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Irrigation is an agronomic practice of major importance in alfalfa (Medicago sativa L), especially in the semiarid environments of Southern Europe. Field experimentation was conducted in Western Greece (2016–2018) to evaluate the effects of irrigation timing on weed presence, alfalfa yield performance, and forage quality. In a randomized complete block design (four replications), two cultivars (“Ypati 84” and “Hyliki”) were the main plots, while three irrigation timings were the subplots (split-plot). The irrigation timings were IT-1, IT-2, and IT-3, denoting irrigation 1 week before harvest, 1 week after harvest, and 2 weeks after harvest, respectively. IT-1 reduced Solanum nigrum L. density by 54% and 79% as compared to IT-3 and IT-2, respectively. Chenopodium album L. density was the highest under IT-2. IT-3 resulted in 41% lower Amaranthus retroflexus L. density in comparison to IT-2, while the lowest values were observed under IT-1. Stand density and stems·plant−1 varied between years (p ≤ 0.05). Mass·stem−1 and alfalfa forage yield were affected by the irrigation timings (p ≤ 0.001). Total weed density and forage yield were negatively correlated in both the second (R2 = 87.013%) and the fourth (R2 = 82.691%) harvests. IT-1 and IT-3 increased forage yield, leaf per stem ratio, and crude protein as compared to IT-2. Further research is required to utilize the use of cultural practices for weed management in perennial forages under different soil and climatic conditions.

Nitrogen (N) management remains a global challenge for the sustainability of diversified farming systems. Field crops are often over-supplied with nitrogen by farmers aiming to high productivity. Although the increase of nitrogen rates leads in many instances to high yields, degree of effectiveness for nitrogen use remains low. Urease and nitrification inhibitors are technologies which have been present in the fertilizers market at least 50 years. Inhibitors exploitation ensures long-term nitrogen release and improved N-uptake by plants and N-storage in seeds and silage. Avail of inhibitors, such as the decline of nitrogen leaching in form of NO3−, reduction of emissions in NH3 form, and rise of yield, are some of the desirable attributes that are derived from their integration in fertilization schedules. This review reports the evaluation of applied nitrogen, with inhibitors, and field crops based on nitrogen indices. The examined N-indicators include Nitrogen use efficiency (NUE), Nitrogen Utilization Efficiency (NUtE,) Nitrogen Agronomic Efficiency (NAE), Nitrogen Harvest Index (NHI), and N uptake. This review gathered all, to the best of our knowledge, available data regarding the utilization of nitrification and urease inhibitors under an exclusively agronomic perspective. Either dual or single use of nitrification and urease inhibitors has been reported to significantly increase yield components and promote nitrogen uptake. To conclude, the assessment of N-related indices is vital to promoting sustainability in diversified farming systems, while the integration of inhibitors in national N fertilizations schemes may contribute to system profitability through enhancement of N-supply to crops.

While processing tomato cultivation (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is considered one of the most important industrial crops in Greece, a waste known as tomato pomace is growing significantly high. Notably, the tomato pomace presents enormous opportunities for the creations of organic fertilizers. The aim of this study was to investigate the use of tomato pomace as a fertilizer in the same crop. A field experiment was established at the Agricultural University of Athens during 2018 and 2019 in a randomized complete design with five treatments (control, inorganic NPK (NPK), Tomato pomace and Biocycle Humus Soil (Tp and BHS), Tomato pomace and Farmyard manure (Tp and FYM), and Tomato pomace and Compost (Tp and CM). Physical soil properties such as soil porosity and penetration resistance were improved by the application of organic blends. Additionally, soil nitrogen content ranged from 0.10% (control and NPK) to 0.13% (Tp and FYM). A significant increase of yield was noticed under organic fertilization where the highest yield of 8.00 tn ha−1 was recorded in Tp and BHS (2018). Lycopene content was significantly affected by fertilization and its highest values were 87.25 (Tp and BHS; 2018), and 88.82 mg kg−1 fresh (Tp and FYM; 2019). Regarding fruit firmness, the three organic blends did not have statistically significant difference. In addition, the Total Soluble Solids (TSS) was significantly affected by the fertilization and the maximum value was 4.80 ◦Brix (Tp and CM; 2018). In brief, tomato pomace blended with organic fertilizers was yielded considerable since it improved soil quality and increased yield.

