Progress 10/01/06 to 09/30/09
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Young hemlock trees were propagated from trees apparently resistant to hemlock woolly adelgid from three sites in the Hudson River Valley. Trees were rooted from cuttings in Year 1, and transferred to larger (4-inch) pots in Year 2. Because the Principal Investigator left the University in Year 2, the project was terminated at that point, and the resulting trees were transferred to researchers at the University of Rhode Island who had undertaken a project with virtually identical objectives. PARTICIPANTS: Cornell Cooperative Extension of Westchester County: Richard Harper and Jerry Giordano assisted with collection of tree cuttings. NYS Department of Environmental Conservation: Jerry Carlson and Lora Schwartzberg assisted with collection of tree cuttings. University of Rhode Island: Evan Preisser accepted transfer of cuttings to augment the collection of graduate student Laura Ingwell. TARGET AUDIENCES: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: The project was terminated in Year 2 because of the departure of the Principal Investigator, so Objective 3 could not be conducted.
Impacts
Rooting success of the cuttings taken in Year 1 decreased with collection date; rooting success declined from 42% for cuttings collected on March 1 to 17% for cuttings collected on March 23 (cuttings collected on March 13 had a rooting success of 22%). This is consistent with findings of researchers at the University of Rhode Island, who found that rooting success of cuttings collected in winter months was significantly higher than that of cuttings collected during the summer. It appears that environmental changes occurring in March are particularly critical to rooting success; other researchers attempting to conduct similar studies would be advised to take cuttings in January and February to maximize rooting success. Because the project was terminated early, unfortunately, we have no way to determine if the trees established from cuttings displayed resistance to hemlock woolly adelgid.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 10/01/06 to 09/30/07
Outputs
OUTPUTS: During the first year of the project, we succeeded in establishing cuttings from 23 individual hemlock trees from areas infested by hemlock woolly adelgid. Cuttings were collected from 3 geographically distinct sites; from each site, 4-6 cuttings were collected from each of 13-15 trees. No cones were collected in Year 1 because virtually no cones were produced by trees in any of the 3 sites. Modest numbers of cones were produced in Year 2, and cones will be collected and processed according to plan.
PARTICIPANTS: Richard Harper, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Westchester County Jerry Giordano, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Westchester County Jerry Carlson, NYS Department of Environmental Conservation Lora Schwartzberg, Pace University (undergraduate student)
TARGET AUDIENCES: Nursery producers of hemlock trees, garden center operators, landscape managers, and homeowners.
Impacts
Rooting success decreased with time of collection of cuttings, ranging from over 60 percent for cuttings collected in late February to less than 20 percent for late March cuttings. The trees started from the cuttings are currently growing in a greenhouse, awaiting the time that they can be planted outdoors and challenged with adelgids (planned for Year 3 of the project). Establishment of plants is all that was expected for Year 1; the most interesting and useful information is expceted to accrue in Year 3 of the project, when trees can be assessed for their susceptbility/resistance to hemlock woolly adelgid.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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