Final Report Grant No. 12-25-B-1104 Specialty Crops Block Grant Program Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection Report Due Date: November 29, 2013 Ben Brancel Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Secretary Trade and Consumer Protection 2811 Agriculture Drive Madison, WI 53718 Phone: (608) 224-5015 Contact for Specialty Crop Block Grant Program Program Coordinator: Juli Speck Grant Specialist Division of Agricultural Development Phone: (608) 224-5134 Email: [email protected] INTRODUCTION The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture received $1,056,177 from the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program, Grant No. 12-25-B-1104. The Department was able to fund 23 projects to promote and improve specialty crops industries in the state of Wisconsin or the Midwest and funding a SCBG Manager to administer and promote the Specialty Crop Block Grant program. WI DATCP is using 10% of the funds to cover administrative costs for the finance department to track and disperse the funding. Enclosed are the reports submitted by all 24 grantees. Grant Projects: FY10FB-001 Prevention of sugar end defect in WI potatoes FY10FB-002 Assessing soil fumigation and fumigation alternatives in WI potato production FY10FB-003 Optimizing resource use in potatoes with drip irrigation FY10FB-004 Pest management strategies to replace Mancozeb and Diazinon for ginseng FY10FB-005 Wisconsin cranberry product electronic marketplace FY10FB-006 Market expansion for Wisconsin grown grapes FY10FB-008 Integrated systems to improve mint persistence in Wisconsin FY10FB-009 GAP/GHP cost share FY10FB-010 Grower-driven sustainability standards for cranberry production FY10FB-011 Developing alternative potato sprout inhibiting strategies to CIPC FY10FB-012 Cold hardy wine grape production in regions of Wisconsin FY10FB-013 Improving nitrogen use efficiency in sweet corn production FY10FB-014 Workshops for underserved fresh market growers FY10FB-015 Evaluation of automated sprinkler irrigation systems in cranberry FY10FB-016 Evaluating soil moisture probes for water use efficiency in cranberry beds FY10FB-017 Table grape trials for fresh market production FY10FB-018 Control of powdery mildew and leaf spot disease using low-risk pesticides FY10FB-019 Development of mobile post-harvest processing for hazelnut production FY10FB-020 Driftwatch – Wisconsin FY10FB-021 SavorWisconsin.com FY10FB-022 Putatively invasive plant taxa survey of Wisconsin nursery growers FY10FB-023 Optimizing calcium rates for pickles FY10FB-024 Specialty Crop Grants Specialist FY10FB-025 Perennial fruiting systems for a sustainable future FY10FB-026 Growing Wisconsin’s Maple Syrup Industry 1) Wisconsin Potato and Vegetable Growers Association Project Title: Prevention of sugar end defect in WI potatoes (FY10FB-001) Total Amount Received: $80,000 Date of Award: October 25, 2010 Project Contact(s): Karen Walters, AJ Bussan Report Date: February 6, 2012 I. Project Summary The Wisconsin potato industry has had price incentives to improve fry color of processing potatoes since 2006, but prior to 2010 did not reject potato lots because of unacceptable fry color. The economic loss to potato growers with rejected potatoes due to unacceptable fry color is significant, as spot market prices for fresh potatoes are much less than contract prices for processing potatoes. Managing sugars and fried color are key issues for McCain Foods, the largest processor of Wisconsin potatoes. Improved fry color and quality will likely improve the demand for Wisconsin produced processing potatoes and contribute to the economic success of the Plover, WI processing facility and ultimately Wisconsin potato growers. A reliable supply of high quality processing potatoes is needed to ensure the long-term economic health of the processed potato industry in Wisconsin. The goal of this project was to improve the raw product value and improve finished product quality of processed potatoes by minimizing the negative effects of sugar end defect. Improved finished product quality increases the marketability of processed products from Wisconsin. Improved fry color of processed products lowers acrylamide levels and enhances processed potato product safety. This project was first year funding through the SCBGP specific to sugar end defect and does not enhance previous research funding from the program directly. It does build upon preliminary research funded in 2009 through project titled Potato Systems for Improved Management Efficiency and Improved Raw Product Quality. II. Project Approach 1) Conduct on-farm trials that demonstrate optimal management of irrigation, vine desiccation, and harvest timing: A demonstration experiment was conducted at Hancock WI using Russet Burbank as the standard