Grants

This project addresses breeding, varietal selection, management practices, processing, or marketing practices to increase food quality, nutrition, safety or access. In a previous study, we demonstrated that tomato fruit grown under an organic fertilizer regime had higher phytonutrient content. Thereafter, using a comprehensive transcriptome analysis we tested the following hypotheses : 1. Growth under organic […]

Soil acidification is a growing challenge in Washington’s agricultural soils due to long term application of ammonia-based fertilizers. Acidic soil is detrimental to legume-rhizobia symbioses and nitrogen fixation. We seek to find acid tolerant and effective strains of Mesorhizobium spp. and Rhizobium leguminosarum, which associate with chickpeas and dry peas/lentils, respectively. The ultimate mission of […]

Despite being rich in protein, fiber, and phytonutrients, pulse crops remain an underutilized food in typical American diets. To help promote pulse consumption, we developed a STEMfocused curriculum that combines exposure to pulses in a school garden setting and in the classroom through nutrition, math and biology education. This curriculum meets the new Next Generation […]

WSU Mount Vernon and Skagit County Extension are hosting Soil Quality Network 2014, third in a series of annual soil quality workshops. This event will be limited to 100 participants, and targeted at farmers and agriculture professionals. In addition to providing training about the many facets of soil quality on the farm, this will be […]

Small grains – wheat, barley, oats, and rye – have been in cultivation in Western Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia since the fur-trade era of the mid‐1800s. Today, these crops and pseudo-grains (e.g. quinoa, amaranth, and buckwheat) are grown in rotation with high‐value fruit and vegetable, as well as on pastures and haylands. Consumer demand […]

The overall objective of this proposal is to develop a procedure for improving the natural immunity of potato adequately to ward off the destructive pathogens causing Late Blight ad Verticillium wilt.  Our lab’s preliminary research has determined that some yeast-like non-pathogenic fungi can induce a defense response in plants, either with the DNase enzyme they  […]

Intercropped legumes can supply nitrogen to fruit trees and reduce the need for purchased nitrogen fertilizer, potentially reducing costs and environmental footprint. The project evaluated nitrogen isotope techniques (comparing the 15N and 14N signal from the legume N versus other sources) to monitor the degree of uptake by apple trees of legume N grown in […]

Onion growers in the semi-arid, irrigated Columbia Basin produce 27% of the storage onions in the USA, with a crop farmgate value ranging from $4,000-$7,000/acre. Symbiotic arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) colonize roots of many plant species and help the plants mine soil more effectively for immobile nutrients, particularly phosphorus (P). AMF can also help defend […]

Organic food production in Washington State is expanding rapidly. However, this industry is hampered by the lack of effective antimicrobial agents which can be used in organic food production. Plants rely on innate immunity to defend microbial invasion, depending on the antimicrobial effects of phytocompounds. Plants (herbs) with high antimicrobial contents were used to treat […]

Restoring livestock to mixed-vegetable farms allows on-farm fertilizer production and the sale of high-value meat products.  Likewise, diversifying farms with native plants provides habitat for pest-killing birds and predatory insects. Unfortunately, both practices carry the risk of unintentional contamination of produce by human pathogens (e.g., E. coli O157:H7), transmitted through livestock feces or those of […]