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A field experiment was conducted at the experimental farm of Wheat Research Station Tandojam. The objective of the experiment was to determine the genetic variability in seven F3M2 mutated hybrid populations of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) developed through crossing between eight parents. The F1 hybrids were treated with three radiations doses (100, 150, 200Gy) of gamma rays and their control. The experiment was laidout in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. The means of treated populations were compared to their untreated parental lines for selected traits viz. plant height, number of fertile tillers per plant, spike length, number of spikelets per spike, number of grains per spike, seed index and grain yield per plant. The mean squares revealed that all the genotypes under the treatments as well as untreated populations differed significantly (P? 0.01) for all the traits under study. The mutated hybrids Soghat-90 × Sarsabz at T2 (150 Gy) recorded the highest value of plant height, while Khirman × RWM-9313 at T2 (150 Gy) recorded the highest values for number of fertile tillers per plant, number of grains per spike and grain yield per plant. On the other hand, parent Marvi-2000 gave the highest values of spike length and seed index, while parent Khirman gave the highest number of spikelets per spike. Results indicated that moderate to high doses of gamma rays (150, 200Gy) could produce desirable mutant. Hence, offering the better scope of selection towards the improvement and can be utilized for the development of new superior varieties of wheat.

Although, potassium is one of the essential macronutrients for plants; majority of our onion growers in Sindh province prefer to apply only nitrogen and phosphorus and avoid applying potassium fertilizers in their onion fields; which not only stunts crop growth, but it deteriorates the quality of onion seed; mainly used by farmers for cultivation of next season crop. In order to investigate the effect of potassium application rates on growth and seed quality; we conducted a field experiment during the winter season of 2017-18, applied potassium fertilizer (SoP) @ K1: 0, K2 : 25, K3 50, K4 : 75, K5 100 and K6 125 kg K2O ha-1 to three most common local onion varieties, viz., Phulkara, Nasarpuri and Thano Bolakhan. The study was conducted at Horticultural Garden, Sindh Agriculture University Tandojam, Hyderabad. The experiment was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three repeats. It was observed from the experiment that among the six potassium application rates included in the study; the potassium applied @ 100 kg K2O ha-1 (K5) remained more positively effective for seed quality traits including days to 50% bolting, flowering and maturity, flower stalk height, number of seeds umbel-1, seed index and per hectare seed yield. Averaging overall potassium application rate treatments we found that Phulkara variety took fewer days to 50% bolting, gave more seed yield (g umbel-1) and displayed maximum seed index; whereas variety Nasarpuri took fewer days to both 50% flowering and 50% maturity, showed tallest flower stalk, gave more seeds umbel-1 and produced higher per hectare seed yield as well.

Nitrogen is one of the essential macro-elements for plants. However, excessive use of nitrogen in crop cultivation decreases nitrogen-use-efficiency (NUE) of plants and mediate environmental pollution. Hence its optimum use needs to be analyzed critically. We conducted a field experiment during 2014-15 to evaluate the growth and yield response of turnip to various nitrogen (N) application rates. The trial was carried out at the experimental area of the Horticulture garden, Sindh Agriculture University, Tandojam in a three replicated randomized complete block design. The growth and yield related traits of turnip were assessed using five N rates (0, 50, 80, 110 and 140 kg N ha-1). The results exhibited that there was a significant improvement in growth and root development traits with the application of each N level. We observed improvement in plant height (36.46 cm), number of leaves (16.47), fresh weight of leaves (72.64 g), fresh weight of a single root (106.17 g), root yield (15.77 kg plot-1) and root yield (15063 kg ha-1) at higher level of N (140 kg ha-1). However, the results of all these traits remained statistically similar to the results obtained from the plants receiving 110 kg N ha-1. Hence, it can be concluded that the turnip crop may be fertilized with N @ 110 kg ha-1 for obtaining better growth and root development.

