"Practical Horticulture, Seventh Edition, " is a classic, scientifically oriented book for basic horticulture. It presents readers with the fundamentals of horticultural science and its applications in both the commercial and home sectors. Easy-to-read, the books's ample illustrations, chapter objectives, and chapter-ending review questions, help readers learn the concepts. Some exciting new features to this edition include:

• Updated with timely coverage of hot environmental topics.
• The latest information on horticultural science for indoor and outdoor plants.
• A new chapter on careers in horticulture has been added.

The Use and Fate of Pesticides in Vegetable-based Agro-ecosystems in Ghana reviews current knowledge on pesticides use in vegetable farming in Ghana and establishes the fate of pesticides in situ in tropical vegetable-based agro-ecosystems as well as their environmental and public health impacts on selected population groups. A field survey showed that vegetable farmers often spray pesticides on prophylactic basis due to lack of information. Although some farmers may be aware of pesticide hazards, adequate protection is hardly taken to minimize risks. About 70% of exposed farmers had a reduction of 30% or more in whole blood acetylcholinesterase activity. About 95% of the farmers interviewed reported symptoms attributable to pesticide exposure. Water, waterbed sediment, and vegetable crops were checked for residues of the pesticides monitored on the farmers? fields. Residues detected in water and waterbed sediment indicated that these have come from runoff from vegetable fields and that the measured levels were transient. Pesticide residue levels detected in five vegetable crop types (tomato, cabbage, pepper, onion, and eggplants) were correlated to the minimal risk levels (MRLs) set by the United States Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). Mean intakes of residues by 22- to 75-year old adult farmers were found to be low and did not seem to be associated with health risk. Data on persistent pesticide residues in farmers? breast milk and blood serum indicated the presence of DDTs, dieldrin, HCB, and HCHs. When daily intakes of DDTs and HCHs to infants through breastfeeding were estimated, some farmers accumulated these compounds in breast milk above the threshold for adverse effects, which raise concerns on children health. Evidence was found for persistence of isomers of endosulfan and its sulfate metabolite in tomato cropped soil and plant tissues. However, the residue concentration in tomato fruits decreased to a level below the Codex MRL given a two-week pre-harvest interval during which no application of the chemical is done. The publication concludes that successful action to reduce the negative impact of pesticides requires sustained, low cost, and well-targeted training interventions.

Students and scientists in the fields of environmental chemistry and/or science, farmers, agricultural extension officers and environmental and health regulatory agencies will find this book very useful.

Genetically Modified Plants, Second Edition, provides an updated roadmap and science-based methodology for assessing the safety of genetic modification technologies, as well as risk assessment approaches from regulators across different agroecosystems. This new edition also includes expanded coverage of technologies used in plant improvement, such as RNA-dependent DNA methylation, reverse breeding, agroinfiltration, and gene-editing technologies such as CRISPR and TALENS. This book is an essential resource for anyone interested in crop improvement, including students and researchers, practitioners in regulatory agencies, and policymakers involved in plant biotechnology risk assessment.

Fresh? Juice? Paste? Canned? Stewed? Diced? Pureed? Sun Dried? Salsa? Sauce? Ketchup? Rare is the cuisine that does not make use of the tomato in some way, shape, or form, and the resulting culinary popularity of the tomato has led to its proliferation in fields and farms around the world. While some may still argue whether the tomato is a fruit or a vegetable, few would argue that tomato crops are highly lucrative, attractive to farmers in both developing and developed countries and on large and small farms alike. In fact, for those crops with significant global volume and market share, tomatoes are the highest valued among those crops that lack an affiliation to mind-altering drugs. But, the tomato can be a persnickety critter. The tomato doesn't like it too hot, too chilly, too wet, too dry, or too fertile. Many don't ripen at the same time. Most are easily bruised. And, the selective breeding that has yielded a larger, more attractive, and deep red tomato has also mercilessly drained much of the taste and flavor from a once sweet and delectable fruit. Enter the world of sensors and modern sensing technology. The Internet of Things (IOT), when using well chosen, well networked, and well aggregated sensors, has shown tremendous potential to support precision agriculture, providing a more detailed picture of crops than was previously possible using conventional crop monitoring techniques. But, the stringent resources and tight profit margins that are a fact of life among many tomato growing operations, large and small, mean that sensor technologies must be chosen and used carefully. There is no doubt that each sensor must earn its keep in producing the perfect tomato. With that in mind, this book explores key opportunities to marry the potential of sensors that are networked within the IOT to the needs of tomato production in ways that are economically fruitful, technologically robust, and sustainable overall.

