Location: Horticultural Crops Production and Genetic Improvement Research Unit
Project Number: 2072-21000-060-014-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Sep 1, 2024
End Date: Oct 31, 2025
Objective:
1. Develop new red raspberry cultivars adapted to the Pacific Northwest that are machine harvestable, have excellent fruit quality, abiotic stress tolerance, and resistance to diseases of commercial importance, such as phytophthora root rot and raspberry bushy dwarf virus.
2. Trial and develop new strawberry cultivars with emphasis on excellent fruit quality and disease resistance.
Approach:
Traditional plant breeding methods will be used, recurrent cycles of controlled crosses, evaluation, selection, and recombination. The evaluations will focus on machine harvestability in plantings commercially managed by a cooperating grower, as well as yield, fruit size, fruit firmness, other fresh and processed quality parameters, and response to diseases and pests of economic importance in the region. New methods of evaluation and selection will be developed as needed.
