Station News

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A light dusting of snow on the iconic cupola at our Geneva campus

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NYSAES Gifts Brighten Holiday for Geneva Children

This holiday season will be even merrier — and warmer — for nearly two dozen Geneva school children thanks to Cornell’s New York State Agricultural Experiment Station (NYSAES).

Members of the Station community sponsored 23 children from 12 families in the Geneva City School District as part of the Cornell University Elves Program. The Elves Program was founded in 1989 to benefit elementary school students who are in greatest need.

This is the 5th year members of NYSAES have taken part in the program by providing local children with a new outfit of clothes, pajamas, a winter hat, gloves, and a toy.

The support comes from across the Geneva campus: staff, faculty, students, including those in the Student Association of the Geneva Experiment Station (SAGES), as well as members of the New York State Integrated Pest Management and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service based in Geneva all took part.

This year the community also purchased new boots and winter coats for almost all of the children, said Beth Demmings, a postdoctoral associate and VitisGen project manager.

“Each year I am blown away by the overwhelming generosity of this small campus to support families in the greater community of Geneva,” said Demmings, who co-coordinated this year’s event with Jessica Townley.

Station members wrapped the gifts on Dec. 14 during a lunch hosted by the office of Susan Brown, the Goichman Family Director of the NYSAES and the Herman M. Cohn Professor of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

All of the gifts will be delivered to West Street School this week.

NYSAES staff, faculty, students, and NYSIPM Program and USDA-ARS employees sponsored 23 children from 12 families in the Geneva City School District as part of the Cornell University Elves Program. Photo: Beth Demmings

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Geneva saves Cornell Orchards' cider season

Unfavorable apple growing conditions in Ithaca this season nearly crushed a seasonal favorite: Cornell Orchards’ cider. But with the help of Cornell’s New York State Agricultural Experiment Station(NYSAES) in Geneva, New York, the popular beverage pressed right on campus is once again available to the Cornell community.

For a time this fall, the production of Cornell cider seemed in jeopardy. Erratic temperatures and a late spring frost followed by a persistent summer drought spelled trouble for the Ithaca campus apple trees used to make the cider.

While Ithaca’s apples suffered, the orchards 50 miles north in Geneva benefited from slightly more favorable conditions.

Orchards in Ithaca are on lower ground compared with Geneva, where the higher elevation helped apples survive sudden plunges in temperatures, according to Peter Herzeelle, research support specialist at NYSAES. Geneva’s success, however, was relative: Yields this year were down 40 percent compared with the bumper crop of 2015. Generally, Herzeelle said, years that follow such boons tend to produce a smaller harvest. This year many apple varieties felt the sting, especially those that budded early in April.

“We were lucky to have any fruit at all, let alone a decent crop,” said Herzeelle.

In Ithaca, the small apple harvest forced Cornell Orchards farm manager Eric Shatt to look elsewhere for the apples needed to make the 15,000-20,000 gallons of cider typically produced per year.

Shatt reached out to Herzeelle about sourcing juice apples from the orchards in Geneva.

NYSAES came through with about 1,000 bushels of juice grade apples. Shatt said the Orchards have used Geneva apples to supplement cider production in the past but never in such large quantities as this year.

Herzeelle, who works in professor Terence Robinson’s lab studying apples and other fruits such as sweet cherries and peaches, said that supplying the Orchards with apples is an example of collaborative work between the two campuses. “It’s all about moving forward together. We’re all on the same team.”

Cornell Orchards has been producing and selling house-made cider to the public since the store opened in 1952. The cider is available at campus stores and the Cornell Dairy Co-op.

Cider coming off the press at Cornell Orchards. Photo credit: Jason Koski/Cornell Marketing

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Plant Breeders Take Cues From Consumers to Improve Kale

Hannah Swegarden, right, and technician Matt Wavrick transplant a kale cultivar from a research field at the Homer C. Thompson Vegetable Research Farm in Freeville, New York. Photo by Matt Hayes/CALS.

A Cornell program is reimagining kale – its color, shape, and even flavor – in a bid to breed the naturally biodiverse vegetable for consumer satisfaction.

Traits of importance for plant production, such as resistance to disease, pests, and drought, are often a major focus for plant breeders. Consumers, however, are usually more interested in the culinary and aesthetic qualities of vegetables that directly impact their preparation in the kitchen.