In this work, we studied the effect of three glyphosate formulations (isopropylamine, ammonium and potassium salts) and two non-ionic adjuvants on the resistance response of two resistant (R1, R2) and one susceptible population of the highly invasive Asteraceae, Conyza sumatrensis, from Southern France vineyards. Only in R1, an amino acid substitution (Pro106Thr) was found in the enzyme 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS). The two adjuvants, in a similar fashion, significantly reduced GR50 values for every population and glyphosate formulation. Without adjuvants, glyphosate as potassium salt was the only formulation able to significantly reduce the GR50 values of every population. For every population, the two adjuvants improved, indistinguishably, leaf retention of the herbicidal solution and the potassium salt formulation led to the highest retention, both with and without the adjuvant added. Uptake responses paralleled those of retention and adjuvant addition was more effective in increasing foliar uptake of the lower performing formulations (isopropylamine and ammonium salts). The allocation pattern of glyphosate among plant compartments was only dependent on population, with R2 retaining most glyphosate in the treated leaf, clearly suggesting the occurrence of a Non-Target Site Resistance (NTSR) mechanism. Results indicate that control of weed populations possessing NTSR mechanisms of resistance to glyphosate may be improved through adequate selection of formulation and adjuvant use.

There is growing consideration among farmers and researchers regarding the development of natural herbicides providing sufficient levels of weed control. The aim of the present study was to compare the efficacy of four different pelargonic acid products, three essential oils and two natural products’ mixtures against L. rigidum Gaud., A. sterilis L. and G. aparine L. Regarding grass weeds, it was noticed at 7 days after treatment that PA3 treatment (pelargonic acid 3.102% w/v + maleic hydrazide 0.459% w/v) was the least efficient treatment against L. rigidum and A. sterilis. The mixture of lemongrass oil and pelargonic acid resulted in 77% lower dry weight for L. rigidum in comparison to the control. Biomass reduction reached the level of 90% as compared to the control in the case of manuka oil and the efficacy of manuka oil and pelargonic acid mixture was similar. For sterile oat, weed biomass was recorded between 31% and 33% of the control for lemongrass oil, pine oil, PA1 (pelargonic acid 18.67% + maleic hydrazide 3%) and PA4 (pelargonic acid 18.67%) treatments. In addition, the mixture of manuka oil and pelargonic acid reduced weed biomass by 96% as compared to the control. Regarding the broadleaf species G. aparine, PA4 and PA1 treatments provided a 96–97% dry weight reduction compared to the corresponding value recorded for the untreated plants. PA2 (pelargonic acid 50% w/v) treatment and the mixture of manuka oil and pelargonic acid completely eliminated cleaver plants. The observations made for weed dry weight on the species level were similar to those made regarding plant height values recorded for each species. Further research is needed to study more natural substances and optimize the use of natural herbicides as well as natural herbicides’ mixtures in weed management strategies under different soil and climatic conditions.

Markets for organically produced high quality cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) are projected to increase. Field experiments were conducted in Palamas, Karditsa in Central Greece, to compare the effects of two cropping systems on fiber quality of three cotton cultivars. The experiments, conducted during three years, were laid out in a split plot design with four replicates, two main plots (organic and conventional system) and three sub-plots (cotton cultivars). Findings suggest that fiber quality index (FQI), spinning consistency index (SCI) and multiplicative analytic hierarchy process (MAHP) are three indices that could be integrated in a useful protocol for the evaluation of different cropping systems for cotton cultivation. In particular, our results indicate that in general there was not any superiority of conventional compared to the organic cropping system regarding fiber quality as shown by the above mentioned indices. Regarding the length of the cotton fiber, this was positively correlated with micronair and the uniformity index of the cotton fiber. The organic system resulted to higher values of SCI than the ones of the conventional (1547.9 and 1522.3, respectively). The present 3-years study shows that organic cultivation of cotton can ensure high fiber quality and this was clearly confirmed by means of the several important indices.

