Tree Fruit Breeding Part 2

Tree Fruit Breeding Part 2

Tree Fruit Breeding Part 2. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

Kate Evans, Associate Professor with WSU recently spoke with members of the Washington Hort Association and took a few minutes to talk about each of the team members and some of the work they are doing. WSU tree fruit breeding program is one of the top programs in the nation and Evans says that some of their advisory teams are part of the reason.

EVANS: These guys have been putting in an awful lot to the program. They’ve been really, really useful in terms of giving us direction and feedback and have worked particularly hard this year. They’re providing inputs as I said in terms of priorities and directions not just for the breeding program but also the genetics and genomics programs.

She says they help keep the research on track since it’s easy to get side tracked by other interesting pieces. And they are not just armchair advisors.

EVANS: My advisory committee has been putting in an awful lot of time this last year looking at elite selections, doing field visits, looking at material on the tree and also post harvest. And they’ve also spent a lot of time in this last year working on the development of an evaluation and commercialization plan for new releases from the program.

Evans gives a lot of credit to the Tree Fruit Research Commission.

EVANS: Who have provided some underpinning funding to a majority of people within this team. We’re not just insular. We’re not just focusing on people who are here in the state. But I think it’s important for us to not lose sight of the real output of all of this work is, we’re talking about new, improved varieties that are especially selected for the conditions here in Washington State.

That’s today’s Fruit Grower Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.

Previous ReportTree Fruit Breeding
Next ReportMexico Tariff