Cornell vegetable breeder Phillip Griffiths, a professor in the Horticulture Section of the School of Integrative Plant Science, and doctoral student Hannah Swegarden have embarked on a program to identify the different leaf shapes, colors, flavors, and textures favored by consumers, and breed for those traits.

Kale is the same species as many other important agricultural crops consumed around the world. Cabbage, broccoli, collard, cauliflower, kohlrabi, Brussels sprouts, and kailaan, like kale, are all members of the species Brassica oleracea. The natural genetic diversity available in the species provides opportunities to further develop and promote a nutritionally important crop, according to Griffiths, who first started working with African kale or “sukuma wiki” for Kenyan consumers more than a decade ago. At that time, kale was still relatively uncommon in Western diets.

“We have been able to identify and generate diversity through natural cross-breeding, enabling selection of unique types that may be important not just for international and emerging markets, but also for supporting the production of a crop that’s highly nutritious and can promote new markets in the U.S.,” Griffiths said.

Griffiths and Swegarden are focusing efforts on developing new kale cultivars, including the evaluation of hybrid combinations. New cultivars in Griffiths’ breeding pipeline will push consumer expectations for kale, blurring the current color boundaries of greens and purples and introducing a range of new leaf and plant shapes.

“Kale in the U.S. is a relatively new crop. Aside from being nutritious and somewhat green, it hasn’t been well defined what traits consumers want in kale,” Swegarden said. “The diversity we have within the Cornell breeding program can be applied to understand current consumer preference and provide markets with in-demand products.”

As part of the program, Swegarden has been gathering feedback from seed producers, growers, supermarket managers, and consumers. She plans to use the information to breed for consumer quality traits.

She is partnering with Cornell’s Sensory Evaluation Center to perform consumer trials to develop a consumer kale lexicon and establish a trait hierarchy that can be used to guide the breeding program. This data will determine which hybrids and breeding lines to select in the field. Swegarden predicts that in the next few years consumers will see an even richer diversity of leafy greens available to them.

“We are connecting with consumers to find out exactly what they want, and, if successful, we will be able to deliver marketable cultivars that appeal to both a consumer’s eyes and taste buds,” she said.

The research is supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Specialty Crop Block Grant Program.

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Instagram video by Cornell University CALS • Nov 22, 2016 at 7:05pm UTC

See this Instagram video by @cornelluniversitycals • 3 likes

High-powered apple peeling as members of the Student Association of the Geneva Experiment Station prep apples for pies.

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George Disbrow named 2016 Outstanding Employee

George Disbrow, center, receives the NYSAES Outstanding Employee Award from John Adams and Susan Brown. (Photo: Gemma Osborne/NYSAES)

George Disbrow is well known around Cornell’s New York State Agricultural Experiment Station as someone who gets things done.

Now the vehicle mechanic in the Field Research Unit (FRU) is known as something else: the outstanding employee of the year.

Disbrow earned this year’s honor Nov. 12 at the station’s annual banquet. He is the first FRU member recognized for the award honoring employees for dedication and commitment to the mission of the Station.

Field Research Manager John Adams says that the phrase “it can't be done" is not in Disbrow’s vocabulary.

“He truly understands the high thresholds our stakeholders hold us to and always strives to achieve that level,” said Adams. “Whenever presented with a problem, he will find a solution.”

As a valued member of the FRU, Disbrow is often called upon by others in the unit and by colleagues across the Station on a diverse array of projects because of his skillset and ability to have an impact on the task, according to Adams.

Adams lauded for Disbrow for his flexibility and willingness to take on the many challenging requests fielded by the FRU. 

The award became an annual tradition in 1987 as a way to recognize the achievements of Station employees. The winner receives a plague, gift certificates, and the coveted “Outstanding Employee Parking” sign, allowing the person to park in a spot of their choosing for the year.

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Federal Grants Promote Cornell Pest Management Research

Cornell has been awarded nearly $1.5 million to fund research aimed at promoting safer, more effective pest management. The awards announced Nov. 16 are part of $9.4 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) for projects to help mitigate pests, weeds, and diseases on farms and in communities.

The awards will fund research in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences aimed at protecting major agricultural crops, and a project to implement integrated pest management in affordable housing across the U.S.

Cornell received the largest share of funding among the 16 universities given awards through NIFA's Crop Protection and Pest Management Program (CPPM) and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program.