E. colona is a C4 annual summer grass which is troublesome to major summer annual and perennial crops. Due to recent complaints by the farmers, the objectives of the present study were to evaluate the efficacy of penoxsulam, profoxydim, cycloxydim, cyhalofop-butyl, florpyrauxifen-benzyl and glyphosate against six E. colona accessions, and also to evaluate the response of these accessions to different rates of glyphosate in a dose-response experiment. In the first experiment, herbicides were applied at their maximum recommended label rates, while in the dose-response experiment, glyphosate was applied at six doses corresponding to 0, 1/4X, 1/2X, X, 2X, and 4X of the recommended rate. The dry weight of the biotypes TH8 and TH7 treated with profoxydim was 66% and 68% of the untreated control, respectively. The efficacy of cyhalofop-butyl against three accessions was lower than 30%, while two accessions were susceptible to this herbicide. The efficacy of penoxsulam against the biotypes ET2 and ET4 was lower than 10%, while dry weight of FT5 and TH8 was only reduced by 23%–28% as compared to the control. Cycloxydim application provided control higher than 75% at 21 days after treatment (DAT) of three accessions, while the majority of E. colona accessions was adequately controlled by the application of florpyrauxifen-benzyl. The response of the different accessions to glyphosate varied. The results of the glyphosate dose-response experiment revealed that the GR50 values of the resistant E. colona accessions ET2 and ET4 were up to 1098 and 1220 g a.e. ha−1 of glyphosate, respectively, whereas the GR50 value of the susceptible accession (FT5) was only 98 g a.e. ha−1. The resistance indices of ET2 and ET4 were 12.4 and 11.2, respectively, indicating that they have already developed resistance to glyphosate. Three more accessions could be also of developing resistant to glyphosate. This is the first report of glyphosate resistance from E. colona accessions in Greece, with indications of multiple resistance also present. Further research is needed in order to evaluate the efficacy of several herbicides under different soil and climatic conditions, conduct baseline sensitivity studies, reveal the evolvement of resistance patterns to glyphosate from accessions of Echinochloa spp., and search for alternative options of weed management in annual and perennial crops due to the clear indications of multiple resistance situations.

Decision support systems (DSS) have the potential to support farmers to make the right decisions in weed management. DSSs can select the appropriate herbicides for a given field and suggest the minimum dose rates for an herbicide application that can result in optimum weed control. Given that the adoption of DSSs may lead to decreased herbicide inputs in crop production, their potential for creating eco-friendly and profitable weed management strategies is obvious and desirable for the re-designing of farming systems on a more sustainable basis. Nevertheless, it is difficult to stimulate farmers to use DSSs as it has been noticed that farmers have different expectations of decision-making tools depending on their farming styles and usual practices. The function of DSSs requires accurate assessments of weeds within a field as input data; however, capturing the data can be problematic. The development of future DSSs should target to enhance weed management tactics which are less reliant on herbicides. DSSs should also provide information regarding weed seedbank dynamics in the soil in order to suggest management options not only within a single period but also in a rotational view. More aspects ought to be taken into account and further research is needed in order to optimize the practical use of DSSs for supporting farmers regarding weed management issues in various crops and under various soil and climatic conditions.

Glyphosate retention, absorption and translocation with and without adjuvant were examined in Lolium rigidum and Conyza canadensis in greenhouse and laboratory settings to develop an understanding of the influence of the selected adjuvant on glyphosate activity. Tests on whole plants show that the dose of herbicide needed to reduce dry weight by 50% (GR50) or plant survival (LD50) decreases by mixing glyphosate and adjuvant to 22%−24% and 42%−44% for both populations of L. rigidum and C. canadensis, respectively. This improvement in efficacy could be attributed to the higher herbicide retention and lower contact angle of the glyphosate + adjuvant drops on the leaf surface compared to the glyphosate solution alone. Plants of both species treated with 14C-glyphosate + adjuvant absorbed more glyphosate compared to non-adjuvant addition. Furthermore, the movement of the herbicide through the plant was faster and greater with the adjuvant. Our results reveal that the use of adjuvants improves the effectiveness of glyphosate in two of the most important weeds in agricultural crops in Mediterranean countries.

Sorghum halepense (L.) Pers is a common and noxious worldwide weed of increasing distribution in many European countries. In the present review, information on the biology, ecology, agricultural, economic and environmental impact of johnsongrass is given, and the current status of this weed in Europe is discussed. Furthermore, special attention is given to the important role of field trials using glyphosate to control weeds in arable and perennial crops in many European countries. Some of the factors which affect control efficacy and should be taken into account are also discussed. Finally, several non-chemical alternative methods (cultural, mechanical, thermal, biological, etc.) for johnsongrass management are also presented. The adoption of integrated weed management (IWM) techniques such as glyphosate use, crop rotation, and deep tillage is strongly recommended to control plant species that originate from both seed and rhizomes.

