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PEAR GROWING FOR THE FUTURE
Thursday 25 February 2010
East Malling Conference Centre
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The UK pear market and
industry
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English Apples and Pears
Ltd
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Retailer / customer
perspective
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Improving pear growing at
A. Scripps Ltd
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Limiting factors in UK pear
growing
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The economics of intensive
pear production
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Lunch (optional visit
to concept pear orchard)
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Pear breeding for the
‘Alternative Variety’
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Pepinieres Georges Delbard,
FR
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Application of water
research at EMR to pear growing
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Conclusions: Changing pear
industry attitude and investment
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Discussion led by Adrian
Barlow, English Apples and Pears Ltd
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Cost including lunch EMRA
Members £10
Students
£10 Non-Members
£20
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National Science
and Engineering Week
"Getting to Know Eu-Karyotes"
16 March 2010
East Malling
Research will host an interactive National Science and Engineering
Week event for 16 -18 year olds on the morning of Tuesday 16 March.
We hope to
offer students a dynamic learning experience offering insights in
applied research that cannot be gained in the school environment.
The event will
consist of hands-on activities in the field and laboratory followed
by a series of interactive lectures. Refreshments and lunch will be
provided along with up to £10 in travel costs.
4 keen students
are invited per school. Although total places will be limited this
will benefit students by allowing the activities to be hands-on,
encouraging them to become involved, allow more individual attention
and compliance with laboratory health and safety.
The proposed
schedule is as follows:
09:30 Arrival
09:35
Introduction to East Malling
09:55 Activity
1/Activity 2
11:00 Activity
2/Activity 1
12.05
Refreshments and snacks available back at Conference Centre for
students, teachers and staff to bring into auditorium
12:10 Speaker 1
– Friendly fungi – topic of mychorrizae
12:30 Speaker 2
– DNA fingerprinting
12:50 Lunch
13.30 Depart
Activity 1.
The group will work in a molecular biology laboratory, where they
will be split into four work stations each with three students. This
will allow all students to be actively involved in the practical and
it will make it easier for additional helpers to move between the
groups to explain the methodology at each stage. They will use a
BioRad Explorer ELISA kit which is designed for use in schools to
detect a protein. They will learn how the information can be applied
to various real world applications ranging from medical detection
kits, to a technique to determine the movement of insects in the
field using protein markers which is currently being used in an
actual research project.
Activity 2 –
The students will collect insects from trees which have been banded
overwinter in the orchard and adjacent windbreaks. They will
identify the insects with the aid of magnifying lenses and keys
themselves under supervision of the task leaders. The students will
determine and compare numbers of insect species and numbers present
in different species of tree. They will learn about insect
predation and how the presence of predatory insects can be used in
the development of integrated pest control strategies. They will
determine whether there are any differences between the numbers and
species in the different species of tree.
Each task
should take one hour after which groups will swop and complete the
other activity
Auditorium
presentations will include a mixture of applied techniques and
theoretical biology.
For more information or to book places, please contact Ursula Twomey
or Penny Greeves on 01732 843833 or email
ursula.twomey@emr.ac.uk
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BRADBOURNE HOUSE AND GARDENS
30th CONSECUTIVE OPEN
DAY
25 April 2010
2-5pm
Come along and take one of the only
opportunities in 2010 to view this privately owned Grade 1 listed
house and its gardens including the Hatton Fruit garden which is of
particular interest to amateurs.
The house displays excellent examples
of Queen Anne period architecture disguising an original Tudor
period house, with fine rooms, halls, staircases and a unique
collection of watercolours and portraits.
Plantings in the Hatton Fruit Garden
were inspired by the fruit plantings in Louis XIV kitchen garden at
Versailles. The fruit trees have been trained and pruned to produce
cordons, espaliers, goblets, pyramids, fans, arches, crowns, le
bateau, arcure forms etc. In fact, 25 different training methods are
on display. In addition, there are examples of 47 varieties of
apple, 28 varieties of pear and individuals of medlar, nectarine,
peach and fig. Experts from nearby world-renowned East Malling
Research will be on hand to give advice.
