East Malling Research Station

Last updated

NIAB EMR
AbbreviationNIAB EMR
Formation1913
Type Research institute
Legal statusPrivate company (09894859) and registered charity (1165055)
PurposeHorticulture research in the UK
HeadquartersEast Malling
Location
Coordinates 51°17′26″N0°26′02″E / 51.2906°N 0.4339°E / 51.2906; 0.4339
Region served
global
Membership
Horticultural scientists
Managing Director
Professor Mario Caccamo
Parent organization
NIAB
Staff
100
Website www.emr.ac.uk

NIAB EMR is a horticultural and agricultural research institute at East Malling, Kent in England, with a specialism in fruit and clonally propagated crop production. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] In 2016, the institute became part of the NIAB Group.

Contents

History

Telamon apple, cross-sectioned, NFC description: Raised in 1976 at East Malling Research Station, East Malling, Kent. Introduced in 1989. Fruits are sweet, crisp and juicy Cross section of Telamon, National Fruit Collection (acc. 1996-073).jpg
Telamon apple, cross-sectioned, NFC description: Raised in 1976 at East Malling Research Station, East Malling, Kent. Introduced in 1989. Fruits are sweet, crisp and juicy

A research station was established on the East Malling site in 1913 on the impetus of local fruit growers. The original buildings are still in use today. Some of the finest and most important research on perennial crops has been conducted on the site, resulting in East Malling’s worldwide reputation. Some of the more well-known developments have been achieved in the areas of plant raising, fruit plant culture (especially the development of rootstocks), fruit breeding, ornamental breeding, fruit storage and the biology and control of pests and diseases. [7] [8] [9]

From 1990 a division of Horticulture Research International (HRI) was on the site. HRI closed in 2009. [10]

In 2016, East Malling Research became part of the National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB) group.

Apple rootstocks

In 1912, Ronald Hatton initiated the work of classification, testing and standardisation of apple tree rootstocks. With the help of Dr Wellington, Hatton sorted out the incorrect naming and mixtures then widespread in apple rootstocks distributed throughout Europe. These verified and distinct apple rootstocks are called the "Malling series". The most widespread used was the M9 rootstock.

Structure

It is situated east of East Malling, and north of the Maidstone East Line. The western half of the site is in East Malling and Larkfield and the eastern half is in Ditton. It is just south of the A20, and between junctions 4 and 5 of the M20 motorway.

Function

Today the Research Centre continues its horticultural work and has a business enterprise centre occupied by leading local businesses. The conference centre [11] trades as East Malling Ltd, being incorporated on 17 February 2004.

View from the east East Malling Research Station - geograph.org.uk - 147095.jpg
View from the east

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fruit tree propagation</span> Usually carried out vegetatively by grafting or budding a desired variety onto a suitable rootstock

Fruit tree propagation is usually carried out vegetatively (non-sexually) by grafting or budding a desired variety onto a suitable rootstock.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jenny Clack</span> English paleontologist and evolutionary biologist (1947–2020)

Jennifer Alice Clack, was an English palaeontologist and evolutionary biologist. She specialised in the early evolution of tetrapods, specifically studying the "fish to tetrapod" transition: the origin, evolutionary development and radiation of early tetrapods and their relatives among the lobe-finned fishes. She is best known for her book Gaining Ground: the Origin and Early Evolution of Tetrapods, published in 2002 and written with the layperson in mind.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Kendrew</span> English biochemist and crystallographer

Sir John Cowdery Kendrew, was an English biochemist, crystallographer, and science administrator. Kendrew shared the 1962 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Max Perutz, for their work at the Cavendish Laboratory to investigate the structure of haem-containing proteins.

In agriculture, disease management is the practice of minimising disease in crops to increase quantity or quality of harvest yield.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cider apple</span> Fruit used for making apple cider

Cider apples are a group of apple cultivars grown for their use in the production of cider. Cider apples are distinguished from "cookers" and "eaters", or dessert apples, by their bitterness or dryness of flavour, qualities which make the fruit unpalatable but can be useful in cidermaking. Some apples are considered to occupy more than one category.

Warwick HRI was a United Kingdom organisation tasked with carrying out horticultural research and development and transferring the results to industry in England.

A rootstock is part of a plant, often an underground part, from which new above-ground growth can be produced. It could also be described as a stem with a well developed root system, to which a bud from another plant is grafted. It can refer to a rhizome or underground stem. In grafting, it refers to a plant, sometimes just a stump, which already has an established, healthy root system, onto which a cutting or a bud from another plant is grafted. In some cases, such as vines of grapes and other berries, cuttings may be used for rootstocks, the roots being established in nursery conditions before planting them out. The plant part grafted onto the rootstock is usually called the scion. The scion is the plant that has the properties that propagator desires above ground, including the photosynthetic activity and the fruit or decorative properties. The rootstock is selected for its interaction with the soil, providing the roots and the stem to support the new plant, obtaining the necessary soil water and minerals, and resisting the relevant pests and diseases. After a few weeks, the tissues of the two parts will have grown together, eventually forming a single plant. After some years, it may be difficult to detect the site of the graft although the product always contains the components of two genetically different plants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ronald Hatton</span> English horticulturist