variety and Bannock Russet as an improved variety with lower propensity for sugar-end defect formation. Plots were irrigated as needed throughout the 2011 growing season except that one or two sequential irrigation events were omitted for some rows during the period of early tuber bulking. Water deficit during this time of tuber development is one way to trigger sugar end formation in Russet Burbank. Plants that had missed one or two irrigation events were nearly indistinguishable from plants that had received full irrigation. Tuber tissue at the tuber stem-end and tuber bud-end was collected at harvest and after three months of storage at 55˚F and will be used to assay for sugars, acid invertase activity, and relative abundance of acid invertase mRNA. Fry evaluations conducted at the same times are used to assess the degree to which sugar-end defects developed prior to harvest and during storage. Furthermore, we have collected data on producer farms detailing irrigation scheduling output demonstrated by the figure on the following page. This is used to educate WI producers on appropriate irrigation scheduling during February 2012 grower education conference. Further data collection is underway with cooperating growers. 2) Develop raw product evaluation techniques that can be used after harvest to predict the likelihood of sugar end development in processing potatoes: Methods to quantify acid invertase mRNA have been developed and validated through use with multiple fry and chip processing cultivars. All aspects of the procedure can be conducted with commercially available reagents. 3) Develop potato varieties with resistance to sugar end defect as well as cold-induced sweetening: Lines of Russet Burbank that have had the acid invertase gene (VInv) silenced using RNA- interference have been assayed by quantitative PCR to establish the extent of VInv expression in leaf tissue. Of the 54 lines available, several have high amounts of suppression (>93%) and these lines are hypothesized to be much more resistant to sugar-end defect formation than Russet Burbank checks. Tubers have been harvested from some transformed plants, and additional plants are currently producing tubers. Tuber expression of VInv will be assayed after tubers have been placed into cold temperature storage to confirm effectiveness of the silencing approach. We plan to conduct small scale field trials in 2012 using a subset of these lines to demonstrate control of sugar-end defects. If successful, this demonstration will illustrate a clear path that can be followed to produce sugar-end defect resistant varieties using conventional breeding or biotechnology. 4) Screen available processing russet potato varieties for resistance to sugar end development: We evaluated over 85 clones for general processing characteristics. Samples have been evaluated in storage of processing quality. III. Goals and Outcomes Achieved -Completed evaluation of irrigation practices by some processed potato growers. Waiting for broader irrigation information to help evaluate practices relative to soil moisture content -Screened 85 breeding lines for yield, size, specific gravity, fry color, and sugar content under Wisconsin growing conditions. Lines are also being evaluated for acrylamide content. -Developed several transformed lines of Russet Burbank with silenced Acid Invertase expression of over 93%. Field trials will be conducted to evaluate quality in WI. Evaluating long term storage of Umatilla and Alpine in commercial scale storage trials in the SRF. B. All goals were accomplished. We will continue grant in 2012. Furthermore, we received competitive funding in separate, but related project focused on mitigation of acrylamide in processing potatoes. Goal: Improve raw product quality and decrease rejection rate of processed potatoes based on fry color. Performance Measure: proportion of potatoes that are acceptable for processing. Benchmark: 85% of potatoes grown for processing are acceptable and being processed. Target: 100% of potatoes grown for processing are acceptable and processed This year 100% of processed potatoes in Wisconsin have been accepted for processing. In fact, producers with issues related to quality in the past now have some of the best processing quality coming out of storage. In reality, Russet Burbank is highly susceptible to stress conditions that occur during the growing season. Russet Burbank growers have adopted practices related to irrigation management to reduce impacts of climate on sugar end and solid content of potatoes. However, extreme conditions were to reoccur could jeopardize this record going forward. Goal: Varieties other than Russet Burbank are grown for processing. Performance Measure: acres of potatoes planted for processing with varieties other than