Wage matters & globalization: South Florida's low-wage immigrant plant nursery workers and business protectionism in the age of neoliberalism

Ornamental plant production in the State of Florida is an anomaly with respect to current theories of globalization and particularly their explanation of the employment of low-wage, immigrant labor. Those theories dictate that unskilled jobs that do not need to be performed within highly developed countries are outsourced to where labor is cheaper and more flexible. However, the State of Florida remains an important site of ornamental plant production in the US amidst a global economic environment of outsourcing and transnational corporate expansion. This dissertation relies on 50 semi-structured interviews with insiders of the Florida plant nursery industry, focus groups, and participant observation to explain how US trade, labor, and migration policy-making at local levels are not removed from larger global processes taking place in the world since the 1970s. In Florida, elite market players of the plant nursery industry have been able to resist global trends in free trade, operating instead in a protected market. They have done this by appealing to scientific justifications and through arbitrary implementations of neoliberal ideology that keeps small and middle range business alive, while maintaining a seemingly endless supply of marginalized and exploited low-wage, immigrant workers.^

Wage Matters & Globalization: South Florida’s Low-Wage Immigrant Plant Nursery Workers and Business Protectionism in the Age of Neoliberalism

Ornamental plant production in the State of Florida is an anomaly with respect to current theories of globalization and particularly their explanation of the employment of low-wage, immigrant labor. Those theories dictate that unskilled jobs that do not need to be performed within highly developed countries are outsourced to where labor is cheaper and more flexible. However, the State of Florida remains an important site of ornamental plant production in the US amidst a global economic environment of outsourcing and transnational corporate expansion. This dissertation relies on 50 semi-structured interviews with insiders of the Florida plant nursery industry, focus groups, and participant observation to explain how US trade, labor, and migration policy-making at local levels are not removed from larger global processes taking place in the world since the 1970s. In Florida, elite market players of the plant nursery industry have been able to resist global trends in free trade, operating instead in a protected market. They have done this by appealing to scientific justifications and through arbitrary implementations of neoliberal ideology that keeps small and middle range business alive, while maintaining a seemingly endless supply of marginalized and exploited low-wage, immigrant workers.

Irrigation performance and gross water productivity in furrow-irrigated ornamental tree production

In the ornamental plant production region of Girona (Spain), which is one of the largest of its kind in southern Europe, most of the surface is irrigated using wide blocked-end furrows. The objectives of this paper were: (1) to evaluate the irrigation scheduling methods used by ornamental plant producers; (2) to analyse different scenarios in order to assess how they affect irrigation performance; (3) to evaluate the risk of deep percolation; and (4) to calculate gross water productivity. A two-year study in a representative commercial field, planted with Prunus cerasifera ‘Nigra’, was carried out. The irrigation dose applied by the farmers was slightly smaller than the required water dose estimated by the use of two different methods: the first based on soil water content, and the second based on evapotranspiration. Distribution uniformity and application eff iciency were high, with mean values above 87%. Soil water content measurements revealed that even at the end of the furrow, where the infiltrated water depth was greatest, more than 90% of the infiltrated water was retained in the shallowest 40 cm of the soil; accordingly, the risk of water loss due to deep percolation was minimal. Gross water productivity for ornamental tree production was € 11.70 m–3, approximately 20 times higher than that obtained with maize in the same region.

Impression of the global climate change on the ornamental plant usage in Hungary

The climate modeling, which has adequate spatial and temporal resolution, shows that the future climate of the Carpathian Basin will be much more arid and hot than nowadays. The currently used and taught assortment of the ligneous ornamental plants should be urgently revised. It is aimed in my research to collect the species which will probably be introduced in the future. They can be gathered from the Hungarian botanical gardens and research centers and from the spatially analogous territories. The collected taxa should be examined with GIS software if they will really suffer our future climate.

Irrigation performance and gross water productivity in furrow-irrigated ornamental tree production

In the ornamental plant production region of Girona (Spain), which is one of the largest of its kind in southern Europe, most of the surface is irrigated using wide blocked-end furrows. The objectives of this paper were: (1) to evaluate the irrigation scheduling methods used by ornamental plant producers; (2) to analyse different scenarios inorder to assess how they affect irrigation performance; (3) to evaluate the risk of deep percolation; and (4) to calculategross water productivity. A two-year study in a representative commercial field, planted with Prunus cerasifera ‘Nigra’, was carried out. The irrigation dose applied by the farmers was slightly smaller than the required water dose estimated by the use of two different methods: the first based on soil water content, and the second based on evapotranspiration. Distribution uniformity and application efficiency were high, with mean values above 87%. Soil water contentmeasurements revealed that even at the end of the furrow, where the infiltrated water depth was greatest, more than 90% of the infiltrated water was retained in the shallowest 40 cm of the soil; accordingly, the risk of water loss due to deep percolation was minimal. Gross water productivity for ornamental tree production was € 11.70 m–3, approximately 20 times higher than that obtained with maize in the same region

Les Espècies vegetals introduïdes d’ús ornamental als enjardinaments públics dels sectors de l’esquerra del Ter a la ciutat de Girona

Estudi de les plantes ornamentals conreades al sector esquerra de les ribes del Ter al seu pas per Girona, incidint en les espècies no autòctones i elaboració d’una cartografia digital dels arbres i arbusts de la zona de Sant Ponç (Girona)

