North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Thetes_Mark_Straka" <ling.mark@msa.hinet.net>]

Dear Group:

 

Thanks for the replies.  I enjoyed the one about the hawk on the fishing line, and have realized that I lack a knowledge of basic botany and its terminology.

 

Mr. Pittman:

 

My twenty acres are in Clay County, Arkansas, near the bootheel.  I appreciate your advice.  I have already joined the NNGA, have purchased some of the reference works from TPGA, have bought Mr. Sparks' book on cultivars, and have been doing much rewarding reading on the other sites you mentioned.  Ninety percent of these works don't get overly technical.  Still, when I hit words like "orthotropic" or "schlerenchyma," it's like I hit a brick wall.  I never studied Latin, or biology, or botany, or entomology, or horticulture per se--that's the problem.  Rather than buy a lot of books and scour through them, I'd like to know how others like myself have dealt with this impasse.  Is there a nice botanical dictionary in existence? Ironically, I am an English teacher, soon to retire.  I am not intimidated by the terminology at all; I'm very interested in learning them.  I would simply like to find a resource that contains all or most of these terms, defined and illustrated.  It seems that I should invest in a comprehensive botany text.  Will anyone make a suggestion? 

 

And, for those who enjoy language for its own sake, when I was writing the subject of this mail, I was stumped by the word that denotes the opposite of "decoy:" a thing like a decoy the purpose of which is to repel rather than attract.  "Repellant?"  That seems to denote a chemical.   What's the proper English word for a "scare-crow?"  Just curious.

 

Thanks again,

Arkansas Mark

 

 

Message: 4
Date: Tue, 27 Jul 2004 10:19:17 -0500
From: Lucky Pittman <lucky.pittman@murraystate.edu>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Scare Tactics and a Reference Book -
Recommendations?
To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID: <5.1.0.14.0.20040727100647.02237c88@mail.murraystate.edu">5.1.0.14.0.20040727100647.02237c88@mail.murraystate.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

At 08:37 AM 7/27/2004 -0700, Mark wrote:
>I'm trying to read Fred Brison's Pecan Culture, but I'm having trouble
>getting through Chapter Two.  It is laced with vocabulary like: pericycle,
>acropetal, xylem, parenchyma, schlerenchyma, medullary ray tissue,
>abscission, sessile flowers, bract, apical dominance, perianth, peduncle,
>and I could go on.  I am in bad need of some reference work that will get
>me up to speed (hopefully illustrated!) and I'm soliciting recommendations
>right now.

You don't say where you're located, but I'd recommend visiting/joining:
Northern Nut Growers Association - http://www.northernnutgrowers.org - lots
of information on pecans,  other nut species, and minor
fruits(pawpaw/persimmon), as well as a good lending library you can access
for more info.
TX Pecan Growers Association - http://www.tpga.org/ -  and TPGA's quarterly
publication, 'Pecan South'; and there may be a state/regional pecan or
nutgrowers association in your area that you should look into.

Dr. Darryl Sparks & Wes Rice each have what looks to be a good book on
pecan culture - probably ought to give them a look

TAMU, NMSU, & OkSU all have some good online info on pecans, as does my
alma mater, Auburn University.

ATTRA has some pecan info, including this -
http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/pecan.html

Well, that ought to get you started.



Lucky Pittman
USDA Cold Zone 6
AHS Heat Zone 7
Hopkinsville, KY