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The cider apple rules

I really didn’t give the short piece on the conservation of cider apple varieties in England a second thought when it first came out on the BBC a few days ago.

Hundreds of varieties of rare cider apples are being planted across England after being donated to the National Trust by a collector.
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They were grown over 25 years by Henry May, who wanted to save old apple varieties in danger of disappearing.

Sure, I shared it, because it’s always nice to see names like Netherton Late Blower and Slack-ma-Girdle make it to prime time, but that’s about it.

I should have paid more attention, and I’m grateful to Julian Jackson for making some good points on LinkedIn.

Nice to see the National Fruit Collection’s image credited — even if their overarching work to support UK apple genetic resources conservation didn’t get a mention!! (The article should have highlighted the complementary role these new gardens could have to the existing cider collection at the National Fruit Collection ((Which has a Twitter feed, FYI.)) rather than suggesting these will be primary resources!!)

Julian looks after the British national germplasm collections for DEFRA, and should know. Here’s hoping these new collections and that at Brogdale get properly integrated.

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Brainfood: Cajanus breeding, Saline rice, Temperate perennial fodder, Andean beans, Seed microbes

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Multiplying rice

Speaking of genebank multiplication plots, I’m told this is the best time of year to stroll through rice ones, and get an idea of the diversity on display. Here’s the evidence, courtesy of our friends at IRRI.

rice plots

The genebank tries to alternate early- and late-maturing varieties when regenerating accessions, as you can clearly see from this Google Earth shot from March last year, half way through the harvest (the coordinates are 14.15°N 121.26°E, in case you want to check for yourself, and here’s the kmz file).

IRRI multiplication plots

Meanwhile, the Nordic genebank is struggling with its multiplication.

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Rebuilding the ICARDA collection

You’ll probably remember this statement four months ago from ICARDA’s Director General, Dr Mahmoud Solh. It was, after all, everywhere:

ICARDA requested some of its stored material in Svalbard in order to reconstitute the active collection in both Morocco and Lebanon in large bulks to meet requests for germplasm from the collections we have to meet the challenges facing dry areas globally. Once we multiply these varieties, ICARDA will return part of it to Svalbard as another duplicated set.

The seeds were duly retrieved by ICARDA genebank staff, and the work of multiplication is now in full swing, in both Morocco and Lebanon. Here’s the evidence, thanks to a picture tweeted by ICARDA durum wheat breeder Dr Filippo Bassi earlier today:

regen