Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/215151
H ARVEST L EASE R ETURNS PHOTO COURTESY OF NATIONAL CLONAL GERMPLASM REPOSITORY, CORVALLIS, OREGON Visit us at the NW Hort Expo Though it's rarely seen because it's used as a rootstock, Old Home x Farmingdale 87 bears fruit that resembles Old Home and Bartlett, but has no resemblance to Farmingdale fruit. to be related to Old Home, but the tests showed that Farmingdale was highly unlikely to be a pollen parent. On the other hand, there was a strong indication that Bartlett was genetically related to all those selections. End-Of-Year DEALS T4050F with Cab Checkout Our Large Selection Of Used Tractors On Our Website www.sseqinc.com T4040V with Low Profile Saf-T Cab Starting at . . . $16,500 Puzzle Postman said this explained what had been something of a puzzle to him over the years: While fruit of the OHxF selections in the germplasm collection resembles Old Home, which has a distinctive round shape, it does not at all resemble Farmingdale. The shape of OHxF fruit tends to be intermediate between that of Old Home and Bartlett. Similarly, the foliage of the OHxF selections resembles the foliage of Old Home but not Farmingdale. Lynnell Brandt, president of Brandt's Fruit Trees in Yakima, Washington, said his father Everette worked at Carlton Nursery during the time when Brooks was testing the OHxF rootstocks to identify the most promising ones. Lynnell, who joined the staff of Carlton Nursery in the late 1970s, said he felt confident that both Brooks and Westwood believed that Farmingdale was the pollinizing parent. "Who were we to question those two?" he asked. "They were the world's leaders in pear understocks. And it seems strange to me, because Lyle would definitely notice the difference between Bartlett and Farmingdale. He would have known the leaves were different." Postman said the fact that the OHxF rootstocks have no Farmingdale heritage means that the highly fireblight-resistant Farmingdale is under-represented in the pedigrees of the pear rootstocks currently used in the pear industry as well as in the parent material being used in rootstock breeding programs. Although Farmingdale is not likely to instill either dwarfing or precocity in its offspring, Farmingdale germplasm should be reconsidered if fireblight resistance is to be an important genetic trait in future pear cultivars and rootstocks, he suggests. Future DNA fingerprinting in the USDA pear gene bank should help breeders better understand the paternity of parents when making crosses to develop improved varieties, he added. The question now is whether the OHxF rootstocks should be renamed. The patent expired in 2005, so no one owns the OHxF name. "Water's gone under the bridge for so long, so whether they're Bartlett or Farmingdale, everyone will probably continue to call them OHxF so things don't get confused," said Joe Dixon, sales representative with Carlton Plants. "There's really nobody who would rename them or have the rights to do so, I don't think." ASK ABOUT OUR CARRYOVER SPECIALS QUINCY OTHELLO MOSES LAKE PASCO WALLA WALLA HERMISTON LA GRANDE LAKEVIEW CHRISTMAS VALLEY HINES • www.goodfruit.com GOOD FRUIT GROWER DECEMBER 2013 79