Join Organic Seed Alliance and eOrganic for an online carrot breeding training on Friday, March 25th. Register today for this free webinar and learn fundamental concepts and strategies that are key to successful carrot breeding work. Presenters will cover basic genetics, color expression, trait expression and selection, and demonstrate how to cut, evaluate, and select roots from a diverse array of orange and rainbow colored roots.
Specific topics that will be addressed include:
- Which traits are straightforward to select for and which are not (more complex)
- Strategies to tease out environmental effects from genetic expression
- Basic color genetics – which colors are dominant and “easy to fix and work with” and which are more challenging
- When to stop – traits that are very difficult or “impossible” to select out or away from
- A word about male sterility – how it works in carrots (it’s naturally occurring) and what to do if, or when, it shows up
- Root evaluation, selection, and storage
There’s no cost to participate though pre-registration is required.
Presenters include OSA’s Laurie McKenzie and Micaela Colley, Philipp Simon from USDA ARS, and Solveig Hanson from the University of British Columbia.
Funding for this webinar is provided by a NIFA OREI grant: Carrot Improvement for Organic Agriculture: Leveraging On-farm and Below Ground Networks. This research is also part of Organic Science Cluster 3, led by the Organic Federation of Canada in collaboration with the Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada at Dalhousie University, supported by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Canadian Agricultural Partnership – AgriScience Program, and by The Bauta Family Initiative on Canadian Seed Security.
