Experiment Station in Geneva, NY. Cummins retired in 1993 and just completed several years of consultation with Cornell to keep the program moving slowly forward.
by Matt McCallum
Geneva, NY - Cornell University rootstock breeder Jim Cummins was recently honored for his 30 years of work for the apple industry. The International Dwarf Fruit Tree Association (IDFTA) gave the emeritus professor of pomology its research award during the organization's conference held in Rochester, N.Y., in late February.
For the past three decades, Cummins and his pathologist partner, Herb Aldwinckle, evaluated close to 500,000 different rootstocks at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, NY. Cummins retired in 1993 and just completed several years of consultation with Cornell to keep the program moving slowly forward.
"I've tried to keep the evaluation side of the program moving forward," said Cummins. "I hope they get a replacement for me in the rootstock breeding position because there are many exciting rootstocks still to be looked at."
To keep the rootstock breeding program going it looks as though Cornell will pass funding of the position over to the USDA. The money for the position was successfully lobbied for by the U.S. Apple Association research committee. Cornell and the USDA are in the process of negotiating the transfer of the position and it is hoped that a person will be hired by next fall.
The USDA has a long history of involvement in Cornell's rootstock program. For the last 20 years it has provided generous support to the breeding program particularly through the funding of a research technician at Geneva. In 1980 the USDA also dedicated a 30-acre rootstock research block at the Appalachian Fruit Research Station at Kearneysville, W.V.
Resistant rootstocks
Cummins is most widely known for his search in looking for rootstocks resistant to fireblight, phytophthora root rot, and other fruit diseases. He is a fifth generation fruit grower from southern Illinois who earned a Ph.D. in botany at Southern Illinois University. In 1967 he came to Cornell to take over the rootstock and nursery program started by H.B. Tukey and Karl Brase.
"The second summer I was here we had our first hint of what fireblight would do," Cummins said. "We saw that M.9 and M.26 were going to have difficulties with these two diseases and started a breeding program to develop resistant rootstocks."
For the next 30 years, the Cummins and Aldwinckle team produced close to 500,000 seedlings in hopes of finding some resistance to fireblight and phytophthora root rot while still retaining good horticultural properties.
"Herb's screenings were very rigorous and we killed most of them," Cummins said. "The ones that made it through have excellent resistance."
From these Cummins has released five rootstocks geared toward the needs of today's growers and has about a dozen more in the pipeline. The ones that have been released include:
The other rootstocks not yet released for commercial growers include:
There was a major setback of the release of G.65 and G.11 two years ago when the two rootstocks were withdrawn from circulation by the Cornell Research Foundation because of questions on trueness-to-type. G.65 was introduced to rootstock propagators by Cornell in 1991 while G.11 was released to stoolbed operators in 1992. Both had been purchased by nurseries and were ready for commercial sale when field tests showed the rootstocks that came from tissue cultured stock did not behave as expected. In further testing it was found that for some reason they were not genetically identical to the original G.65 and G.11.
All of the rootstocks suspected to be different were pulled from the market and the process of getting the rootstock to the growers had to start over. It is hoped that growers will have access to the rootstocks in two to three years.
Cummins has kept a close tab on the problem because of his work with Cornell and his involvement in Cummins Nursery with his son, Steve. Two of his other sons are also involved in the fruit industry; James runs Littletree Orchards in Newfield, N.Y., while John is a fruit technician at the University of Tennessee. His fourth son, Pete, is getting his doctorate in psychology from the University of Tennessee.
NOTE: This article originally appeared in the March issue of The Great Lakes Fruit Growers News.
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