Good Fruit Grower

December 2013

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QUALITY & VALUE you can TRUST Pollen Co. PHOTOS COURTESY OF NATIONAL CLONAL GERMPLASM REPOSITORY, CORVALLIS, OREGON FIRMAN After Buckman died, the original Farmingdale and Old Home trees in Illinois were destroyed, and the trees at OSU became the primary source of nursery stock. Fireblight resistant Reimer found in the 1930s that when Farmingdale was used as a pollen parent in crosses with other blightresistant selections, a high percentage of the resulting seedlings were highly resistant to fireblight, especially when the seed parent was Old Home. Although crosses between other blight-resistant parents also produced seedlings that were resistant to blight, many of those seedlings became infected when a susceptible cultivar such as Bartlett or Bosc was grafted onto them. In those cases, fireblight could spread from an infected cultivar across the graft union into the rootstock. In contrast, the OHxF seedlings were resistant even to the spread of fireblight from a grafted cultivar. One of Reimer's goals was to establish a mother block of Old Home and Farmingdale trees in Medford to generate seed for producing blight-resistant seedling rootstocks. However, Lyle Brooks, owner of Daybreak Nursery in Forest Grove, Oregon, became concerned about the variability of pear cultivars grafted onto OHxF seedling rootstocks. Collaborating with Dr. Mel Westwood at OSU, Corvallis, he set out to develop clonal rootstocks from those two parents. In 1950, he obtained half a kilogram of seeds from what he described as an isolated block of Old Home trees planted with Farmingdale pollinizers at the Canadian Department of Agriculture Research Unit near Summerland, British Columbia. It now appears that Bartlett must have been planted in the vicinity of the Summerland pear block where Brooks obtained the seeds. Patented Of the 2,000 seedlings he grew from those seeds, 516 were planted in a nursery block for evaluation. Thirteen of the more easily propagated selections were evaluated in trials for disease resistance and many other traits, including hardiness, precocity, compatibility with pear varieties, and tolerance to pear decline, as well as resistance to fireblight. Several, including OHxF 69, 87, 97, and 333, were patented in 1988 by Carlton Nursery, which was operated by the Brooks family. The rootstocks have been propagated (Continued on page 78) www.goodfruit.com Since 1933 Quality Firman Pollen Improves: Our pollen is viability tested to assure quality. jFruit Set jBee Efficiency jPollination Timing Quality Pollination Improves: jYield Consistency jFruit Quality jFruit Storability Trust Quality Firman Pollen jViability And Virus Tested jCompatibility Matched jLeaders in Application Technology Exclusive distributor of SCUMBY PUFFERS®. Accurate on any planting. AREA REPRESENTATIVES: CALIFORNIA: WASHINGTON: Columbia Basin and Yakima Valley Randy Bunce 509-452-8063 randy@firmanpollen.com Wenatchee/ Okanogan area Tom, Kyle & Linda Batch 509-687-9670 Linden John DeMartini 209-484-8502 Bleyhl Farm Service Grandview 509-882-1225 Zillah 509-829-6922 Tulare & Kern Counties Bob Cademartori 209-601-0754 800-322-8852 www.firmanpollen.com 301 N. 1st Avenue • Yakima, Washington 98902 509-452-8063, fax 509-453-6838 APPLE • PEAR • CHERRY • PLUM • APRICOT GOOD FRUIT GROWER DECEMBER 2013 77

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