Category: Breeding

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Grapes of concord

Grape breeders in the US are making hybrids between Vitis labrusca, a species native to the eastern US best known for the Concord variety, and Vitis vinifera, the European grape, in an effort to get the best of both worlds:

By putting in up to 28,000 seedlings yearly, however, Mr. Cain said he hopes to find marketable varieties, maybe from vines planted last year. He also wants varieties that look distinctive, like elongated grapes, to let consumers know they’re something special. “Combining Eastern and Western grapes in California is like bringing some of the best musicians in the world together on the stage,” Mr. Clark said. “Now let’s see what they’re going to play.”

Offhand, I can’t think of another example of an important crop with easily crossable congeneric species endemic to the Old and New Worlds, as is the case with Vitis. But I could be wrong…

LATER: What an idiot, there’s cotton, strawberry, lupins…

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A tale of two apple collections

I’ve already nibbled today’s piece in the Guardian about the UK’s National Fruit Collection at Brogdale, a “typical British story of managerial confusion and government ineptitude,” ((Be sure to read the comments, one of which links to other sources of information on the situation at Brogdale.)) but I couldn’t resist pointing out the contrast with the US apple collection at Geneva in New York, about which I also blogged recently. It does seem like they order these things better across the pond.

Coincidentally, there was also an article today about the diversity of American apples. Here it is in numbers: 2,500 named varieties grown in the country, 100 commercially, 15 accounting for 90% of the harvest.

The dizzying array today might have shocked early Americans. Just a half-dozen wild crab apple varieties awaited British colonists arriving in America in the 17th century. Thousands of hillside orchards soon were planted with the progeny of favored European varieties… like Maiden Blush, Western Beauty, Chenango Strawberry, Roxbury Russet and Westfield Seek No Further.
…

“There were some real jewels among them with great flavors, rich with juices and unusual aromas,” said Tom Burford, an author, lecturer, orchard and nursery consultant from Lynchburg, Va. Burford has been dubbed “Professor Apple” for his extensive work rediscovering antique varieties previously believed extinct.

Is there a British “Professor Apple” out there who will save Brogdale? Or maybe the situation is not as bad as the Guardian piece made out? If you know, drop us a line.

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Mini-watermelons

I had no idea there was such a thing as a mini-watermelon, let alone a mania about them, as suggested by a piece in FreshPlaza. But apparently, in addition to being easier to carry, they’re also good for you. I haven’t been able to find information on how these nutritious, small-fruited varieties were developed, but it does seem to have been through conventional breeding.

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China outbreeds India

A leader in The Hindu asks: “How did China manage to outstrip India in agriculture when the two countries were more or less on a par on most parameters 25 years ago?” It then goes on to list the reasons given by Prof. Huang Jikun, Director of the Centre for Chinese Agricultural Policy, for China’s superior agricultural performance

technological improvements accruing from research and development, investment in rural infrastructure and an increasingly liberalised agricultural policy.

That sounds plausible. But perhaps the most interesting comments were that

the Chinese authorities received and assessed as many as 2,046 applications for the registration of new plant varieties in the five years between 1999 and 2004

while

the number of field crop varieties released by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) actually fell by 50 per cent between 1997 and 2001, despite the fact that there was a sharp and sustained increase in funding for the organisation.

Well, the two statements are not really comparing like with like, but the implied equation of plant breeding output with the overall performance of the agricultural sector is intriguing. I wonder if there’s a worldwide dataset that could be used to test the connection.

Anyway, talking of Indian breeding, there’s an interview in India’s The Statesman with Tamil Nadu Agricultural University vice-chancellor C. Ramasamyan on the effort to improve — and thus revive — traditional rice landraces in that state.