The effect of raising fruit temperature for short periods during storage on the incidence of storage disorders has been investigated with both undipped fruit and fruit dipped in an alcohol solution of diphenylamine, a post-harvest treatment for scald control. Jonathan apples warmed to 70°F for 5 days after 4 weeks' cold storage showed less soggy breakdown than unwarmed fruit. Warming Granny Smith apples to 45 or 70°F for 2 days after 9 weeks' cool storage gave good control of core flush, and where fruit was dipped in a 2,000 p.p.m. alcoholic solution of diphenylamine prior to storage, warming to 45°F after 6 weeks' storage reduced this disorder.

The fruit defect, sunken mottle, is a major problem facing Honey Dew growers in the Central Valley. It is an insect-borne malady, apparently caused by watermelon mosaic virus, type 2, according to this study. In recent years it has caused losses of about one-third of the Honey Dew acreage in Stanislaus County. It has been especially severe on late-planted fields. Control of the virus requires knowledge and control of the insect vector and any host plants. The best long-term solution to the problem maybe a breeding program for mosaic-resistant line of Honey Dew melons.

Although spider mites have been reported as pests only since the late 19th Century (Titus, 1905, seen in Leigh, 1963), they appear to have been a pest problem whenever crops have been grown since earliest human cultures. The control of spider mites, however, was not a great problem to agriculturalists until two decades ago. The pest of orchards which is the so-called European red mite or fruit tree red spider mite, Panonychus Metatetranychus) ulmi Koch (= Paratetranychus pilosus C. & F.) had been noticed in various parts of the world, in particular in England and America, during the past fifty or sixty years. From about 1920 another mite of possibly even greater economic significance developed as a pest. This is the two-spotted spider mite or the glasshouse red spider mite or red carmine mite, Tetranychus urticae Koch (= T. Telarius L., T. Bimaculatus Harvey and T. Althaeae Hanstein). The damage caused by these pests, compared with that inflicted by other plant parasites, was of secondary importance, and application of proven insecticides such as organo-phosphorus (O/P) compounds kept both spider mites and insect pests well in check till several years ago. Recently, however, the two-spotted spider mite became the most difficult to control among all the pests that confront horticulturists and agriculturalists (Naegele and Jefferson, 1964). Price, Walton and Drew (1961) reported the species as the most serious pest with which florists have to contend. Nowadays, in spite of control measures, many orchardists and ornamentalists suffer economic loss due to defoliation, reduced tree vigor, poor fruit colour, or small fruit brought on as a results of mite feeding. This state reflects the general pattern which is occurring now, and is primarily due to the development of resistance to acaricides in the mite population. The major problem in the chemical control of spider mites throughout the world is the continued development of strains resistant to the common chemical compounds used against them. Each year the problem becomes more severe with an increase in the number of resistant species and greater number of chemical types, especially organo-phosphorus compounds, to which the species are resistant Thus combating the spider mites on economic field crops in the world has proved to be a difficult task in recent years. The aims of the present research are: 1) To determine the levels of toxicity of organophosphates to populations of spider mites; 2) to investigate methods for the control of organophosphate resistant populations of spider mites; 3) to apply laboratory findings to field conditions.

The dry matter accumulation and absorption as well as the accumulation of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium and sulfur by peanut in several growth stages under field conditions during the rainy season were investigated. The experiment was conducted at the Experimental Station "Theodureto de Camargo", in Campinas, where the soil is "dark red latosol". The seed variety used was "Tatu", and treatments comprised plots with and without fertilizer. The fertilizer treatment included micronutrients. The cultivation and insect and fungi control were those customary in large plantations. Plant sampling started 15 days after the emergence of the plants,, and from then on, once every week, until cropping time. For analytical purposes, the samples were divided into root, stem, leaf, and the fruit into shell and seed. The results showed definite patterns of accumulation of nutrients in the plant, as follows: nitrogen and phosphorus in the seed, sulfur in the root and potassium, calcium and magnesium in the stem and foliage. From the supplied elements, nitrogen, potassium and calcium were the most absorbed. The highest nutrient demand occurred in the period between early frutification and beginning of leaf shedding, three weeks before the cropping. In this period were accumulated about 80% and 60% from the total dry matter and total nutrients, respectively. At cropping time the fruit dry weight was greater than the vegetative part. | É apresentado estudo relativo à acumulação de matéria sêca, concentração e absorção de nutrientes em plantas de amendoim, em latossolo vermelho escuro, adubado e sem adubação. Em amostras de plantas colhidas semanalmente foram determinados os elementos: N, P, K, Ca, Mg e S. A adubação trouxe aumento de 85% no pêso sêco dos frutos e 53% no da planta. Com exceção do cálcio e do magnésio, os teores dos demais elementos foram mais elevados nas plantas adubadas. Cêrca de 80% do total de matéria sêca e de nutrientes nas plantas adubadas foram acumulados no período entre início da frutificação e início da maturação dos frutos. Nas plantas não adubadas essa acumulação representa cêrca de 60%. Êsses resultados evidenciam o período em que as plantas devem encontrar maior disponibilidade de nutrientes no solo.