A field study related to biodiversity of insect species on berseem ecosystem was conducted. In order to collect pests and natural enemies, methods like In Situ plant count, sweep net, and yellow sticky trap were used in the study. The experimental results indicated that in In Situ plant count method the population remained maximum (274.18) for aphid as compared to other insects including, thrips (27.00); whitefly (34.10); diamondback moth (12.05); cutworm (27.84); gram pod borer (16.2); tobacco caterpillar (13.2); lucerne caterpillar (21.5); lucerne weevil (25.2) and green stink bug (13.63) per 10 tillers. The total of individuals collected through In Situ plant count method was 465.35 and species was 10. The Sweep net method indicated that the population of aphid, thrip, whitefly, diamondback moth, cutworm, gram pod borer, tobacco caterpillar, lucerne caterpillar, lucerne weevil, and green stink bug was 217.97, 130.53, 158.10, 136.80, 47.49, 116.20, 50.28, 21.50, 101.20 and 113.36 per 10 sweeps, respectively. The total individuals collected through this sweep net method were 1093.43 and species were 10. The insect pests captured through yellow sticky method indicated that the population of aphid, thrip, whitefly and diamondback moth was 243.00, 175.18, 158.10 and 22.80 per 10 yellow sticky traps, respectively. The total individuals collected through yellow sticky trap method were 599.08 and species were 4. The predators collected through In Situ plant method indicated that the population of zigzag, 11-spotted, 7-spotted, brumus beetle, rove beetle hoverfly, damsel bug pirate, bug lacewing and wasp was 63.52, 27.32, 7.95, 7.50, 22.90, 26.05, 30.92, 43.56, 28.54 and 19.83 per 10 tillers, respectively. The total individuals collected through In Situ method were 278.09 and species were 10. In sweepnet method the population of zigzag, 11-spotted, 7-spotted, brumus beetle, rove beetle, hoverfly, damsel bug, pirate bug, lacewing, wasp was 87.84, 37.47, 10.33, 13.05, 21.37, 62.12, 50.66, 62.52, 39.75 and 40.49 per 10 sweeps. The total individuals (predators and parasitoid) collected through In Situ plant count and sweep net methods were 278.09 and 425.6, respectively and species were 10. It is concluded that berseem holds a high conservatory potential for control of soft bodied insect pests due to its harboring a large number of predators and parasitoids i.e., coccinellids, syrphid, chrysopid larvae, carabids, spiders, hymenopteran and parasitoids.

Bougainvillea is a beautiful ornamental climbing plant of tropical and subtropical regions of the world. An experiment was conducted to assess the effect of basal methods of Naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) application on sprouting and rooting potential of stem cuttings of bougainvillea. The stem cuttings of about 6 inches in length were obtained from two year old plants. The basal ends of the cuttings were treated with Naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) using basal methods of auxin application including basal quick dip method for 10 seconds and basal long soak method for 12 hours in NAA solutions viz. 2000 and 4000 mg L-1 plus control treatment with no NAA. Two groups were set, one group was covered with polyethylene and another left opened. The better response for mean number of sprouts (5.22) per stem cutting, sprouting percentage (67.8), rooting percentage (67.28), number of roots (20.83), fresh weight of the roots (44.47 mg) and number of leaves (27.33) was observed in response to the treatment where basal long soak method of NAA application was followed at 4000 mg L-1. Chlorophyll content of leaf and electrolyte leakage of leaf was not significantly influenced by any basal method of NAA application under both uncovered and covered conditions. The covered stem cuttings exhibited more pronouncing and significant response for most of the plant traits in comparison to untreated and uncovered cuttings. The maximum sprouts per stem cutting (5.61), sprouting percentage (78.62), rooting percentage (73.33), number of roots (21.87), fresh weight of the roots (47.43 mg) and number of leaves (28.81) were recorded from covered stem cuttings.The minimum mortality percentage (14.66) was observed from covered stem cuttings.

The present research was carried out to investigate the effect of packing materials (metal bin, earthen bin, plastic bag, cloth bag and gunny bag) and grain moisture content at packing (10% and 16%) on quality of wheat grain for ten months of storage in the laboratory of Farm Structures, Sindh Agriculture University Tandojam, Pakistan. The quality characters (insect-pest infestation, 1000-grain weight, and protein and starch contents) were determined throughout the storage period and the changes in the quality of stored grain were evaluated in terms of these variables. When the gunny, cloth and plastic bags were used as the packing material, the 1000-grain weight, protein and starch contents were decreased and insect-pest infestation was increased with the increase of storage period despite the moisture content (10 and 16%) of wheat grain at packing. When grain was packed in metal and earthen bins the reduction in quality characters with time of storage varied with the moisture content of grain. Wheat grain stored in metal and earthen bins with initial moisture content of 10% showed satisfactory qualitative characters throughout the storage period than those packed with 16% moisture. Higher the moisture content of grain at packing higher was the rapidity of quality loss and shorter the time of storage of wheat grain in metal and earthen bins. Therefore, it is evident that packing grain with 10% moisture in metal and earthen bins keeps the grain in good quality. Wheat grain, stored in metal and earthen bins, was good in terms of 1000-grain weight, protein, starch and low insect-pest infestation in comparison with those in gunny, cloth and plastic bags.