2012 - Washington Red Raspberry Commission

• Identify and select raspberries with dark red fruit for processing that also exhibit characteristics
that are suited for IQF processing
• Identify hardy genotypes that withstand low temperatures, desiccating winds and late breaking
dormancy.
• Identify and incorporate new sources of resistance to aphids, spider mites, and other insect pests.
• Continue development and testing of molecular tools to speed up the process of selecting and
identifying parents and seedlings in the program with durable disease resistance and outstanding
quality traits.
Justification and Background: (400 words maximum)
The red raspberry industry is facing more challenges than ever with increased production costs and
increased pressures on prices from the global marketplace. Genetic improvement is one of the most
sustainable ways for the raspberry industry to maintain its competitive edge in the long-term. Improved
resistance to pests and diseases to help alleviate these problems are realistic and achievable goals that
will benefit raspberry producers in Washington state.
The BC breeding program has a long history of producing cultivars with excellent fruit quality
characteristics and has been making steady progress in recent years to combine this with improved
resistance to Phytophthora root rot and RBDV. In 2012, we expanded our efforts to identify machineharvestability
in our selections by contracting with a local grower to machine harvest our replicated
plots. We plan to continue this and extend it to our seedling evaluation in the future, because we believe
this is the fastest way to identify selections with merit. In April 2012, AAFC announced that it was
cutting support for the program with the expectation that local industries pick up the slack. This proposal
aims to keep the program running and continue the improvement and evaluation of germplasm in which
the Washington and BC raspberry industries have invested heavily over the past several years.
While there are currently raspberry breeding efforts in Washington and Oregon, each program has its
strengths and weaknesses inherent in the germplasm base and breeding lines they have established
through their history. One of the strengths of the BC program is the firmness and quality of its
selections. We will continue to collaborate and exchange information and selections with the programs
in Washington and Oregon so that promising material gets evaluated in as many test locations as
possible and so that we can continue to combine efforts to complement the strengths of each program.
Over the next few years, AAFC has verbally committed to providing office and lab space in support of
the continuation of this program, as well as limited field space and staff support. While this means that
the cost of continuing to staff and run the program has risen dramatically, this project will ensure that
the investments of time and money already made towards the program will not be lost and that this effort
can continue.
Relationship to WRRC Research Priority(s):
This project directly addresses the WRRC #1 priority to develop cultivars that are summer bearing, high
yielding, winter hardy, machine-harvestable, disease resistant, virus resistant and have superior
processed fruit quality
Objectives:
Each of the specific objectives listed above will be attempted during the project period and each is an
ongoing process that will be addressed in this funding year and in future funding years. While many
inferior plants can be identified and eliminated in the early stages of the process, selections must be
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