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The 2023 annual meeting for Armillaria Root Rot Solutions (2020-51181-32142) was hosted by Michigan State at the Southwest Michigan Research and Extension Center, in Benton Harbor. Michigan leads the nation in tart cherry production, but also has fair amount of peach production for the area.  Both peaches and cherries are detrimentally affected by ARR but due to graft incompatibility between the species, the solutions for a single genetic resistance rootstock is complicated. 

Alongside the meeting, we were able to tour their research station, and see several ongoing experiments. Pictured below is a peach grown and trained on a trellis to be “2D”. This high density production aims for reduced labor and harvest needs, and potentially suitable for mechanical harvest.

As quickly and mysteriously as the season came, it went away. Every year is different, and 2023 was no average season. Due to early chilling fulfillment from critical December and January temperatures, as soon as it warmed up, the trees were in bloom. In the upstate, we ended up with the farm in full bloom in mid February! This is about a month early- YIKES!

Needless to say, we were anxious about how this would be affected by late frosts, and consequently the fruit set. Although we did notice light/no crop on several of our earliest varieties with estimates around the state revealing only a mere 30% of full production,  we still had a bountiful year in the research and tasty peach eating.  

As we expected, the season came in hot and heavy. We were harvesting peaches anywhere from 3-5 weeks earlier than previous seasons, leading to unprecedented early harvest of our mid-season staple variety, ‘Julyprince’ in June! The season typically stretches into September, but now at the end of August, we have finished harvesting the last major research blocks. 

It is a bitter sweet time for all of us, as the whirlwind of the season, the busyness of rushing around to evaluate the queen of fruits, always monitoring, carefully caring, and chasing after the unique, tender, juicy, tangy balance of sugary goodness that with its highly perishable characteristics, cant wait for no one. Every year in May, I look down at the first peach and taste the promise of the season and the bigger, better, sweeter peaches to come, and when I look up, its the last harvest of the year.

Time is a funny thing. Summers always went by too fast as a child, but it seems they still do. We prepare all year for the season, develop new research projects, create new orchards, pruning, fertilizing, but when it finally arrives, with all its anticipation and expectations, its over in a flash. A few hot months that fly by, leaving us fatigued but with a sense of accomplishment. Our hearts are full of joy, bellies are full of peaches, and computers full of data. 

May I interest you in a May peach?

The first peaches of the season are here! We are about a week away from our first harvest and we can not wait to taste the juicy, sweet, tangy goodness. Every spring we anxiously wait for the fruitlets to ripen, and this year is no different.

Do you like to eat peaches? We are looking to hire 1-2 students for this season, so if you are an undergraduate student at Clemson staying local this summer (or know someone who is) and would like to work with us harvesting, collecting data, and of course, eating lots and lots of peaches, please reach out to the Peach Breeding Lab!

Dr. Gasic kgasic@clemson.edu 

JM Lawton jlawton@clemson.edu

This spring was a rollercoaster of emotions. From cold frosts that threatened the survival of our peach crop, to exciting opportunities and new adventures for our dear Lab members, this year is already in full swing!

Our winter was mild, and warm temperatures in late January and February sent the peach trees into an early bloom, about 2-3 weeks earlier than the last few years. Then, in mid-march the whole State of SC experienced some extreme freezes. Several of our peach blocks were lost all of the crop, as they were in a very vulnerable stage of fruitlet development, and in low lying areas. Thankfully wind machines at the farm were used to circulate the cold air, and prevent total losses.

While we are happy to have a crop to be able to evaluate, research and of course, eat!- We are also happy for our very own, Dr. Alejandro Calle for accepting a prunus breeder position in his home county of Spain! We will be sad for you to leave, but we are so proud for your hard work and accomplishments that resulted in this dream becoming a reality.  We wish you the best on your next chapter, and know you will do many wonderful things!

Happy New Year!

The new year in upon us all. We have already faced several challenges as we enter this new season, most notably the harsh artic blast that froze pipes and lead to the flooding of our lab! We are currently on a pause from any lab related activities as new drywall, tile flooring, and plumbing has to be replaced. But, thankfully we did not lose any power nor suffered any losses of material in our fridges/freezers. Although our lab is a construction zone, our graduate students were able accomplish some work in other labs that did not experience flooding, and we are thankful to the synergy and harmony between labs. Times like this we are reminded of how lucky we are to have a close knit scientific community here at Clemson.

