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Basil / Dr. Native Dudai, (ARO- Newe Ya'ar experimental Station)
Research emphasizes improvements for chilling effects and Fusarium and Botrytis tolerance. Improvements of growing habit, late bolting, uniformity, leaf size, color and shape, shelf life and aromatic compounds. Already commercialized F-1 hybrids with high Fusarium tolerance like Nufar and Aroma 2. Currently launching a new potted variety Adi, with high Fusarium tolerance as well.
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Melon & Watermelon / Dr. Ran Herman
Organic Breeding in our Melons program concentrates mainly in Galia and Cantaloupe types. The breeding target in Galia is to develop varieties that suit different seasons in open field and greenhouse with resistances to PM, Fusarium (0, 1, and 2) & MNSV. Rona & Dona are our first commercial varieties. Experimental varieties from the Cantaloupe program with PM and Fusarium resistances will be ready in 2010 in order to place trials in 2011. Organic Breeding in watermelons consists mainly on mini (2-4 kg.) & midi (4-6kg.) sizes with red flesh and green rind with dark green strips. Production of experimental varieties, including seedless, will start in spring 2010 in order to place trials in different zones in 2011.
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Research in Progress - Click to view PDF
Cucumber / Mr. Shlomo Niego (Formerly Weitzman Institute Cucumbers breeder)
Organic breeding program in Cucumbers focuses on Beit Alfa and American Slicers. Beit Alfa: the breeding is targeted towards developing indoor varieties to suit different growing seasons with plant and fruit quality, resistances to PM, DM, and CVYV. Adam, Eve and Manny are our first commercial varieties. American Slicers: breeding is targeted towards developing open field varieties with resistances to PM, DM and CVYV. Green 18 is our first commercial variety. Experimental production will take place in 2010 to place trials in 2011.
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Research in Progress: We are currently processing seeds from 3 different breeding programs.
- American Slicers for open field
The breeding part of this program is over and out of all the new experimental hybrids 10 varieties were selected. All the varieties will be evaluated in two different climatic zones in Israel with professional cucumber producers.
- Partenocarpic Bait-Alfa Type, Greenhouse Production: Winter varieties
The breeding part of this program is over and we have many experimental varieties for preliminary evaluation. First evaluation will take place in February 2011 in Ashalim experimental station. The selected varieties will be replanted for additional evaluation in October 2011.
- Partenocarpic Bait-Alfa Type, Greenhouse Production: Summer varieties
The breeding part of this program is over and we have in this stage advanced parental lines and some experimental hybrids.
Seed production in this program has suffered from the extreme climatic conditions this summer and only few seeds have been processed. The evaluation of the parental lines and new hybrids will be in two stages.
- Advanced lines F5&F6 and a limited number of experimental hybrids will be planted in the greenhouse on May 2011.
- We will continue this breeding program for summer varieties in 2011 as well.
Squash & Pumpkin / Dr. Harry Paris (senior crop breeder, ARO, Newe Ya'ar Experimental Station)
Research in squash and pumpkins focuses on improved yield, fruit & plant quality, PM and virus resistances. Anton, Dario, Goldy, Segev, G-Star, Y-Star already commercialized. Currently launching two new varieties, acorn squash (Armonim) and light green marrow squash (Rotem).
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Artichoke & Carrot / Dr. Nakdimon Umiel (Geneticist & plant-breeder, Former ARO researcher)
The breeding program is aimed at developing various cultivars which will meet the specific demands of the fresh-markets' consumers in different countries, as well as cultivars for the needs of the processing industry of Artichoke. Special attention is given to heritable traits for yield & harvesting-time, as well as for colors, shape & quality of the harvested heads. First experimental cultivars will be released for trials in 2010 and 2011. Carrots, we are working on methods for seed production under organic growing requirements and the local climatic conditions. We aim at production of organic seed from both open-pollinated & hybrid cultivars.
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Research in Progress: The existing large collection of commercial cultivars (mainly propagated vegetatively), includes a vast genetic variation in many important plant's characters' such as: earliness, yield, shape size color and thorniness of heads (see picture), as well as variation in the internal characteristics of the heads. Various markets for fresh and/or industrial uses have different demands in these respects. In our breeding, we aim at developing various seed-propagated cultivars, which will satisfy the demands of the specific markets. In the selections, we pay special attention to earliness and high-yield of heads, as well as to the uniformity of the various head's morphologies.
Presently, we are in the advanced stage of genetically stabilizing the uniformities of some 6 populations. Each of these genetic populations is aimed at satisfying the needs of different fresh and/or industrial market. We expect to have seed for our first tests of cultivars in the summer of 2011.
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Iberis / Dr. Nakdimon Umiel (Geneticist & plant-breeder, Former ARO researcher)
Research in Progress:
The genus Iberis (family Brassicaceae) consist of some 50 wild species native to Europe. The plants, which are also called "candytuft", are covered with abundance of small white flowers. In the last few years, we are carrying a breeding program to develop annual cultivars of Iberis, for use in gardening, pot-plants and for cut-flowers. Now, we are in process of releasing our first cultivar (see picture). This cultivar can be used for both gardening as well as for pot-plants. In the cut-flowers part of the program, we expect to release our first cultivar in 2012.
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Ornamental Sunflower / Mr. Yalon Shchori (Formerly ARO flower breeder)
Breeding of Ornamental Sunflower F-1 Hybrid sterile Varieties. The main subject of our sunflower breeding is winter varieties that can yield good quality flowers under cooler temperatures. We aim to release such varieties in 2010/2011. Other subjects of breeding are pot plant varieties as well as different colors.
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Lettuce Breeding / Mrs. Anat Shahaf (Manager, Ashalim R&D)
consists mainly on Green Romaine and Red Lola Rosa types. The target in the Romaine types is to develop verities for different growing seasons with high quality and resistances to bolting, burning tips and bremia. Super Jericho is our main variety. Currently we are lunching a new summer variety, Dov. Red Lola Rosa Types: progressive clones of dark-red curly lettuce are selected to improve color and size of our colored collection. Gilaad and Gloria are our first commercial varieties. Experimental production of the new varieties will be done in 2010 in order to place trials in 2011.
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