Towards a durable management strategy for cercospora leaf spot in table beet: $324,856

Investigators: Sarah Pethybridge, assistant professor in the Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology (PPPMB) Section of the School of Integrative Plant Science (SIPS); Julie Kikkert, extension vegetable specialist; Niloofar Vaghefi, postdoctoral associate; and Linda Hanson, USDA-ARS, Michigan

Cercospora leaf spot caused by the fungus, Cercospora beticola, is a major limitation to yield and quality of table beet. Defoliation caused by the fungus can reduce yield and aesthetic value, and make mechanical harvesting impossible, resulting in complete crop loss

The goal of the project is to assess disease forecasting models, generate critical data about the impacts of the fungus, and get information out to growers.

The project term ends August 31, 2018

Integrated management of stemphylium leaf blight in onion in New York:  $189,273

Investigators: Sarah Pethybridge and Frank Hay, senior research associate.

Onion is an important crop in New York, with an annual value of $40.5 million. In recent years growers have noted increased leaf senescence, a problem that can substantially impact yield through preventing onion bulbs from reaching optimum size.

The major goal of this project is to develop an integrated management strategy for control of Stemphylium leaf blight of onion in New York

The project term ends August 31, 2018

Promoting IPM in Affordable Housing: $363,636

Investigator: Steve Young, Director of the Northeastern Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Center and SIPS adjunct assistant professor

The project's primary goal is to successfully implement IPM in at least 50 affordable housing properties, realizing long-term, cost-effective solutions with minimal impact on human health and the environment with maximum impact on the pests.

The project term ends August 31, 2017

Regional Center Plant Diagnostic Facility: $616,033

Investigator: Marc Fuchs, associate professor PPPMB, SIPS, and director of the Northeast Plant Diagnostic Network (NEPDN)

The project is designed for the NEPDN, located at Cornell's New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, NY,  to contribute to the overall mission of the National Plant Diagnostic Network. The overall goal of the project is to safeguard U.S. agricultural crops and natural plant resources against introduced and endemic pathogens and pests.

The project term ends August 31, 2018

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Popular book sale and craft show returns for 39th year

The 39th Annual Experiment Station Book Sale and Craft Show will be held Saturday, Nov. 12 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Jordan Hall, 630 W. North St, Geneva.

A popular tradition at the Station. the fair features holiday decorations, home décor, jewelry, folk art, floral pieces, and much more Over 35 vendors will be on hand, plus hundreds of books will be sold.

Check out the fair’s Facebook page for more information: http://www.facebook.com/nysaes.craft.fair/

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Stories to savor: Cornell’s latest strawberry variety and a squash that signals its ripeness, both bred at NYSAES, are featured in the latest issue of PeriodiCALS.

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Geneva project explores ways to improve Northeast grape growing

A research geneticist at Cornell’s New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, NY is teaming up with researchers from across the country to map genetic traits in grapevine roots in order to uncover the ways genes interact with the environment. The research aims to optimize the productivity and environmental resilience of grapevines, potentially pointing to new ways to improve grape growing in the Northeast.  

Jason Londo, adjunct associate professor in the Horticulture Section of the School of Integrative Plant Science and a geneticist in the USDA-ARS Grape Genetics Unit, is collaborating on a joint project focusing on four different climates in the U.S. as part of a five-year, $4.6 million National Science Foundation project.  The portion of the grant awarded to the USDA-ARS during this project is $1.13 million dollars.

Londo and his collaborators are using grapevine as a research model for understanding the interaction between genes and the environment. Measuring the relative contribution of genetics and the environment has traditionally been difficult because it requires genetically identical individuals in order to discern the effects triggered by climate, soil type and other factors.

For the project, several different experiments have been designed to examine how different rootstock varieties impact cultivated grape scions.  At an experimental vineyard in Geneva, the cultivated hybrid grape ‘Marquette’ will be grafted to 200 different rootstocks from a mapping population. Londo will be measuring how the rootstock influences a suite of important traits for growing grapes in New York, which include cold hardiness, dormancy, nutrient uptake, and plant architecture.

“This research project should provide important information about how much of the grapevine scion can be controlled by the genetic architecture of the rootstock,” Londo said. “By examining the productivity and growth of the grafted scion on these genetically different roots, it should be possible to understand and optimize the productivity and environmental resilience of grapevines.”