Looking forward, we are traveling the next few weeks to attend grower meetings to give information on our advanced selections in the breeding program, and updates on solutions to Armillaria Root Rot.

Lastly, we have been “diggin’ in the dirt”. An experiment has commenced where we collect root samples at different soil depths over the course of the winter. We are hoping to unlock some answers about dormancy, soil temperature and their relationship to bloom time- but more on that later.

As we enter the holiday season, we know the days are cold, the nights are long, and so, naturally… we party. We have had an “end-of-season” party at the research farm, celebrating the success of yet another year with all the labs that work on peaches, including the virology, pathology, pomology, and of course, our breeding lab. We also had the joy to meet Clemson Santa, or probably more accurate, the esteemed Clemson Wintery Wizard at the College holiday drop-in, where students, faculty, and staff were invited to join in carol singing, and door prizes. 

Now, we head home to reflect back on the season behind, rest, and then change our focus to the season ahead.

May you bask in the warmth and brightness of friends and family (and many more parties)!

This month, some of the peach breeding lab traveled south and attended the annual Southeastern Professional Fruit Workers Conference at the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) Citrus Research and Education Center. Not only did this serve as a lovely escape from the winter weather, but provided an excellent space for investigators, graduate students, and extension agents to gather, discuss, and present current and ongoing research for fruit crops. The conference also served as a exercise for graduate students to develop public speaking and presentation skills, through the form of a graduate student competition, where their talks were not judged solely on the quality of the scientific research, but also the clearness of delivery, aesthetic and visual perception, and timeliness.

This year, a wide range of fruit crops were highlighted including citrus, grapes, apples, blackberries, blueberries, strawberry, and of course, peaches! The talks varied on the focus of research, between novel IMP strategies to disease resistance and pest management and even technology developments for cultural decisions. Tours from a citrus packing house, as well as a local agribusiness farm were also eye opening, and provided a well rounded trip.

We are extremely proud of our graduate student, Ufuk Caglar, as he skillfully accomplished his first presentation.

Congratulations, and here’s to many more successful presentations!

This month, some members of the Peach Breeding Lab traveled to Davis, California for the annual meeting for the project “Solutions to the Armillaria Root Rot threat affecting the U.S. stone fruit industry”. The project is a trans-disciplinary, multi-crop, multi-institutional team of researchers, growers, and nursery representatives, dedicated to providing  short and long-term solutions to Armillaria Root Rot replant issue affecting the U.S. stone fruit industry.

The meeting was a successful venture not only for updating and sharing the active research and findings, but it also served as an opportunity to tour the USDA National Clonal Germplasm Repository where the key sources of resistance from wild populations are maintained.

Dr. Alejandro Calle is pictured presenting on his research and standing next to the wild plum, whose resistance is being investigated, and genetics may play a role in the future of peach production.

More information regarding the project, the work being done, and those involved, can be found at:  https://blogs.clemson.edu/arrsolutions/

The weather is changing, and so are our farm activities (Farmtivities).

This week we are prepping the soil for planting the 2022 seedlings from 30+ crosses made back in February. That’s right, you read that correctly. We are planting seedlings from crosses made this same year!

Instead of stratifying the seeds conventionally with cold storage, which takes time, and leads to a Spring planting, we are able to expedite the process with help from dormancy breaking hormones. The hormones allow the seeds to germinate immediately and start growing as soon as they are harvested, giving us the ability to have hardy seedlings in the ground with a little time to establish before the first frost.

This may not seem important or particularly noteworthy to just anyone, but it can save us a whole year! Commonly we can evaluate the first crop from the hybrids in 3 years (once they are large enough to set a crop), but with Fall planting, the seedlings kick off the warm spring weather with a ferocious vigor, having already established a root network the previous fall. This leads to having a (small but fruitful) crop on the second year!

We are always looking for new and advantageous ways to speed up the selection process and maximize efficiency in our program, and Fall planting hybrids is now our standard protocol.

From everyone in the Peach Breeding Lab,

Here’s to a mild fall, and another successful season ahead!