Cassia Siamea (Tamil : Manja Kondrai)

Name of the plant - Cassia Siamea (Tamil :Manja Kondrai, Panni Vagai )

‘N’ fixing capacity - NO

Fodder Tree - NO

Deciduous - NO

Drought tolerance - NO

Soil type / pH range - Almost any soil, even in clay.
Tolerance to water logging - NO
Seeds - 35000 to 40000 seeds / kg

Germination - 80 to 90%

Vegetative propagation - NO

Spacing for border planting- 2 m
For bulk planting - 3 m x 3 m
Maturity - 9 years

Growth : Height - 15 m Ht in _?_ years

Girth - 2 m

Yield - 15 Sq.m / hect / in 7 years

Timber Density - 0.6 to 0.8

Weight - 865 Kgs / Sq. m , Hard wood, durable

Uses - Main bole for pillars, furniture, good firewood

Ratoon - Poor, not recommended.

Special features if any - Tree with thick canopy so, good as wind breaker. Growth is very slow in the first 2 years. A good green manure / leaf mulch providing crop. It can regenerate well even if the branches are pruned annually for leaf mulch. Performs well in irrigated lands. Grow it near compost pit, to give shade and to provide leaf mulch.

Acacia auriculiformis - Pencil tree (Kaththi Savukku)

Name of the plant - Acacia auriculiformis
(Tamil : Pencil, Kaththi Savukku, Kaththi Karuvel, Elai Karuvel, Thatcher Maram)

‘N’ fixing capacity - In root nodules. Capacity next only to Leucaena leucocephala {“Savundal or Subapul in Tamil}

Fodder Tree - Fodder difficult to digest so mix it with other leaves.

Deciduous - 3 to 4.5 tons / Hect / annum

Drought tolerance - Best but next only to Eucalyptus

Soil type / pH range - Almost any soil. min pH 3.0 to max pH 9.0

Tolerance to water logging - Good. Tolerates upto 6 months.

Seeds - 38000 to 42000 seeds / kg

Germination - 40%

Vegetative propagation - Possible

Spacing for border planting- 5 Feet

Spacing for bulk planting - Initial 1.83 m X 1.83 m and remove 50% after 4th Year to obtain vertical growth.

Maturity - 9 years

Growth : Height - 6 m Ht in 2 years, 17 m Ht on 8th year

Girth -

Yield - 5 Sq.m / Hect / Year

Timber Density - 0.6 to 0.75

Weight -

Uses - For Paper mills, Furniture

Ratoon - Poor, not recommended.

Special features if any - Performs well in humid areas with irrigation facility. It can turn even problematic soil to fertile soil due to its ‘N’ fixing capacity in root nodules and its tendency to shed large amount of leaves. Growth equals to Eucalyptus. Growth rapid even planted among other densely planted crops.

Plant hormones and growth regulators

Plant hormones and growth regulators are chemicals that affect flowering; aging; root growth; distortion and killing of leaves, stems, and other parts; prevention or promotion of stem elongation; color enhancement of fruit; prevention of leafing and/or leaf fall; and many other conditions. Very small concentrations of these substances produce major growth changes.

Hormones are produced naturally by plants, while plant growth regulators are applied to plants by humans. Plant growth regulators may be synthetic compounds (e.g., IBA and Cycocel) that mimic naturally occurring plant hormones, or they may be natural hormones that were extracted from plant tissue (e.g., IAA).

Applied concentrations of these substances usually are measured in parts per million (ppm) and in some cases parts per billion (ppb). These growth-regulating substances most often are applied as a spray to foliage or as a liquid drench to soil around a plant's base. Generally, their effects are short lived, and they may need to be reapplied in order to achieve the desired effect.

There are five groups of plant-growth-regulating compounds: auxin, gibberellin (GA), cytokinin, ethylene, and abscisic acid (ABA). For the most part, each group contains both naturally occurring hormones and synthetic substances.

Auxin causes several responses in plants:

• Bending toward a light source (phototropism)
• Downward root growth in response to gravity (geotropism)
• Promotion of apical dominance
• Flower formation
• Fruit set and growth
• Formation of adventitious roots

Auxin is the active ingredient in most rooting compounds in which cuttings are dipped during vegetative propagation.

Gibberellins stimulate cell division and elongation, break seed dormancy, and speed germination. The seeds of some species are difficult to germinate; you can soak them in a GA solution to get them started.

