The International Trials Conference kicked off Farwest week with a bang. The third iteration of the biennial event took in Portland, Ore, from Aug. 24-27.
The event began with a keynote from Dr. Allan Armitage. The renowned author and professor emeritus at the University of Georgia, highlighted the importance of plant trials. Breeders aren’t going to stop introducing new plants. Growers, retailers and consumers rely on the data collected by trial gardens to make purchasing decisions. He also informed the crowd about the National Plant Trials Database, a website that does exactly what it claims to do: provide trial data from trial sites around the U.S.
“It’s Consumer Reports for plants,” Armitage says.
Later, three trial managers discussed three thorny issues. Security, funding and policy were the topics tackled by Susie Raker, general manager of marketing and sales, C Raker & Sons, Inc., James R. Ault, Ph.D., director of ornamental plant research, and manager of Chicagoland Grows Plant Introduction Program, Chicago Botanic Garden, and Sinclair Adam, extension educator-floriculture and flower trial director, Penn State Extension.
The split between public and private trial sites was intended. The planning commission of the International Trials Conference aimed to facilitate discussions between the two types of trials in an attempt to share best practices.
Theresa Yoshioka, international trade manager for the Oregon Department of Agriculture, worked with the ITC planning committee to bring key influencers from Europe, Canada, Asia and Australia to the conference.
“We wanted to bring in people from different sectors,” Yoshioka says. “We brought in researchers, nurseries, garden centers, associations – the horticultural trades association from the U.K. is here with their executive director.”
After lunch, a roundtable discussion about standards in plant trialing showed there is still a lot of questions upon which the stakeholders can’t agree. More talk of standardization spilled into the next session, in which Jim Nau discussed how he collects measurements at The Gardens at Ball, Jason Lattier, a Ph. D candidate with OSU, and Tim Howard, president of Clarity Connect suggested new ways to improve the data collecting process.
The later afternoon sessions focused on edibles. Alice Doyle, co-owner, Log House Plants/SuperNaturals Grafted Vegetables LLC, Jim Myers, professor of vegetable breeding and genetics, Department of Horticulture, Oregon State University and Lane Selman, agricultural researcher, Oregon State University, spoke about farmer-participatory variety trialing, Mother-Baby trail designs, and NOVIC, the Northern Organic Vegetable Improvement Collaborative. Attendees even got to sample a variety of tomatoes in a post-lunch tasting.
Next, Peter Boches, breeder, for Fall Creek Farm & Nursery, Inc. and Chad Finn, research geneticist, USDA-ARS, HCRL, discussed small fruit production, and recent innovations in woody edible breeding and trialing.
Yoshioka says one of the reasons Oregon was able to host this international event was through a USDA Specialty Crop Block Grant. The grant, which is through the Farm Bill, gives money to states based on the amount of specialty crop products produced in the state.
“Oregon is a big specialty crop state,” Yoshioka says. “Nursery is one of our top two industries in the state. Plus we grow many berries and they are considered specialty crops, too. Based on that we get funds and projects to help promote, educate, improve those sectors.”
Stay tuned tomorrow for a wrapup of the International Trials Conference, including the bus tour. And watch for a podcast with Dr. Armitage on the topic of standards in plant trials. Follow us on Twitter @NurseryMag for real-time updates from the ITC and the Farwest Show.