Soft Fruit Group news

The 2006 'Fruit for the Future' event will take place on 20th July at SCRI, starting at 1.30 pm. Speakers include Chaim Kempler from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, and Veronica Smith from SEERAD. There will be field tours to view breeding plots and opportunities to meet with and speak to the fruit scientists at the Institute. We will also be announcing the release of our new raspberry variety Glen Doll and you will have the chance to view and taste the fruit.

SCRI LEAF Innovation Centre is hosting an Open Day at SCRI on 23 May 2006. This will feature several aspects of Integrated Farm Management. Soft fruit IPM research will be featured, highlighting the success of the floral volatile enhanced raspberry beetle trap as part of a new 5 year Hortlink project involving SCRI, EMR, grower groups, LEAF, supermarkets and several industrial partners. LEAF flyer

Stuart Gordon will be attending the next COST ACTION 863 WG2/WG3 meeting in Croatia in April. COST action

Irene Tierney and Ingo Hein are going to New Zealand for the 3rd International Rosaceae Genomics Conference in Napier, New Zealand, 19-22 March 2006 (view abstract). Irene will also be attending a pre- conference training workshop on Rosaceae bioinformatics and genomic technologies which will be held at HortResearch Mt Albert, Auckland, 13-17 March 2006.This workshop targets those who work on Rosaceae Genomics, and will provide a general introduction to fruit tree research and a range of more specific lectures and lab sessions on different aspects of genomics.The workshop is being be held at the Mount Albert Research Centre (HortResearch, Auckland, NZ), where a broad variety of genomic programmes are carried on in various fruit species. Time is also given for discussions and interaction with local researchers and visitors who will also be attending the RGC3 conference in Napier.

Strathclyde University Students will visit SCRI on 8th March 2006. A range of speakers will give presentations including raspberry breeding and molecular marker development.

Horticulture LINK 2006 conference, 23 February 2006 Thistle Hotel, Westminster, London. Presentations will be given by J. Graham on two HortLINK projects, HL0169 and HL0170. These projects aim to develop marker assisted breeding for raspberry root rot disease and fruit quality traits of commercial importance (view abstract). Information on LINK schemes can be found here.