Londo said the major goal of the research is mapping genetic traits in the roots and understanding how those traits interact with different environments. Other research sites in California, Missouri and South Dakota will provide baselines in which to compare results with the New York site.

“The threat of climate change has the potential to greatly impact grapevine production in the Northeast by changing precipitation rates and impacting winter weather stability, and this project will help determine how best to optimize growth in an increasingly dynamic climate,” he said.

Londo will be working with researchers from Saint Louis University, University of Missouri, Missouri State University, Danforth Plant Center and Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis.

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Produce Safety Alliance leads effort to train growers on new produce safety rules

Cornell is leading a national alliance aimed at improving the safety of fresh produce and helping fruit and vegetable growers meet new regulatory requirements of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).

The act, signed by President Barack Obama in 2011, was prompted by multiple high-profile foodborne illness outbreaks associated with many different food items, including chicken, peanut butter and cantaloupe. The law marked the biggest overhaul of federal oversight in the food industry since the 1930s and shifted the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) focus from investigating foodborne illness outbreaks to preventing them.

Since the act’s passage, the FDA has worked to develop regulations that meet the requirements of the FSMA, and has provided funding to facilitate education and outreach. For rules governing fresh produce, the FDA and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) tapped Cornell to lead the Produce Safety Alliance, tasked with training growers to understand and implement the provisions with the FSMA Produce Safety Rule.

Based in Cornell’s New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, New York, the Produce Safety Alliance has spent the past four years developing a nationwide Grower Training Curriculum. This involved creating working committees with partners across the country, hosting focus groups with farmers and working closely with the FDA to make sure the curriculum reflects expectations outlined in the regulations.

The alliance recently began holding Train-the-Trainer courses nationwide that allow extension educators to implement their training by guiding fresh fruit and vegetable farmers and packers in practices that will protect the nation’s food supply. The trainers will work throughout the country and internationally to help growers and packers prepare their operations for FSMA compliance.

“Fresh fruits and vegetables are good for you – they reduce heart disease and risks for certain types of cancer, and help in maintenance of a healthy weight, but there are food safety risks in the production environment because produce is grown in nature, under open skies. Risks can be found in things that come into contact with fresh produce, such as soil, water and workers’ hands,” said Betsy Bihn, a senior extension associate in the Department of Food Science who directs the Produce Safety Alliance. “The purpose of the Produce Safety Alliance is to help growers reduce whatever risks there may be and make produce as safe as it can possibly be.”

The new rules will empower the FDA to conduct on-farm inspections, much as they already do for food processing plants and restaurants. They’ll be looking for things like proper application of manure, bathroom and sanitation facilities for workers, and appropriate worker training to ensure proper sanitation practices occur in fields and packinghouses. There are also provisions requiring farmers to test water that comes into contact with fresh produce if that water comes from a source other than a municipal water source.

The biggest growers – those who sell more than $500,000 worth of produce each year – must begin complying with the new regulations in January 2018. Farms with produce sales between $250,000 and $500,000 have until January 2019 to comply, and farms with sales between $25,000 and $250,000 have until January 2020. Farms that sell less than $25,000 worth of produce each year are exempted from the rules, and other exemptions that may apply to some growers.

“Despite the fact that some growers may be eligible for exemptions or otherwise excluded from the FSMA Produce Safety Rule requirements, the Produce Safety Alliance curriculum has valuable information for all growers. It is important for growers to understand laws that impact the industry as a whole and it is likely many buyers will require growers to follow the FSMA Produce Safety Rules whether or not growers are subject to the rule requirements.” said Bihn.

For more information on the Produce Safety Alliance, go to http://producesafetyalliance.cornell.edu/.

Betsy Bihn

This article also appeared in the Cornell Chronicle.

Krisy Gashler is a freelance writer for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. 

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$1M expands food safety capabilities at Geneva campus

NextGen Food Technology Initiative “hub for food-system innovation”

Above: Olga Padilla-Zakour, professor and chair of the Department of Food Science, Kathryn Boor, the Ronald P. Lynch Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, state Sen. Michael Nozzolio '73, M.S. '77, R-54th Dist., Susan Brown, the Goichman Family Director of the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, and Betsy Bihn, executive director of the Institute for Food Safety at Cornell. Photo credit: Patrick Cameron/Provided.

By Matt Hayes

Building on its capacity as a center for food safety innovation, Cornell’s New York State Agricultural Experiment Station (NYSAES) in Geneva, New York, is poised to expand its food development and technology commercialization capabilities with $1 million in new state funding.

