When: Sunday, May 22: 9am – 5pm
Where: Jackson-Washington State Forest
Behind 7785 IN-135
Salem, IN 47167
There are two plantings at this location: a BC3F1 breeding orchard planted in 2003 and a BC3F3 progeny test planted in 2014. Our focus for this event will be the 2003 BC3F1 orchard. In order to determine which trees of TACFs backcross breeding program are the “best of the best”, we are implementing a combination of new phenotyping (measuring trees’ outward appearance) and genotyping (genetic sequencing). By comparing the phenotypic measures to the underlying genotype, TACFs Director of Science, Jared Westbrook, can better determine which trees have the best disease-resistance across the organization’s range-wide breeding program.
We will be measuring the trees, taking metrics such as height, diameter, crown health, etc., and also collecting young leaves from all of the trees. While none of these tasks are particularly difficult, there are about 100 trees to measure and observe. We will break up into a few pairs where one person will take the measurements and another will record the information.
Volunteers are welcome to come for any amount of time they are available.
