Agricultural Research Service near Corvallis, Oregon

During my visit to Oregon in August / September 2015, my friend Chris Homanics arranged a visit for us to the Agricultural Research Service collections near Corvallis. This is one of 30 such federal facilities in the National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS). These are dedicated to preserving economically important crops and their wild relatives. The Corvallis facility is dedicated to the collection, preservation, distribution and evaluation of hazel, strawberries, hops, mint, pears, currants, gooseberries, raspberries, blackberries, cranberries, blueberries and other speciality crops. Although primarily a collection of living plants, we were also shown the facilities for the secondary tissue culture and cryogenically preserved collections.  We only had a morning for our visit and we ran out of time towards the end. It was really impressive to see in particular the range of crop wild relatives on display and I saw many Rubus species from around the world that I’d never seen before (locally harvested raspberry / blackberry relatives). The collection of black raspberries (Rubus occidentalis) was also interesting to see!  It was also pleasing to observe the openness of the staff and willingness to share! It was also Chris’ first visit and he will certainly be back, if he hasn’t already, and I think a number of new breeding projects started that day! Very impressive!! Enjoy the pictures here:  http://www.edimentals.com/pictures/index.php?/category/78

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Perennial vegetables, Edimentals (plants that are edible and ornamental) and other goings on in The Edible Garden