Announced Sept. 16 by state Sen. Michael Nozzolio, R-54th Dist., and leaders in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the funding will be used to advance NYSAES’ next-generation equipment and cement its leadership position in food product development, food safety verification and training. Additionally, funds will enhance communications between the Geneva and Ithaca campuses to improve collaboration among researchers and students, growers and food processors.

Called the NextGen Food Technology Initiative, the program brings novel technologies, such as nonthermal processing equipment, to preserve and extend the shelf life of active, natural ingredients in food. Cornell will also stake out a leadership position in the development of new technologies for food safety validation tests required of food processors as they comply with stricter food safety mandates from the Food Safety and Modernization Act.

The new initiative will be housed in the Food Venture Center, part of the Institute for Food Safety that launched in December 2015 to connect food safety training and applied research to protect against the rise of foodborne illness.

“The New York State Agricultural Experiment Station is a comprehensive resource for a wide range of basic and applied research that serves our farmers and food industry, from breeding new plants for the field to keeping foods safe to the plate,” said Kathryn Boor, the Ronald P. Lynch Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. “With the support of Senator Nozzolio, New York state and our private industry partners, we are turning this campus into a hub for food-system innovation.”

To meet consumer demand for natural products that have food labels listing familiar ingredients, technologies like the electrospinning unit allow encapsulation of natural ingredients to promote stability and increase shelf life. Electrospinning uses an electrically charged jet of a polymer solution that produces fibers and particles at micron- and nano-scale level for enhanced stability and design of novel food packaging materials.

“This approach expedites our movement toward foods with clean labels and enables the design of healthier and more stable foods by replacing artificial ingredients with natural ingredients, as well as the design of smart packaging materials,” said Olga Padilla-Zakour, professor and chair of the Department of Food Science.

The funding will give Cornell an edge in product development of foods that retain more nutrients than those processed with traditional heat-pasteurization. Included in the grant is the purchase of pulse electric field technology. Instead of using heat, the nonthermal process uses low levels of energy at fast rates to extract juices from fruits, vegetables and foods that previously had to be discarded. The equipment can extract valuable components from waste material, such as apple or grape pomace, to create juices that retain fresh flavor and nutrients.

A modern communications infrastructure will improve collaborations among researchers in Geneva and Ithaca. Improved webcast connections for meetings and seminars give graduate students and postdoctoral researchers added capabilities to collaborate across campus.

“From researchers developing plants for natural dyes to scientists working with this new equipment to stabilize those colors, the station will be integral in helping New York growers and entrepreneurs meet consumers’ desire for simpler labels with familiar ingredients,” said Susan Brown, the Goichman Family Director of NYSAES.

Since its inception, the Food Venture Center has helped commercialize more than 13,000 food products. The center serves more than 3,000 companies each year, including many startups.

“We are fortunate here in the Finger Lakes to be home to one of the world’s top agricultural research centers. Funding the NextGen Food Tech Initiative, along with the other investments that have been made at the station, will help provide farmers and food processors, as well Cornell scientists, with new opportunities to expand and grow New York’s farm and food community,” said Nozzolio.

Matt Hayes is managing editor and social media officer for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

This story originally appeared in the Cornell Chronicle.

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NYSAES project aims to bring broccoli industry to East Coast

In August, the Eastern Broccoli Project led by Associate Professor Thomas Björkman received $2 million in continued USDA funding as the Cornell-led interdisciplinary team strives to create a $100 million annual broccoli industry on the East Coast by 2021.

In early September Björkman harvested much of the broccoli from this season’s research plots at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, NY. The project is working across the entire food system to give consumers fresher, tastier broccoli and establish a sustainable industry for growers in New York and the Northeast all the way to Florida. 

Learn more about the effort at the Eastern Broccoli Project website: http://www.hort.cornell.edu/bjorkman/lab/broccoli/eobjectives.php

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Archer, newest Cornell strawberry, finds the mark

Strawberry fans, rejoice. The newest Cornell strawberry variety concentrates intense flavor in a berry big enough to fill the palm of your hand.

Topping out at over 50 grams, Archer, the latest creation from Cornell berry breederCourtney Weber, is comparable in size to a plum or small peach. But this behemoth stands out in ways beyond just its proportions: the flavor and aroma exceed what you’d expect from a strawberry of such unusual size.