There will also be plant sales,
children’s quiz, music and refreshments and all proceeds are donated
to National Gardens Scheme charities.
Admission £3.50. Children (under 16) free. Entrance on New Road,
East Malling, Kent off the A20.
For more information, please
contact Ursula Twomey, Telephone 01732 843833, e-mail ursula.twomey@emr.ac.uk,
www.eastmallingresearch.com
For further
information please contact:
Ursula Twomey or Penny Greeves
Tel:
01732 843833
Email:
ursula.twomey@emr.ac.uk; penny.greeves@emr.ac.uk
Fax:
01732 849067
East Malling Research, New Road, East Malling, Kent
ME19 6BJ
Return to Headlines
21 July 2010
Leading technical event for the
fruit industry comes to East Malling
Bringing growers together with key
representatives of the fruit sector, it's your chance to network and
do business with more than 100 leading suppliers and meet with over
1,000 fellow growers and industry professionals.
Keep up do date with the latest fruit research.
The scope of work at EMR is hugely impressive from new varieties
through to pest control and water efficiency.
Visit
www.fruitfocus.co.uk
for more details.
This is an ideal opportunity to take a guided
tour of EMR's wide scope of work, with tours available throughout
the day including:
Tour Stop 1: Using deficit irrigation to
improve strawberry fruit flavour, quality and shelf-life (HL0187).
Dr Mark Else
Abstraction rates in the major strawberry
growing regions are already unsustainable and are set to rise by a
further 30% in the next few decades. All growers will have to
comply with legislation designed to protect the environment and so
they will have to demonstrate a continued need for, and an efficient
use of, irrigation water. This must be achieved without reducing
marketable yields of high quality, flavoursome, and healthy fruit.
At Fruit Focus 2010, research leader Dr Mark
Else will discuss recent results from HortLINK project HL0187, which
aims to develop irrigation strategies to help growers increase their
water use efficiencies (WUE). Using scientifically-derived
guidelines, a ‘low risk’ irrigation strategy has been developed that
delivers substantial water savings and maintains marketable yields
and quality. This strategy has recently been trialled on a local
soft fruit farm and Mark will discuss some of the results from this
grower trial.
Mark will also explain this year’s trial at EMR
in which deficit irrigation techniques are being developed to
deliver further water savings while improving berry quality. A
‘closed loop’ irrigation system in which irrigation is switched on
automatically once pre-set trigger values are reached will also be
demonstrated and the potential of using this system to deliver water
and fertiliser savings across the soft fruit industry will be
discussed.
Tour Stop 2: Minimising pesticide residues in
strawberry through integrated pest, disease and environmental crop
management.
Horticulture LINK project HL0191 (1 April 2008-
31 Mar 2013)
Prof. Jerry Cross
The overall aim of the project is to
develop alternative, sustainable, non-pesticidal methods for
managing Botrytis, powdery mildew, black spot, aphids,
blossom weevil and capsid bugs on strawberries so greatly reducing
(by >50%) pesticide use and eliminating the occurrence of reportable
pesticide residues in harvested fruit. The methods developed for the
individual pests and diseases will be combined with existing
non-chemical methods for other pests and diseases in an overall
Integrated Pest and Disease Management (IPDM) system, and this will
be tested and refined in commerical strawberry production over two
seasons.
Excellent progress has been made and
some important findings to date and implications for pest and
disease management in strawberry are as follows:
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The possibility of powdery mildew
surviving in cold-stored runners has been shown to be small so
it is likely that planting material is not the major source of
this disease in plantations
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A computerised powdery mildew
forecasting model has been developed which will enable growers
to target sprays at periods of greatest risk
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It has been shown that infection of
fruit and flowers by Botrytis on June-bearer crops
covered early in the season is minimal suggesting that
Botrytis fungicides may not be necessary in this situation
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It has been shown that honey and
bumble bees can effectively carry a specially formulated
Botrytis biocontrol product to strawberry flowers. This may
provide an efficient way of treating crops. A larger scale trial
is now in progress
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Molecular analysis has shown that
strains of the black spot fungus (Colletotrichum acutatum)
are not specifically associated with their host but are locally
differentiated. This has implications for the importance of
weeds as sources of inoculum and for management of black spot in
plantations
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Sweet alyssum has been shown to be
an excellent trap crop for European tarnished plant bug (ETPB).
