The petunia, one of Ontario’s top ornamental crop species, may take on new traits such as drought tolerance by way of a new research partnership in the province.
Trait development work for the species will be spearheaded by Daryl Somers, research director of applied genomics at Vineland Research and Innovation Centre; associate professor Theo Blom of the University of Guelph, who heads the plant agriculture department’s greenhouse floriculture program; and floriculture specialist Wayne Brown of the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, also at Guelph.
The three organizations’ multi-year research program, supported by Flowers Canada (Ontario) and Ball Horticulture Co., is meant to kick off a five-year collaboration centred on “industry-driven research priorities for Canadian horticulture,” Vineland said in a release Thursday.
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For example, the centre noted, “the amount of water petunias require is a problem that causes difficulties for retailers and unnecessary losses for growers.”
“Taking a genomics approach we will search for value-added traits such as drought tolerance and reduced dormancy to improve the quality and production of ornamental species,” Somers said.
Kevin Hall, the U of Guelph’s vice-president for research, said the university is committed to build a research partnership with the Vineland centre “that makes a difference to horticultural businesses across the country.”
The science generated through their agreement is also expected to have “impact within the international research community,” Hall said in Vineland’s release.
Based at Lincoln, about 30 km west of Niagara Falls, Vineland is billed as an independent, not-for-profit centre for horticultural science.
The centre, created in 1906, has since managed research contributing to Ontario’s tender fruit, wine and greenhouse industries.
