April 2019 - 30

INDUSTRY NEWS
Well-Pict releases
strawberry varieties
Well-Pict of Watsonville,
California, is planting two
new proprietary varieties of
strawberries bred for resistance
against soil pathogens.
Dan Crowley, vice president of
sales and marketing for Well-Pict,
said the two varieties are hoped
to have increased resistance to
soil pathogens such as verticillium
wilt. He said some Well-Pict farms
in southern California have had
die-offs in recent years due to
such diseases.
Verticillium wilt in years past
was controlled with fumigation,
but some of the key chemicals
used in fumigation have been
phased out. Once a pathogen
is established in a field, it's
population may increase with
successive crops, according to
production guidelines from the
California Strawberry Commission.
Crowley said that Well-Pict
spends millions of dollars each year
developing proprietary varieties.
" It's an ongoing process, " he
said. " We choose to do this to
differentiate ourselves. "
For Well-Pict's strawberry
breeding program, disease
resistance is of less importance than
consumer-desired traits, he said.
It typically takes seven years to
develop a variety, he said. Plants
are raised in a greenhouse and
nursery setting before being
planted in field trials, he said.
The company, formed in 1969,
uses experienced independent
growers to grow its proprietary
strawberries and raspberries.
Chile pepper research
funded in New Mexico
After 10 years of work,
New Mexico State University's
(NMSU) has funded its $1 million
endowment chair. The endowed
chair ensures that funds will
always be available for chile
pepper research at NMSU. This will
help in the search for a new Chile
Pepper Breeding and Genetics
faculty position in the near future.
The chair is officially named
The Paul W. Bosland Chile
Pepper Breeding and Genetics
Endowed Chair. It not only honors
the 33-year career of Bosland,
who is the director of the Chile
Pepper Institute (CPI), and all
of his contributions to the chile
under $5,500 was needed to finish
off the chair they called up a friend
to see what they could do together
to complete the endowment.
BrightFarms plans
national growth
From left, Doug Renfro, with Renfro's
Foods, Chile Pepper Institute Director Paul
Bosland and John and Sue Hard of CaJohns
Fiery Foods, hold a $5,470 check, the final
contribution to the Chile Pepper Institute
Endowed Chair position. The check will
secure funding for chile pepper research.
Photo: Josh Bachman/NMSU
pepper industry, but also provides
the university with this chair
to recognize the 131 years of
continuous chile pepper breeding
at NMSU.
" I am very, very honored to have
the chair named after me. I didn't
expect it, " Bosland said. " We've
really established chile peppers as
part of our institution at NMSU
and hopefully it will continue. "
To reach this goal, the CPI received
a lot of help from donors such
as John and Sue Hard, who are
founding owners of CaJohns Fiery
Food in Columbus, Ohio, and Doug
Renfro of the company Mrs. Renfro's.
When the Hards found out just
Irvington, New York-based
BrightFarms, a brand of locallygrown
packaged salads, has
established plans for national
expansion with new sustainable
greenhouse farms in New England,
New York and North Carolina.
The new greenhouses will each
be 280,000 square feet and sit on
20 acres of land. Each greenhouse
is expected to create around 55
full-time " green-collar " jobs for
residents, offering competitive
wages and benefits.
The three new greenhouses
will further the brand's presence
and add to BrightFarm's network
of local and sustainable farms
across the Mid-Atlantic and into
the South. The company currently
operates greenhouses in Illinois,
Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia,
supplying major retailers in a
dozen major metro markets.
In order to more rapidly meet
retailer demands for locally
MODEL 912 MULCH
TRANSPLANTER
* Sets plants through plastic mulch
* Water system available
* For cells or plugs up to 2-1/2 " in diameter
* No more setting plants in wet, cold mud by hand
* Twin row available for row spacing as close as 12 "
* Plant spacing starts at 10 " in the row
1150 CENTRAL AVENUE, HOLLAND, MI 49423
Phone: 800-757-5268 or Fax: 616-396-3619
website: www.mechanicaltransplanter.com
e-mail: mtc@mechanicaltransplanter.com
30 | VegetableGrowersNews.com
http://www.mechanicaltransplanter.com http://www.VegetableGrowersNews.com
April 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of April 2019
