Longer Shelf Life

As much as a turkey is an integral part of the Thanksgiving meal so to are cranberries. Work being done at WSU Mount Vernon would help extend the cranberry season. The Ag Networks Lacy Gray has more.

GRAY: Cranberries are a $385.5-million-per-year industry in the U.S. and with a fair share of that coming out of Washington State. New disease research has hopes of giving the fruit a longer shelf life. Frank Caruso, the new adjunct professor at Washington State University Mount Vernon formerly with the U Mass Cranberry Station says farmers can lose up to 30% of their crop to rot and he hopes this research will help growers reduce that number. He is studying which fungi species are contributing to rot in the field and in storage.Once the fungi are identified, Caruso will correlate his findings with growers' fungicide applications. This will help determine what changes are needed to reduce loss due to rot in the crop.

Thanks Lacy. Most of the northwest cranberry crop goes to producer Ocean Spray which means it will likely end up on your dining room table this year. Caruso's work may help extend the cranberry season beyond the fall and the holidays

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