Cherry Technology Part 2
Cherry Technology Part 2. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report.
Dr. Matt Whiting with WSU-IAREC recently discussed some of the new and possible technologies that would be driving the cherry industry into the future. He looked at these technologies from a ground up approach.
WHITING: (If we) ask this question what would the orchard of the future look like, it's going to have an above ground portion, design, it's going to have a rootstock portion as well and we can take a look at those portions individually. The design portion is going to be looking for new cultivar development and you're familiar with the Pacific Northwest Sweet Cherry breeding program. This was revived in 2004 and happy to announce that there is one elite selection from that revived program.
He says this selection is being advanced into stage three of testing.
WHITING: Another point I want to make here though as we think about cultivar development, there is a specific mandate that's supported by the industry. It's not a big part of the program. It's in fact 10% or less of the strategic hybridizations are made to develop cherries that would be suitable for mechanical or from a mechanically assisted harvest.
And Whiting says this has been a very collaborative effort.
WHITING: So we are working on that next generation of rootstocks. This is a program that is a collaborative one between my program, the Tree Fruit Research Commission as well it's being led by Michigan StateUniversity. We began this almost a decade ago and we're at the point now of having identified five promising yet very dwarfing rootstocks.
That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.
