I was hand pollinating a nectarine in the greenhouse earlier today and I thought to myself, I bet these people on Growing Fruit Forum know of some cool stories about extreme research being done that never sees the light of day. Or some extreme breeding, or some stories of how that plant disease REALLY came about!
So I’ll share a couple stories I can think of atm.
A friend came to visit my tropical farm, helping with weeding and eating he wanted to mention his experience as an intern at a Costa Rica, ?Del monte? Pineapple research station. He was doing some mundane tasks and something would happen periodically with visitors and they would serve a selection of recently developed Pineapples. He got to taste what was left over, and he said one of the varieties was really unusual, extremely sweet and had extra flavors with pink flesh. As he explained it, it was clear that it was a special experience how he described the taste.
He also mentioned the typical ?red tape? control measures that were so excessive he thought, but i am a bit familiar with from a past job I had with $Y#63#7@… He mentioned having to change clothes get shoes checked etc to make sure people were not stealing pineapple slips.
A shorter story but on the topic of fun stuff to share with Fruit Lovers… A friend going to school at some school in California, mentioned to me that he was very enthusiastic about a process they had been working on where they were injecting various Nitrogen fixing bacteria in non leguminous plants including fruit trees and although the vast majority were not compatible, some were and that this showed something like a 1/3 reduced need for Nitrogen fertilizer.
Maybe this can be found online etc. but it is pretty interesting to think about what all is going on behind closed doors.
Similar stuff I can think about with Australian Cherimoyas and Indian Sugar Apples and O_o Colorado Potato Beetle being weaponized by USSR O_o … but that is all for now.