It can readily be grown in the leg rows of Spanish tunnel
protected crops. Regular use of tractor mounted crop vacuuming,
known as ‘bug vaccing’, in July and August has also been shown
to greatly reduce ETPB populations. The combined use of the two
control approaches is being evaluated in a large scale field
trial.
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Application of an aphicide in late
October or early November has been shown to greatly reduce
infestations of potato aphid the following spring. Potato aphid
has become a troublesome pest of strawberry because it is
difficult to control with aphicides in spring. Combining the use
of an autumn spray with introductions of mixtures of parasitic
wasps to control the complex of aphid pests of strawberry is a
promising strategy being developed in the project
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A supertrap for strawberry blossom
weevil has been developed which combines the weevil’s sex
aggregation pheromone, a volatile from wild strawberry flowers,
a white visual colour and a robust and effective trap design.
These ‘supertraps’ are currently being evaluated for monitoring
the weevil and control by mass trapping
Science partners
East Malling Research, ADAS, Natural Resources
Institute, FERA
Industry partners
Berry Gardens Growers Ltd, BerryWorld Ltd, Total
Berry, Mack Multiples Division, Marks & Spencer plc, Sainsbury’s
plc, International Pheromone Systems Ltd, Horticultural Development
Company, East Malling Trust, East Malling Ltd, Jane & Paul Mansfield
Soft Fruit Ltd, Agralan Ltd, Robert Boucher and Son, Red Beehive
Company Ltd, Biological Crop Protection Ltd, Koppert UK Ltd
Tour Stop 3: New East Malling everbearing
variety ‘Finesse’ and an update on the Strawberry Breeding Club.
Dr David Simpson
1.
The breeding and trialling of
Finesse was jointly funded by: the Department for Environment, Food
and Rural Affairs (Defra), Meiosis Limited, the Horticultural
Development Council (HDC) and the East Malling Trust.
2.
The strawberry breeding programme
at East Malling Research aims to develop a range of high quality
varieties with overlapping seasons, which crop in succession from
April to October. A major emphasis for new varieties is placed on
excellent fruit quality, including good flavour, attractive
appearance and good shelf life. In addition, improved resistance to
pests and diseases is another important characteristic.
Return to Headlines
Festival of
British Fruit
23-24 October
East Malling Research
The Marden Fruit Show Society (MFFS) will this
year be organising a free event at EMR for the public entitled a
“Festival of British Fruit”, on the weekend of the 23 and 24th
October. The event will give the public an opportunity to taste and
sample British fruit and fruit-related products. Fruit from the
National Fruit Show display will be taken for the public to view,
sample and purchase.
EMR will provide history tours of the site and
scientists will be on hand to talk about what they do. The Festival
will be open from 10 – 5pm on the Saturday and 10- 4pm on the
Sunday.
For more information,
please contact Show Secretary, Maria Clarke on 01732 874564 or nfs@nationalfruitshow.org.uk
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MANAGING FARM WOODS FOR WILDLIFE
This
free half day workshop will consider how targeted management of
farm woods can be of benefit for wildlife.
Presenters include Butterfly Conservation,
Forestry Commission, RSPB, Wildlife Landscapes, and the Wildlife
Trusts. Participants will have an opportunity to visit a local
woodland, led by the Woodland Trust.
Workshop dates and venues
Thursday 14 October
2010
- Blackboys
Inn,Blackboys, East Sussex
Thursday 21 October 2010 -
Bedgebury National Pinetum, Goudhurst, Kent
Thursday 4 November
2010 -
East Malling Conference Centre
For more information: contact
Chantelle Jay on 01732 523751
email:chantelle.jay@emr.ac.uk
CLICK HERE
for more information and booking form.
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