Unlike other hormones, cytokinins are found in both plants and animals. They stimulate cell division and often are included in the sterile media used for growing plants from tissue culture. If a medium's mix of growth-regulating compounds is high in cytokinins and low in auxin, the tissue culture explant (small plant part) will produce numerous shoots. On the other hand, if the mix has a high ratio of auxin to cytokinin, the explant will produce more roots. Cytokinins also are used to delay aging and death (senescence).

Ethylene is unique in that it is found only in the gaseous form. It induces ripening, causes leaves to droop (epinasty) and drop (abscission), and promotes senescence. Plants often increase ethylene production in response to stress, and ethylene often is found in high concentrations within cells at the end of a plant's life. The increased ethylene in leaf tissue in the fall is part of the reason leaves fall off trees. Ethylene also is used to ripen fruit (e.g., green bananas).

Abscisic acid (ABA) is a general plant-growth inhibitor. It induces dormancy and prevents seeds from germinating; causes abscission of leaves, fruits, and flowers; and causes stomata to close. High concentrations of ABA in guard cells during periods of drought stress probably play a role in stomatal closure.

Indole-3-butyric acid :

Indole-3-butyric acid (1H-Indole-3-butanoic acid, IBA) is a white to light-yellow crystalline solid, with the molecular formula C12H13NO2. It melts at 125 °C in atmospheric pressure and decomposes before boiling.

As a plant Harmone:

IBA is a plant hormone in the auxin family and is an ingredient in many commercial plant rooting horticultural products.

For use as such, it should be dissolved in about 75% (or purer) alcohol (as IBA does not dissolve in water), until a concentration from between 10,000 ppm to 50,000 ppm is achieved - this solution should then be diluted to the required concentration using distilled water. The solution should be kept in a cool, dark place for best results.

This compound had been thought to be strictly synthetic; however, it was reported that the compounds was isolated from leaves and seeds of maize and other species.

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Terminology

Dear friends,
All of you might have come across the following terms once in a while. This is just to recollect the forgotten ones.
monoecious
adj.
1.Bot. having separate male flowers and female flowers on the same plant, as in corn
2.Zool. having both male and female reproductive organs in the same individual; hermaphroditic
dioecious
adj.
Biol. having the male reproductive organs in one individual and the female organs in another; having separate sexes
deciduous
adj.
1.falling off or out at a certain season or stage of growth, as some leaves, antlers, insect wings, or milk teeth
2.shedding leaves annually: opposed to EVERGREEN
3.short-lived; temporary
deciduously
adv.
deciduousness
COPPICE
a thicket of small trees or shrubs; coppice
arboretum
a place where many kinds of trees and shrubs are grown for exhibition or study
forestry
n.
1 [Rare] wooded land; forest land
2 the science of planting and taking care of forests
3 systematic forest management for the production of timber, conservation, etc.
silviculture n.
the art of cultivating a forest; forestry
silvicultural
adj.
silviculturist
n.
arboriculture
n.
the scientific cultivation of trees and shrubs
arboriculturist
n.
Biennial
n.
1 a biennial event or occurrence, happening every two years

2 Bot. a plant that lasts two years, usually producing flowers and seed the second year
biennially
adv.
Biannual
adj.
coming twice a year;
biannually
adv.
topiary
adj.
concerning an ornamental garden,
designating or of the art of trimming and training shrubs or trees into unusual, ornamental shapes
n.,
pl. topiaries
1 topiary art or work
2 a topiary garden
Predators:
A predator is an organism that attacks, kills, and feeds on several to many other individuals (its prey) in its lifetime.
Insect parasites (parasitoids):
Larval stages of insect parasites feed on or inside of other insects, killing their hosts. Adults are free-living wasps or flies.
Eg: Chrysopa spp., Chrysoperla spp. Cryptolaemus montrouzieri

(Parasite: An organism that lives in or on another organism (the host) during some portion of its life cycle. Parasitoid: An animal that feeds in or on another living animal, consuming all or most of its tissues and eventually killing it.)
gregarious
adj.
1.belonging to a group, flock, herd
2 fond of the company of others; sociable
3 Bot. growing in clusters
(Example: Gregarious flowering in Bamboo) Opp. Sporadic flowering
gregariously
adv.

Apical dominance

In some plants, the lateral bud located in the axil of each leaf does not grow to form branches, especially at first; this condition is known as apical dominance.

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