Read more about the article Particle film and Deficit Irrigation: Partners to Enhance Wine Grape Quality and Sustainability

Particle film and Deficit Irrigation: Partners to Enhance Wine Grape Quality and Sustainability

Application of particle film will affect cluster weight and must soluble solids at harvest differently, depending on vine crop load and the level of water deficit. This research shows there is limited considerations for using particle film in wine grape production for water conservation, enhanced productivity, and improved product quality in vines. However, the product does protect berry size and soluble solids in berry if vines have sufficient water and are not in water deficit when product is applied. However, as heat waves continue to rise across vine growing regions, this particle film may be of use on well- irrigated vines if sprayed prior to the extreme heat event. This study shows that on intact fruit clusters the clay particle spray will protect the soluble solids in the berry.

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Read more about the article Dissecting the cause of reoccurring blueberry shock disease

Dissecting the cause of reoccurring blueberry shock disease

In recent years, there has been an emergence of shock-like disease in previously BlShV-affected fields. The recurring disease has been observed for several years in Oregon and Washington, with disease incidence exceeding 50% in some cases. Over the last decade, the use of High Throughput Sequencing (HTS) has become more widely used for plant virus detection primarily because of two important attributes lacking in current technologies: 1. The ability to provide information on virus population structure, including virus variants, of a plant in a single test; and 2. detect viruses and viroids that have no known laboratory test, also called novel viruses (Villamor et al., 2019).

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Read more about the article Detection of wine faults using the electronic tongue

Detection of wine faults using the electronic tongue

Faulted wines pose a serious economic problem to the wine industry, these off flavors can cause consumers, new to a region or variety, to reject that region entirely. Wine faults can include off-aromas or flavors associated with chemical compounds produced by spoilage organisms Brettanomyces, Acetobacter, Pediococcus or Lactobacillus. From the producers and winemakers’ perspective, early detection of wine faults would allow for remediation before the fault becomes more serious, intractable, and costly. Research in wine fault detection continues to develop as more sensitive and rapid analytical methods are identified that can reflect the complexity of the faulted wine.

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Read more about the article Identification of the fungal pathogen causing dry-berry and development of tools for rapid identification

Identification of the fungal pathogen causing dry-berry and development of tools for rapid identification

Dry-berry, a disease of raspberry and blackberry, whereby immature green berries are killed, was first described in British Columbia, Canada in the 1950’s. The pathogen was named Rhizoctonia rubi, and we have made significant progress in reexamining the identity of the pathogen with molecular methods and determining its fungicide sensitivity. We characterized DNA sequences of 14 dry-berry fungal isolates and determined that the fungal pathogen causing dry-berry disease is a novel species of Monilinia, not a Rhizoctonia species as previously thought. This has major implications on the types of fungicides that will best manage the disease. Using these DNA sequences, we are now developing PCR-based tools to rapidly confirm dry-berry disease in less than a day.

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Read more about the article Diversity in Fragaria × ananassa Duchesne ex Rosier: Phenotypic characterization of a strawberry diversity collection

Diversity in Fragaria × ananassa Duchesne ex Rosier: Phenotypic characterization of a strawberry diversity collection

During 2019-2020, the National Clonal Germplasm Repository measured numerical traits describing 284 strawberry cultivars from the Corvallis genebank that were planted in a field in Corvallis, Oregon. The broader goal of this study was to obtain phenotypic data on these accessions that were being analyzed in ongoing molecular studies. The objectives were to obtain phenotypic descriptors for the accessions; obtain images of plants, flowers, and fruit of each accession; and load the phenotypic descriptors and image data to GRIN-Global.

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