G.HAINNAUX Departement Milieu et Activites Agricoles, Centre ORSTOM, 911 Avenue d' Agropolis, B.P. 5045, 34032 Montpellier Cedex , France. Solid state fermentation, popularly abbreviated as SSF, is currently investigated by many groups throughout the world. The study of this technique was largely neglected in the past in European and Western countries and there is now a high demand for SSF, meaning in food, environment, agricultural, phannaceutical and many other biotechnological applications. It gives me satisfaction to note that the importance of this technique was realised at my department way back in 1975 since then, our team has put concentrated efforts on developing this technique. xvii Foreword Advances in Solid State Fermentation Foreword M. PUYGRENIER Agropolis Valorisation, Avenue d' Agropolis, 34394 Montpellier Cedex 5, France. On the name of the Scientific Community, I would like to express the wish that this International Symposium on SSF should be successful. Solid State Fermentation is part of biotechnology research. It consists on seeding solid culture medium with bacteria or fungi (filamentous or higher) and on producing, in this medium (solid components and exudates) metabolites and high value products. In fact, this process is very old. In older industries such the food and agricultural, this technique has been extensively used. An example of this is the production of pork sausages and Roquefort cheese. Pharmaceutical industry could make extensive use of SSF in the production of secondary metabolites of many kinds and development in this direction is soon expected.

Bamboos constitute one of a few select categories of plants which are taxonomically related, very rich in species and of vital economic and ecological importance. Since the early 20th century the accepted number of species of bamboos, world wide, has tripled. However, until now information was scattered through numerous, often not easily available publications.

"The Bamboos of the World," is the first comprehensive (taxonomic as well as horticultural) reference work that provides basic information on bamboos world wide, whether they are wild or cultivated, well-known or rather unknown. The work, based on bamboo literature, facilitates access to further data by citation and a comprehensive bibliography. Among the main data included are botanical names with synonyms, and geographical distribution of genera and species, varieties with their distinctive characters, common bamboo names, plant introductions to the West, plant size and uses. The distribution of genera is mapped.

"The Bamboos of the World" presents a wealth of essential information in an accessible and structured manner. It gives the opportunity to check under what names, and where, relevant information on any bamboo can be found. For the researcher with management and development interests it provides a convenient means of basing bamboo resource on a sound understanding of generic and species relationships, with names that appear in earlier literature put into context. The work should prove to be invaluable for those interested in the morphology, taxonomy, distribution and cultivation of bamboos. It should support botanical, forestry, horticultural and ecological research, training and resource management.

This book was developed from the papers presented at a symposium on "Water Relationships in Foods," which was held from April 10-14, 1989 at the 197th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in Dallas, Texas, under the auspices of the Agricultural and Food Chemistry Division of ACS. The editors of this book organized the symposium to bring tagether an es teemed group of internationally respected experts, currently active in the field of water relationships in foods, to discuss recent advances in the 1980's and future trends for the 1990's. It was the hope of all these con tributors that this ACS symposium would become a memorable keystone above the foundation underlying the field of "water in foods. " This strong foundation has been constructed in large part from earlier technical conferences and books such as the four milestone International Symposia on the Properties of Water (ISOPOW I-IV), the recent IFT BasicSymposium on "Water Activity" and Penang meeting on Food Preservation by Maisture Control, as well as the key fundamental contributions from the classic 1980 ACS Symposium Series #127 on Water in Polymers, and from Felix Franks' famous seven-volume Comprehensive Treatise on Water plus five subsequent volumes of the ongoing Water Science Reviews. The objective of the 1989 ACS symposiumwas to build on this foun dation by emphasizing the most recent and maj or advanc."

A classic in the literature of herbal medicine, this book explains in simple terms the commonly occurring chemical constituents of medicinal plants, and how these react with the human body. The major classes of plant constituents, such as phenols, terpenes and polysaccharides, are described both in terms of their chemical structures and their pharmacological activities. The last 20 years has seen huge growth in research output in phytochemistry, and this edition has been thoroughly revised to incorporate up-to-date research. It contains a new chapter on resins and cannabinoids, and additional content on macrocarpals, essential oil chemotypes, mushroom polysaccharides, phytochemical synergy, and toxicology of phytochemicals. Features include: * Over 200 diagrams of chemical structures * Coverage of energetics, synergism and the emerging field of network pharmacology * New content on seaweeds and fungi, and polyphenol-rich foods * References to primary research literature in pharmacy, pharmacology, chemistry, plant biology, molecular biology, integrative medicine and many other disciplines Written by an experienced herbal practitioner, The Constituents of Medicinal Plants has become a standard textbook for courses on plant-based medicine. It is also an essential desktop reference for health practitioners, lecturers, researchers, producers, and anyone with an interest in how medicinal herbs work.

Providing a guide to the cultivation of both the terrestrial and epihytic orchid species growing in South Africa, this volume includes numerous hints, illustrations and photographs to help simplify the process. Detailed growing notes are given for over 60 terrestrial and over 40 epiphytic species.