New and ongoing tree-fruit research in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences received a boost with the recent awarding of funds totaling more than $261,000 by the State Horticultural Association of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Apple Program.
Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences has named Jayson Harper, professor of agricultural economics, as interim director of the college's Fruit Research and Extension Center, effective March 1.
The State Horticultural Association of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Apple Program recently awarded nearly $233,000 in funding to support new and ongoing fruit research and extension projects in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences. The grants will support projects aimed at enhancing pest management, production efficiency and fruit quality.
As populations of the invasive spotted lanternfly explode — and the state-imposed quarantine area in southeastern Pennsylvania expands — researchers in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences are looking for solutions to help stop the insect's spread and save agricultural crops from serious damage.
A test to determine whether bitter pit — a disorder that blindsides apple growers by showing up weeks or months after picking — will develop in stored Honeycrisp apples was developed by a team of Penn State researchers, promising to potentially save millions of dollars annually in wasted fruit.
Penn State graduate students and visiting scientists from other institutions play a critical role in many studies conducted at Penn State's Fruit Research and Extension Center in Biglerville, Adams County. And now, thanks to the financial support of the State Horticultural Association of Pennsylvania, new graduate-student housing at the center will help ensure those contributions into the future.
Fruits and nuts are high-value crops in the Mid-Atlantic states and are being heavily impacted by honeybee shortages for pollination. A new $1.4 million grant from the USDA NIFA Specialty Crops Research Initiative (SCRI) program to Penn State will look into future impacts on fruit pollination and the development of alternative pollinators to supplement honeybees.
In Pennsylvania, 400,000 tons of tree fruit such as apples, peaches, cherries and pears are produced each year, with more than 50,000 orchards and vineyards spanning the state. Internal fruit worms such as Oriental fruit moth and codling moth pose a serious economic threat to this valuable industry. According to Jeff Mizer, Penn State extension education in Snyder county, fruit-damaging worms not only reduce marketability of the fruits they infest, but can cause the rejection of entire truckloads of apples at processing plants, which has occurred in Pennsylvania and other states. "In Snyder County, 11 orchards are working together under a Penn State apple worm monitoring project. The project was previously funded by Penn State and the PA Horticulture Association of Pennsylvania, but starting in 2006 the project was funded by the growers themselves," said Miser.
