Breeding efforts at the U of A System Division of Agriculture to improve spinach tolerance to a pathogen called Pythium will help both indoor and outdoor growers of the popular leafy green.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture recently awarded vegetable breeder Ainong Shi and a team of researchers at the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station a $615,000, three-year grant to continue long-running efforts to identify spinach cultivars tolerant of multiple Pythium species. The experiment station is the research arm of the Division of Agriculture.
The grant is part of $10.2 million in funding for 18 projects supported by NIFA's Agriculture and Food Research Initiative program, which, among other things, supports public breeding efforts aimed at improving crop productivity, efficiency and performance.
In spinach production, Pythium can cause root rot that severely limits plant growth and may even lead to plant death, said Shi, a professor in the Department of Horticulture for the experiment station and the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences at the U of A.
The fungus-like pathogen thrives in moist conditions, making it especially problematic for indoor growers using greenhouses, hydroponics or vertical-farming systems.
Source : uark.edu