“Archer is an extraordinarily high-flavored berry,” said Weber, associate professor in theHorticulture Section of the School of Integrative Plant Science. “It has an intense aroma, so when you bite into it you get a strong strawberry smell, and it’s very sweet, so you get a strong strawberry flavor that really makes an impact.”

Weber says the combination of large fruit and strong flavor hits the sweet spot for local growers who sell in farmers markets, u-pick sites and roadside stands. Archer ripens in June and holds its large size through multiple harvests for two to three weeks.

“Strawberries are the ultimate summertime fruit that signal the start of the summer season. People love that vivid flavor, and Archer delivers a complex, sunny aroma and taste that just screams summer,” said Weber. “Consumers have a real preference for large berries, and with fruits that can be as big as the palm of your hand, Archer really draws people’s attention and fills baskets quickly. It’s larger on average than any of the dozens of strawberry varieties we’ve tested over the years.”

Courtney Weber, associate professor in the School of Integrative Plant Science, at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station (NYSAES) in Geneva, New York.

And this big berry is no wimp: The cold-hardy variety is tough enough to withstand winters, making it suitable for growing in diverse climates throughout New York as well as in places like Michigan and Minnesota and along the Mid-Atlantic from Maryland into the Northeast.

Weber’s strawberries are bred to be hardy. He breeds in a perennial system without soil fumigation so that only the most robust varieties thrive. With a durable root system, this high-yield variety is tolerant to root rots and other common diseases.

Fruit breeding has a long history at Cornell, which has introduced more than 280 fruit varieties since 1880. The berry breeding program is the oldest of its kind in the U.S., and Archer is the 43rd strawberry variety released by the program, and the fifth by Weber, who joined Cornell in 1999. Other recent releases include the Herriot strawberry, a high-yielding midseason variety, and the burgundy-colored Walker sold exclusively by Burpee Seed as Purple Wonder. Archer is the largest strawberry ever released at Cornell’s New York State Agricultural Experiment Station (NYSAES) in Geneva, New York.

Weber selected for Archer in 2001 from the first field he planted at NYSAES, and it has been under field evaluation for many years. Final field testing was done on the farms of members of the New York State Berry Growers Association. Archer has been licensed to Krohne Plant Farms in Hartford, Michigan, through the Center for Technology Licensing at Cornell University, and plants can be obtained for spring 2017 planting atwww.krohneplantfarms.com or by calling 269-424-5423.

Photos by Rob Way

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Horticulture Graduate Field Review

Via Cornell Horticulture Blog 

Faculty, graduate students and staff associated with the Graduate Field of Horticulture held their biannual Field of Horticulture Graduate Student Reviews and Field Meeting August 19 in Jordan Hall at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station (NYSAES), Geneva, N.Y.

Seventeen students and three faculty gave 2-minute/2-slide flash presentations about their research progress, in addition to two longer talks. During breaks, students presented posters providing more details about their work.

Horticulture chair Steve Reiners used the occasion to present NYSAES director Susan Brown with the Wilder Award from the American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS) recognizing the contributions of her apple breeding work to advancements in pomology.

Graduate Field of Horticulture, August 19, 2016. Photos by Craig Cramer.

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Two specialty crop projects receive over $6M in USDA grants

The grants to professors at Cornell’s New York State Agricultural Experiment Station will fund research into apple root stock and broccoli production

By Krishna Ramanujan

Cornell University researchers are working on speeding up development, evaluation and adoption of new apple rootstocks and building a $100 million East Coast broccoli industry through new cultivars.

These are two Cornell-led projects that received United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture grants Aug. 2 for specialty crop research and extension investments.

Nationwide, 19 awards totaling $36.5 million were given for agriculture and extension to support American farmers growing fruits and vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits, ornamentals and nursery crops. The two Cornell-led grants were the only ones awarded to New York state projects.

A project to develop, evaluate and adopt new apple rootstock technologies to improve profits for apple growers and sustain the apple industry received $4,281,618 million.

“Great apples start from the ground up, and I applaud Senators Gillibrand and Schumer for recognizing the importance of rootstock and for their support of this crucial program,” said Kathryn J. Boor, the Ronald P. Lynch Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. “This project will not only provide Americans with sustainably produced, healthy, high-quality fruit, but will also ensure that U.S. farmers remain competitive in international markets.”

