Plant Variety Protection Office visited WSU to learn more about Washington apples

On September 26-27, the College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences and the Office of Commercialization welcomed visitors from the Plant Variety Protection Office (PVPO) in Wenatchee, Wash.

Ruihong Guo, deputy administrator for Science & Technology, and Jeffrey Haynes, commissioner for the PVPO, met with Jeremy Tamsen, director of Innovation and Commercialization for the College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences, and Deah McGaughey, technology licensing associate, at CIOPORA this last May and reached out to connect on a visit. CIOPORA is a community of breeders of asexually reproduced horticultural plants and actively contributes to the development of effective systems of Plant Variety Protection (PVP) worldwide. Trees and shrubs are new to the PVPO for protection. Guo and Haynes visited several Washington apple orchards to learn about the different growing systems, as well as take in-person notes about leaf, fruit and tree attributes.

We had a wonderful visit with the Wenatchee Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center as well as a few local orchards that hosted us for visits. Guo even learned how to pick apples by hand! So grateful for the community within the agriculture field to help us meet requests from other places. It was a wonderful visit and allowed for WSU breeders to give direct feedback on applications for trees and shrubs and how to help with the transition of asexually propagated trees and shrubs into the protection of the PVP.

Check out photos from the visit.