SCRI

New grant aims to reduce plastic taken from fields to landfills

WSU leads a new $8 million USDA-funded project aiming to advance soil-biodegradable plastic mulches and develop innovative methods for recycling the regular plastic mulch.

Strawberries growing in a field on plastic mulch.

UFOs in Your Cherry Orchard

Two-year-old trees in the WSU Roza Experimental Orchard near Prosser are the first step in transforming a 100-year-old production system for sweet cherries—and they have UFOs. No, the trees don’t harbor aliens, but they do grow unique branches. These “upright fruiting offshoots” form the core of a novel architecture ideally suited for mechanized harvesters in […]

Stemless Cherry Project Reaches Milestones, Launches New Web Site

PROSSER, Wash. — In order to remain competitive in the global market, the world’s biggest sweet cherry producers have banded together to drive innovation along the entire production chain. The molecules-to-market project, called “A total systems approach to developing a sustainable, stem-free sweet cherry production, processing and marketing system,” is just completing its first year […]