Sir Ronald George Hatton, was a British horticulturalist and pomologist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malling series</span> Apple cultivar

The Malling series is a group of rootstocks for grafting apple trees. It was developed at the East Malling Research Station of the South-Eastern Agricultural College at Wye in Kent, England. From about 1912, Ronald Hatton and his colleagues rationalised, standardised and catalogued the various rootstocks in use in Europe at the time under names such as Doucin and Paradise. Their first list had nine rootstock varieties, assigned the "type" numbers I–IX. The list later grew to twenty-four, and the Roman numerals gave way to Arabic numerals with the prefix "Malling" or "M.". From about 1917, collaboration between East Malling and the John Innes Institute, in Merton Park in Surrey, gave rise to the Malling-Merton series, which were resistant to Eriosoma lanigerum, the woolly apple aphid.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Institute of Agricultural Botany</span> UK plant science research company

The National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB) is a plant science research company based in Cambridge, UK.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apple</span> Fruit that grows on a tree

An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree. Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus Malus. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, Malus sieversii, is still found. Apples have been grown for thousands of years in Asia and Europe and were introduced to North America by European colonists. Apples have religious and mythological significance in many cultures, including Norse, Greek, and European Christian tradition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Enrico Coen</span> British biologist (born 1957)

Enrico Sandro Coen is a British biologist who studies the mechanisms used by plants to create complex and varied flower structures. Coen's research has aimed to define the developmental rules that govern flower and leaf growth at both the cellular level and throughout the whole plant to better understand evolution. He has combined molecular, genetic and imaging studies with population and ecological models and computational analysis to understand flower development.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diethard Tautz</span> German biologist and geneticist (born 1957)

Diethard Tautz is a German biologist and geneticist, who is primarily concerned with the molecular basis of the evolution of mammals. Since 2006 he is director at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Plön.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iain Macintyre</span> British endocrinologist

Iain Macintyre FRS was a British endocrinologist who made important contributions to the understanding of calcium regulation and bone metabolism. Shortly after the hormone calcitonin had been described by Harold Copp, Macintyre's team was the first to isolate and sequence the hormone and to demonstrate its origin in the parafollicular cells of the thyroid gland. He subsequently analysed its physiological actions. Along with H. R. Morris he isolated and sequenced calcitonin gene-related peptide. Later research centred on the role played by nitric oxide on bone metabolism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bibliography of Max Born</span>

Max Born was a widely influential German physicist and mathematician who was awarded the 1954 Nobel Prize in Physics for his pivotal role in the development of quantum mechanics. Born won the prize primarily for his contributions to the statistical interpretation of the wave function, though he is known for his work in several areas of quantum mechanics as well as solid-state physics, optics, and special relativity. Born's entry in the Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society included thirty books and 330 papers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joyce Watson (chemist)</span> New Zealand chemist (1918–2015)

Joyce WatsonFNZIC was a New Zealand chemist specialising in fruit disorders and trace elements.

Francis John Richards was an English plant physiologist who specialized in quantitative studies on the mineral nutrition requirements of crops. He first described the general form of the generalised logistic function in 1959.

Ralph Warren Marsh was a British mycologist and phytopathologist, known for his research on the control of apple scab. He was the president of the British Mycological Society for one year from 1944 to 1945 and the president of the Association of Applied Biologists for a two-year term from 1951 to 1952.

Harry Hugh Wormald was an English plant pathologist and mycologist, known for his research on fungal and bacterial diseases of fruit trees in the UK.

References

  1. "East Malling Research Station". Nature. 141 (3581): 1090–1091. 1938. Bibcode:1938Natur.141T1090.. doi: 10.1038/1411090d0 . ISSN   0028-0836.
  2. "East Malling Research Station". Journal of the Institute of Brewing. 28 (8): 571–573. 1922. doi: 10.1002/j.2050-0416.1922.tb06563.x . ISSN   0046-9750.
  3. Tubbs, F. R. (1951). "East Malling Research Station". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 139 (894). London: Royal Society: 1–18. Bibcode:1951RSPSB.139....1T. doi:10.1098/rspb.1951.0043. S2CID   202574917.
  4. Tubbs, F. R. (1951). "East Malling Research Station". Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences. 210 (1100): 1–18. Bibcode:1951RSPSA.210....1T. doi:10.1098/rspa.1951.0226. ISSN   1364-5021. S2CID   187511636.
  5. Grainger, John (1955). "East Malling Research Station: Report for 1954". Nature. 176 (4496): 1254–1255. Bibcode:1955Natur.176.1254G. doi: 10.1038/1761254a0 . ISSN   0028-0836.
  6. "East Malling Research Station". Nature. 182 (4634): 499. 1958. Bibcode:1958Natur.182S.499.. doi: 10.1038/182499c0 . ISSN   0028-0836.
  7. Apples: British to the Core - BBC4 June 2011
  8. Pest control in August 2009 on YouTube
  9. Malaria prevention in August 2009 on YouTube by Artemisia annua
  10. "Units and Institutes of the Agricultural Research Council". Archived from the original on 12 June 2013. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  11. East Malling Conference Centre

Commons-logo.svg Media related to East Malling Research Station at Wikimedia Commons