Diagnostic Techniques for Improving Crop Production

An immensely helpful guide, Diagnostic Techniques for Improving Crop Production presents and discusses diagnostic procedures that growers, production managers, and consultants need to know in order to optimize conditions for growing crops and realizing maximum economic yields. This book gives readers diagnostic techniques that include both field methods and laboratory procedures, while its instructor?s manual helps professors of agriculture prepare growers for implementing techniques that lead to higher crop quality and yield, lower unit costs, and less pollution from agricultural chemicals. Field procedures and sample selection for laboratory procedures are given in detail, while those techniques run in a laboratory are briefly outlined and evaluated in terms of effectiveness and cost.Diagnostic Techniques for Improving Crop Production helps you learn how to provide ideal conditions for growth while eliminating or reducing stresses that can impair crop production. The book?s instructor?s manual helps you manage vast amounts of information and bring to life for your students key diagnostic procedures for evaluating chemical and physical characteristics of soil, seed vigor and purity, plant composition, crop maturity, water quality and timing of water applications, climactic conditions, and pest control. While most of the procedures deal with providing ideal conditions which help avoid problems, the final chapter discusses procedures useful in determining causes of poor crop performance, allowing you to correct problems before serious losses are sustained. By the end of this book, you will be much more skillful at determining the need and timing of fertilizers, water, and pesticides and able to reduce cost, waste, and harmful effects on the environment. Diagnostic Techniques for Improving Crop Production is unique in that it provides not only useful diagnostic techniques but also norms for the various components responsible for optimum crop production. It emphasizes measurement of the components that affect crop yield and quality so the components can be altered when necessary to provide economical, ideal conditions for producing and marketing the crop. The book is a complete reference and guide for growers, farm and production managers, consultants, and extension personnel.

Table of Contents:
ContentsForeword Preface Section I: Soil Diagnostics General Considerations Physical Tests Chemical Tests Section II: Plant Diagnostics Assessing Potential Performance of Seeds Plant Nutrition Maturity Indices Section III: Water Diagnostics Diagnosing the Need for Water Water Quality Measuring Flow Rates and Volume Section IV: Diagnostic Procedures for Maximizing Pest Control Identifying and Counting Pests Application of Pesticides Section V: Diagnostic Procedures for the Plant Evaluating Environment Light Temperature Atmosphere Pollutants Wind Speed and Direction Section VI: Troubleshooting Appraising the Problem: Systematic Approach Appraising the Problem: Diagnoses Section VII: Appendixes Appendix 1. Abbreviations and Symbols Used in This Book Appendix 2. Important Soil, Plant, Water, and Fertilizer Elements and Ions With Symbols, Atomic, and Equivalent Weights Appendix 3. Common and Botanical Names of Plants Appendix 4. Useful Conversion Factors and Data Appendix 5. Sources for Diagnostic Tests and Equipment Index Reference Notes Included