NABG Foundation funds 2016 projects

The North American Bramble Growers Foundation has selected seven projects for 2016 funding.

The funded projects are:

• Alternative method of primocane management for primocane-fruiting blackberry – Fumi Takeda, USDA-ARS, Kearneysville, WV,  $3,430
• Manipulating horticultural practices to manage SWD – Tracy Leskey and Kevin Rice, USDA-ARS, Kearneysville, WV, $1,000
• Developing the Genomic Infrastructure for Breeding Improved Black Raspberries – Chad Finn et al. USDA-ARS Corvallis, OR, $1,500
• Electronic Labeling USDA Rubus Genebank, Part 3 – Joseph Postman and Kim Hummer, USDA-ARS National Clonal Germplasm Repository, Corvallis, OR, $1,000
• Fire Blight: An Emerging Problem for Blackberry Growers in the Mid-South – Burt Bluhm, University of Arkansas, $4,000
• Using bacteria and fungi to develop sustainable control methods for SWD – Johanna Elsonsohn and Hannah Burrack, NC State University, $2,500
• Effects of the mating and reproductive status of SWD females on their attraction to fermentation-based baits and ripe fruits – Hannah Burrack and Katie Swoboda Bhattarai, NC State University, $3,432

The foundation will give $16,862 to these projects. A number of the projects were given partial funding of their request, the foundation said. Requested funding increased by about 40 percent of the previous year’s total, according to the foundation.