December 2015
Diary dates
12 January 2016. EMR Seminar, Crop Nitrogen Uptake, Dr Tony Miller, John Innes Centre. 10-11am, The Orchards Conference Centre, East Malling. 23 February 2016. EMR Association/AHDB-Horticulture Tree Fruit Day, The Orchards Conference Centre, East Malling (note change of date … Continue reading
EMR in the media
Research from EMR continues to attract interest from national media. An oak tree, excavated from the ground in its entirety by a group of determined farm staff, was a star exhibit on BBC4’s “Oak Tree: Nature’s Greatest Survivor” in October. … Continue reading
GCRI-funded travel reports
Reports on projects and travel awards funded by the GCRI Trust, are now available on the GCRI page of the EMR website. Topics covered include a research project to evaluate control of Frankliniella occidentalis with Metarhizium anisopliae in crop production, … Continue reading
Awards for EMR staff
EMR team for Biotechnology YES 2015 A team of EMR PhD students (Antonio Gomez, Michelle Hulin, Amy Lowe, Emma Cascant and Benjamin Langendorf) made it through to the final of ‘Biotechnology YES’, beating off competition from some of the … Continue reading
Integrating predatory mites in IPM programmes
Predatory mite Predatory mites of the family Phytoseiidae can often form an important component of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programmes. They are effective regulators of fruit crop pests such as phytophagous mites and thrips. Their incorporation into IPM programmes … Continue reading
New pear varieties launched
Grower Lubera has launched two new pears in the Pironi series, which were bred 25 years ago by Dr Frank Alston of EMR. In two different breeding steps, he combined the quality of varieties ‘Comice’, ‘Conference’ and ‘Packhams Triumph’ with … Continue reading
Draft genome for canker pathogen published
Canker on cv Zari EMR have published a draft genome for a European isolate of the pathogen Neonectria ditissima, which causes canker and fruit rot in apple. Canker is a severe economic problem for growers in North-Western Europe and temperate … Continue reading
Pyramiding wilt genes to boost UK strawberry production
Verticillium wilt is a soil-borne disease, caused by the fungus Verticillium dahliae that infects strawberries and many other crops through the roots, causing wilting and cell death. With only a single commercial pesticide treatment available, there has been an urgent … Continue reading
Rubus breeding consortium launched
(L-R) Feli Fernandez, EMR; Tim Chambers, WB Chambers; Marco Vas, Onubafruit; Markus Kobelt, Lubera The East Malling Rubus Breeding Consortium (EMRBC) was launched at EMR on 21 September. Under a five year agreement worth £600k, existing genetic material at EMR, … Continue reading