WSU Scientists Use Flower Power to Combat Orchard Menace Apple orchards are intricate webs involving a delicate balance between trees, soils, water, insects, and more. To manage the pests that can potentially damage a crop of apples, growers often apply pesticides. There are several problems associated with pesticide use, though, including risks to environmental and […]
PROSSER, Wash. — Ken Eastwell, a professor in the Washington State University Department of Plant Pathology based at WSU’s Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center in Prosser, has been appointed director of the Clean Plant Center of the Northwest. As director of CPCNW, Eastwell provides leadership for the development and distribution of deciduous fruit trees, […]
Optimizing Virus Detection Using the Power of Attraction To determine if a fruit tree has a virus, it currently takes a minimum of nine separate laboratory tests in combination with several biological assays, and even these can identify only known viruses. Scientists dream of being able to run a single test that will determine all […]
High-throughput Technologies Get Fruit Breeders’ Juices Flowing Scientists in Washington State University’s horticultural genomics program are the first to routinely provide DNA information to their colleagues in tree fruit breeding programs to assist with the development of new apple varieties. The genes associated with desirable traits have traditionally been comparable to needles in a haystack, […]