Winter Caneberry Fieldwork 2012

Even though it is cold, there are things to do in the field (and office). Here is a link to the winter fieldwork for blackberries.

http://ncsu.edu/enterprises/blackberries-raspberries/2011/12/19/blackberry-raspberry-seasonal-checklist-winter-2011/

Raspberry Seed Morphology

Each year I have an undergraduate student work in my program. Usually they help with crossing in the spring and do another small project of their own. Last year, Lauren M. took on a project looking very closely at raspberry seed size and shape. The inspiration for this project was some work done at the USDA-ARS Germplasm Repository and Oregon State University. In 2010, they published a manual on a way to identify blackberry cultivars by looking at thier seed size and shape. Here is a link to that work:
http://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1957/16304/em9002.pdf;jsessionid=4D8C98C55C3539681A5FF1FA7446EFFE?sequence=1

Lauren spent many hours cleaning and photographing seeds of 16 different raspberry and blackberry cultivars. Here are a couple examples of what she found. Once you start looking closely, you can see how different two varieties can look. We are using this as one way to catalog our breeding material.

Thanks Lauren!

Blackberry Budget Update 2011

Sample worksheet gives you an idea of the cost of producing, harvesting and marketing blackberries in North Carolina. It includes worksheets for machinery, materials, yields, labor, production costs and returns. An in-depth financial analysis and overview of the operation is given based on the numbers you plug in.
http://ncsu.edu/enterprises/blackberries-raspberries/management/blackberry-raspberry-budgets-pricing/

Meridian AGree Newsfeed

This is the week of spreading information for this blog. Today, I want to share a newsfeed that I have found very interesting. For instance, I found it useful to see what how the 2012 (secret) Farm Bill was evolving. You can sign up and get a daily digest of ag. related news stories arrive in your email inbox every morning. 


To access the Meridian AGree NewsFeed, go to this site and sign up. http://www.foodandagpolicy.org/news?page=2 

NC Alternative Crops and Organics: Federal Financial Assistance Available for Building High Tunnels & Becoming Certified Organic

NC Alternative Crops and Organics: Federal Financial Assistance Available for Building High Tunnels & Becoming Certified Organic