Washington State University will receive $2.53 million from the USDA to further improve apple varieties, along with blackberry, peach, pear, rose, strawberry, and cherry crops.

The grant is part of the federal Specialty Crop Research Initiative fund.

The money funds a project which will create DNA-based tools to develop commercial scion and rootstock cultivars more e efficiently.

A new WSU fund will help study apples and other fruits in the Pacific Northwest and other states.

"This application of modern DNA-based tools, which has been lagging in rosaceous crops, will become      more accessible to the country's 50-plus rosaceous crop breeding programs, including  WSU's apple and sweet cherry breeding programs, says Cameron Peace,  WSU Department of Horticulture tree fruit geneticist and project co-director.

"This is a fantastic return on investment and a wonderful recognition of the quality of WSU researchers," says Jim Doornink, Yakama tree fruit grower and chairman of the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission.

The award supports a second phase of the RosBREED project originally funded in 2009 by USDA. RosBREED addresses diseases identified as key challenges by industry stakeholders across the nation.

"Producers will have more options to sustainably protect their crops, while consumers and the entire supply chain will directly benefit from products  with better taste, nutrition, keeping ability and appearance," notes Jim McFerson, commission research manager.

Pacific Northwest fruit industries expect to benefit from the rootstock and scion cultivar releases under the project, which Doornink. The project releases will allow growers to compete better in a challenging marketplace, he adds.

Peace will lead the project scientists which include 35 scientists from  13 U.S. institutions including the USDA Agricultural Research Service at Oregon State University.

The research funding comes as WSU announces the first growers to receive its new Cosmic Crisp apples. Growers selected in a university drawing are in two tiers.
•A dozen tier one producers who will receive 3,000-5,000 trees each.
•Another dozen growers who are allocated 20,000 trees each.

Tier one producers are:
Leah Eddie
Harris Farms
eff Freepons
Mark Hanrahan
Konnowac Orchards
Conor Kilian
Delbir Bains
Brook Besor
Melissa Mathis
Cowan Orchards
Cox Canyon Vineyards
Ross Montierth

Tier two producers are:
Double S Orchards
Weippert Orchard Terrace Heights
Weippert Orchard Maple Leaf
Kludt-Waldron Orchards
Weasel Ranch
Mustang Ranch
F. Lorraine Mathison Grantor Trust
Bob Mathison
Stephen van Someren Greve
HLH Properties
Stemilt World Farmous Compost
Lyall Family Farms