Les Espècies vegetals introduïdes d’ús ornamental als enjardinaments públics dels sectors de l’esquerra del Ter a la ciutat de Girona

Estudi de les plantes ornamentals conreades al sector esquerra de les ribes del Ter al seu pas per Girona, incidint en les espècies no autòctones i elaboració d’una cartografia digital dels arbres i arbusts de la zona de Sant Ponç (Girona)

Irrigation performance and gross water productivity in furrow-irrigated ornamental tree production

In the ornamental plant production region of Girona (Spain), which is one of the largest of its kind in southern Europe, most of the surface is irrigated using wide blocked-end furrows. The objectives of this paper were: (1) to evaluate the irrigation scheduling methods used by ornamental plant producers; (2) to analyse different scenarios in order to assess how they affect irrigation performance; (3) to evaluate the risk of deep percolation; and (4) to calculate gross water productivity. A two-year study in a representative commercial field, planted with Prunus cerasifera ‘Nigra’, was carried out. The irrigation dose applied by the farmers was slightly smaller than the required water dose estimated by the use of two different methods: the first based on soil water content, and the second based on evapotranspiration. Distribution uniformity and application efficiency were high, with mean values above 87%. Soil water content measurements revealed that even at the end of the furrow, where the infiltrated water depth was greatest, more than 90% of the infiltrated water was retained in the shallowest 40 cm of the soil; accordingly, the risk of water loss due to deep percolation was minimal. Gross water productivity for ornamental tree production was € 11.70 m–3, approximately 20 times higher than that obtained with maize in the same region

Regulated irrigation of woody ornamentals to improve plant quality and precondition against drought stress

Regulated irrigation has the potential to improve crop quality in woody ornamentals by reducing excessive vigour and promoting a more compact habit. This research aimed to compare the effectiveness and the mode of action of two techniques, regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) and partial root drying (PRD), when applied to container-grown ornamentals through drip irrigation. Results showed that RDI and PRD reduced growth in Cotinus coggygria 'Royal Purple', but in Forsythia x intermedia 'Lynwood', significant reductions were recorded only with RDI. Physiological measurements in Forsythia indicated that reductions in stomatal conductance (g(s)) occurred in both treatments, but those in the RDI tended to be more persistent. Reduced g(s) in PRD was consistent with the concept that chemical signals from the root can regulate stomatal aperture alone; however, the data also suggested that optimising the growth reduction required a moderate degree of shoot water deficit (i.e. a hydraulic signal to be imposed). As RDI was associated with tissue water deficit, it was used in a second experiment to determine the potential of this technique to precondition container-grown plants against subsequent drought stress (e.g. during retail stages or after planting out). Speed of acclimation would be important in a commercial context, and the results demonstrated that both slow and rapid imposition of RDI enabled Forsythia plants to acclimate against later drought events. This article discusses the potential to both improve ornamental plant quality and enhance tolerance to subsequent adverse conditions through controlled, regulated irrigation.

Emergência e crescimento inicial de plântulas de pimenta ornamental e celosia em substrato à base de composto de lodo de curtume

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Herbicide selectivity in herbaceous ornamental gardens of tagetes erecta L.

One of the major problems in landscaping in tropics is weed management. The herbaceous ornamental plant, Tagetes erecta L. (Asteraceae), is very popular for its beautiful flowers which can be used in landscape and also as cut flowers. The increase use of this plant and lack of selective herbicides led to the objective of this study to evaluate the herbicide metribuzin selectivity for this ornamental plant. The experimental design was completely randomized using four treatments (herbicide metribuzin doses: 0, 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 L ha-1, equivalent to 0, 240, 480 and 720 g ha-1) and five replicates. The herbicide was applied over the seedling of T. erecta as pre-emergence of the weed seeds. Evaluations were performed at 7, 14, 21 and 28 days after application (DAA) by visual analysis of the toxicity symptoms over the ornamental, using the European Weed Research Council (EWRC) scale (1 to 9), where 1 is the total absence of symptoms and 9 to death plants. Polynomial regression statistical analysis was used. It was verified that, from the dose of 1.0 L ha-1, T. erecta plants died by 14 DAA, which the most of them had presented a very strong toxicity symptom; for the 0.5 L ha-1 treatment the plants had survived until 28 DAA. However, most of them already exhibited the high toxicity level, dying at 35 DAA. Thus, metribuzin was not suitable for T. erecta even at the lowest rate tested in this study.

Multiple ornamental uses of Costus stenophyllus standi. & L.O. Williams

Costus stenophyllus or bamboo costus, despite its high ornamental potential, is still little known in the cut flower and ornamental plant market. The bamboo costus is a spiral ginger admired for its beautiful stems that are lined with brown colored alternating bands. This costus has rather straight and upright stems. Conical red inflorescences, which resemble the head of a snake, emerge from the base of the plants. The flowers are light yellow and emerge between the red scales on the rather long-lasting, attractive inflorescences. This study was carried out to evaluate the possibility of using these species as a garden plant, cut flower and cut stem. Thus, the characterization was made based on 28 characters of the plant, the leaves, the flower stem, the flowers, as well as season blooming characteristics and flower postharvest longevity.