BREEDING AND GERMPLASM ENHANCEMENT FOR NEW JERSEY CRANBERRY AND BLUEBERRY INDUSTRIES

Farming of native berry crops, e.g., cranberry and blueberry, provides a significant contribution to NJ and US economies. Therefore, it is critical to provide blueberry and cranberry growers with varieties that are better suited to current and emerging challenges, both socioeconomic and environmental, enabling the sustainability of these crops. This research project is focused on developing these improved varieties. Both crops can suffer major losses due to insects, disease, and adverse climatic conditions. Pesticides currently employed by the blueberry and cranberry industries may be unavailable or restricted in the near future, making alternative approaches essential. Development of disease and insect resistant cultivars, an important goal of our breeding project, would aid in reducing dependence on pesticides without increasing risk of crop loss, as well as providing a higher quality commodity.With blueberry, machine harvestability for the fresh market is a major breeding objective. Machine-harvestable cultivars would help to mitigate the labor shortage crisis and reduce a major input cost of hand-harvesting, increasing profitability of blueberry growers and making nutritious food products more affordable. Traits our program is selecting for include a concentrated ripening period, ability to hold fruit, fruit firmness, fruit with a small scar, along with reliable productivity and good flavor. Thousands of progeny are currently being evaluated in the field, with some showing great potential.For cranberry, our breeding objectives include: 1) development of fruit rot-resistant cranberry varieties which will enable reduced fungicide inputs, for greater cranberry grower sustainability, and lower environmental risks, e.g. honey bee impacts; 2) reduced-acid cranberry varieties which will reduce the quantity of added-sugar in cranberry products; and 3) cranberry varieties with enhanced phytochemical profiles and greater human health benefits. In addition, the breeding and selection cycles over the next five years will be selecting for adaptation to current climate stresses, which have been measurably warmer. Climate change has had a major impact on the intensity of fruit rot in cranberry.Each year, our breeding program makes crosses in the greenhouse to combine desirable traits, new progenies are planted out in the field for evaluation, and promising individuals are tested on a larger scale for potential varietal release. Our field work is complemented by work in the laboratory to develop genetic markers which will expedite our selection process. Thus, the major impact of this program will be the development of cranberry and blueberry varieties better adapted to a warmer climate, with enhanced disease and insect resistance, requiring fewer pesticide applications and maintaining productivity, while minimizing the environmental impact of cranberry and blueberry production.