaging
- Commodity transport
- Retailing and shelf life
- Endogenous and synthetic growth regulators
- Nature of plant hormones
- Auxins: IAA, IBA, NAA
- Gibberellins: natural and synthetic
- Cytokinins: over 130 different types
- Abscisic acid
- Ethylene
- Other hormones: anti auxins, growth inhibitors, growth retardants, defoliants, growth Stimulators, non standard hormones
- Controlled ripening and de-greening
- Waxing
- Risks involved with plant growth manipulation
- Commercial risks
- Human health and safety risks
- Plant pathology risks
- Ecological risks
- Genetic modification
- Benefits
- environmental hazards
- Human hazards
- Terminology