2012 - Washington Red Raspberry Commission

- Cultivars for the Pacific Northwest in cooperation with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
and Washington State University that are summer bearing high-yielding, winter hardy, machine
harvestable, disease and virus resistant and have superior processed fruit quality (#1 Priority).
- Fresh market cultivars will be pursued that provide season extension: improve viability of
fresh marketing through floricane or primocane fruiting types (#3 Priority).
Relationship to WRRC Research Priorities.
The objectives tie directly to the following priorities:
• Develop cultivars that are summer bearing, high yielding, winter hardy, machineharvestable,
disease resistant, virus resistant and have superior processed fruit quality
• Season extension: improve viability of fresh marketing
Ideally new cultivars will have improved pest resistance and so this work ties indirectly to the
following priorities:
• Viruses/crumbly fruit
• Foliar & Cane Diseases – i.e. spur blight, yellow rust, cane blight, etc.
Objectives:
- To develop cultivars for the Pacific Northwest in cooperation with Agriculture and Agri-Food
Canada and Washington State University that are summer bearing high-yielding, winter hardy,
machine harvestable, disease and virus resistant and have superior processed fruit quality (#1
Commission Research Priority).
- New fresh market cultivars will be pursued that provide season extension: improve viability
of fresh marketing through floricane or primocane fruiting types (#3 Priority).
- To develop cultivars using new germplasm that are more vigorous and that may be grown
using reduced applications of nutrients and irrigation (#2 Priority) and that are less reliant on
soil fumigation (#1 Priority).
Procedures:
This is an ongoing project where cultivars and current selections serve as the basis for generating
new populations from which new selections can be made, tested, and either released as a new
cultivar or serve as a parent for further generations. All of the steps are taking place every year
i.e. crossing, growing seedlings, selecting, propagating for testing, and testing.
Thirty to forty crosses will be done each year. Seedling populations are grown and evaluated in
Corvallis, Ore. Selections are made and propagated for testing at the Oregon State University -
North Willamette Research and Extension Center (Aurora, Ore.). Washington State University
and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada selections, in addition to the USDA-ARS selections, that
looked outstanding as a seedling or that have performed well in other trials, are planted in
replicated trials (3 replications of 3 plants each plus a 3 plant observation plot). Selections that
we are less sure of are generally planted in smaller observation trials (single, 3 plant plots). Fruit
from replicated and observation plots are harvested and weighed, and plants and fruit are
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