Lailiang Cheng, project director and professor of horticultural physiology, will lead a national team to improve the economic and environmental sustainability of current apple production systems by focusing on rootstocks (the part of the tree below ground) that improve disease resistance, fruit quality and yield, and tolerate environmental stresses.

Currently, the U.S. apple industry widely uses rootstocks that are vulnerable to replant disease, which causes apple trees to grow poorly when planted on old orchard sites. These apple rootstocks are also susceptible to soil stresses including low and high soil pH, salinity and nutrient stress. These biotic and abiotic stresses lead to fruit losses that cost U.S. apple growers more than $300 million per year.

“The deficiencies of current rootstocks create an urgency to develop and adopt new, improved rootstock varieties,” Cheng said. “However, to prevent costly mistakes in planting inferior rootstocks, there is a critical need to thoroughly evaluate new candidate rootstocks before we adopt them.”

The research will test potential new rootstocks and identify genetic markers in them for root traits related to replant disease and soil stress tolerance. The team aims to improve fruit quality of high-value cultivars, such as Honeycrisp.

The group also plans to incorporate new digital outreach strategies, such as using Twitter, webinars and eXtension, as well as traditional extension efforts to inform U.S. apple growers of their findings.

New York is one of the top three apple-growing states, along with Washington and Michigan.

Project co-directors include Cornell faculty members Terence Robinson, Bradley Rickard, and Gennaro Fazio, and several researchers from the USDA-Agricultural Research Service, Washington State University, University of Idaho, Utah State University and Michigan State University.

Also, an ongoing, interdisciplinary project to develop a $100 million East Coast broccoli industry, led by Thomas Bjorkman, project director and associate professor of horticulture, received a grant of $2,019,142 million.

Though broccoli is a popular vegetable in the eastern U.S., summer nights are too warm and humid for current varieties. Instead, broccoli is grown in the water-scarce West and trucked from there.

Last year, the project team began commercial-scale plantings and tests of new hybrids of broccoli varieties that tolerate eastern heat and humidity.

The project, which began in 2011, aims to establish the new industry by 2021 and takes a systems approach that includes breeders, production specialists and market developers, and incorporates industry partners in every area.

Once complete, the new industry will produce an important vegetable locally, promote economic development in depressed East Coast communities, and reduce the use of fossil fuels for transportation and irrigation water in the western U.S.

“Our vision is to create a regional food network for an increasingly important and nutritious vegetable that may serve as a model for other specialty crops,” Bjorkman said.

Project co-directors include researchers from Cornell, North Carolina State University, the University of Tennessee and the USDA-ARS.

“The Specialty Crop Research Initiative allows horticultural researchers to tackle large-scale challenges through the application of basic science and collaboration with multiple sectors of industry, providing them the means to make a positive difference in society from field to fork,” said Boor.

This article originally appeared in the Cornell Chronicle.

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Smart, Bogdanove earn awards for plant disease research

A pair of CALS plant disease experts earned honors from the American Phytopathological Society (APS) for their leadership and scientific contributions.

Adam Bogdanove and Christine Smart, both of the Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology Section in the School of Integrated Plant Science, were recognized at the APS Annual Meeting July 30-Aug. 3 in Tampa, FL.

Bogdanove, Ph. D. ’97, earned the Noel T. Keen Award for Research Excellence in Molecular Plant Pathology. He was selected for this prestigious award in part for the fundamental advances he has made in the understanding of bacterial pathogenesis of plants. Most notably, he was credited for developing genome editing methods inspired by molecular plant pathology, and for furthering understanding of the Xanthomonas-rice interaction. That finding has the potential to impact the control of two important diseases of rice. 

Smart was named an APS Fellow in recognition of her distinguished contributions to plant pathology, including her work as a communicator and teacher. The APS lauded Smart for furthering the understanding of the biology of vegetable pathogens to enable improved disease management, and for her leadership roles. She serves as senior editor of APS Press, as a former associate editor for the journals Plant Disease and Phytopathology, and in various leadership positions across her field.

Christine Smart, center, was named an APS Fellow at the annual meeting. She received the honor from former APS president Rick Bennett and current president Sally Miller. Photo provided.

Bogdanove, Ph. D. ’97, earned the Noel T. Keen Award for Research Excellence in Molecular Plant Pathology from APS. Credit: Sheryl Sinkow.