A century ago, the Greek-Turkish War of 1919-1922 (Turkish War of Liberation/Asia Minor Campaign) was reaching its culmination point. The war was also fought in the pages of the Press. In this study, we look at the characteristics of the caricatures marshalled in the war effort by three publications. The Greek newspaper Skrip, and the Turkish satirical magazines Karagöz and Güleryüz. We find that most expectations based on semiotics and the concept of interstate rivalry are borne out. Depictions of the 'Other' are generally negative. That said we also find that Skrip dedicated the majority of its caricatures to targeting the internal 'Other', the Venizelist faction during the National Schism, in contrast to the more focused targeting of the Greek 'Other' by the Turkish publications. This finding indicates the dominance of domestic conflicts over the external conflict even during the inflation point of the Greek-Turkish Interstate Rivalry of 1866-1925. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective weed control in perennial crops is a challenge due to the limited availability of registered herbicides and herbicide resistance. The objective of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of the herbicide GF-2581 (penoxsulam + florasulam) on broadleaf weeds in comparison with other commonly used herbicides. Field trials were conducted in olives, in Etoloakarnania (Agrinio region) for two years (2012 and 2013). Efficacy assessments were made at 30, 60, 90 and 120 days after treatment. The GF-2581 formulation provided excellent control of a broad spectrum of broadleaf weed species. The long-term control of Sonchus oleraceous, Conyza canadensis and Stellaria media, provided by GF-2581 during the growing season was significantly greater than that using flumioxazin. When combined with glyphosate or diquat, the level of control of these three weeds was improved. The GF-2581 agent applied pre-emergence followed 14 days later by application of glyphosate provided 100% control in 2012. Lower efficacy levels were observed in 2013 and may have been the result of higher rainfall when compared to 2012. GF-2581 is an effective herbicide product to control broadleaf weeds, as a part of integrated weed control management strategies in olives.

Great burnet (Sanguisorba officinalis L.) and small burnet (Sansguisorba minor Scop.) are edible, perennial weeds widely distributed in the world. These are the most widespread Sanguisorba species. The bioactive components of Sanguisorba plants include phenolics (phenolic acids, flavonoids and neolignans) and terpenoids. Large potential exists to use burnets as medicinal plants. Sanguisorba species are known to show anticancer properties, antioxidative, antimicrobial and antiviral activities. Also, Sanguisorba extracts show anti-Alzheimer and anti-inflammatory properties. Small burnet extracts could also be a useful alternative to synthetic fungicides for crop production. This review focuses on biological activities of Sanguisorba extracts and emphasizing their potential applications in pharmaceutical areas.

Development of perceptual-cognitive motor skills is a crucial factor influencing soccer training and competition. The aim of the study was to examine the effects of neuromuscular coordination, proprioceptive and balance exercises on physiological attributes and technical skills in female soccer. Female soccer players competing in Greek A Division (N = 48) were assigned to intervention (N1 = 24) and control groups (N2 = 24). The Proprioceptive Training Intervention Program (PTIP) lasted approximately 20 min and was implemented five times per week for 16 weeks. It was hypothesized that the PTIP in addition to a regular training programme would significantly affect female soccer player perceptual-cognitive-motor capability as it was estimated with physiological attributes ( V ˙ O2max and agility) and motor performance soccer technical skills (juggling, heading, shooting, passing, and dribbling). All performance variables were measured prior and after the 16-weeks PTIP. Groups by Measures (2 × 2) ANOVAs with repeated measures on the second factor revealed that the intervention group decreased percent body fat and improved V ˙ O2max and all technical skills in comparison to the control group after the PTIP (p < 0.05). The findings demonstrate the beneficial role of a proprioceptive training programme on both physiological attributes and technical skills in female soccer. Practical implications include the application of the intervention programme for monitoring and developing soccer players while also the use of the assessment tests to evaluate players. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Naphthoquinone (1,4-NQ) and its derivatives (NQs, juglone, plumbagin, 2-methoxy-1,4-NQ, and menadione) have a variety of therapeutic applications, many of which are attributed to redox cycling and the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). We previously demonstrated that NQs also oxidize hydrogen sulfide (H2S) to reactive sulfur species (RSS), potentially conveying identical benefits. Here we use RSS-specific fluorophores, mass spectroscopy, EPR and UV-Vis spectrometry, and oxygen-sensitive optodes to examine the effects of thiols and thiol-NQ adducts on H2S-NQ reactions. In the presence of glutathione (GSH) and cysteine (Cys), 1,4-NQ oxidizes H2S to both inorganic and organic hydroper-/hydropolysulfides (R2Sn, R=H, Cys, GSH; n = 2–4) and organic sulfoxides (GSnOH, n = 1, 2). These reactions reduce NQs and consume oxygen via a semiquinone intermediate. NQs are also reduced as they form adducts with GSH, Cys, protein thiols, and amines. Thiol, but not amine, adducts may increase or decrease H2S oxidation in reactions that are both NQ- and thiol-specific. Amine adducts also inhibit the formation of thiol adducts. These results suggest that NQs may react with endogenous thiols, including GSH, Cys, and protein Cys, and that these adducts may affect both thiol reactions as well as RSS production from H2S. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]