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100 years of vegetable crops and weed science at UC Davis


Davis, California, USA
February 23, 2015

This is the third of a ten article series highlighting Plant Sciences' 10 Year Anniversary celebration.

If the roots of Plant Sciences trace back to the founding of the University Farm more than a century ago, then the fruits of the department were born in the in the post-war boom years of the 1950s, as California agriculture flourished.

Kent BradfordDust Bowl settlers had established farms and ranches where once was desert much of the year. UC Berkeley’s Division of Olericulture in “Davisville” had progressed into Truck Crops and was being refined yet again to represent individual commodities. While the University Farm was donned the University of California, Davis, disciples of the original weed scientist, W.W. “Doc” Robbin, were solidifying into the campus’ unofficial first working group, according to Professor Emeritus Robert Norris.

Over the following decades both cohorts would survive two mergers, the most recent bringing them into what may today be the world’s largest university department, Plant Sciences.

Vegetable Crops in the new generation

“The departments back then had cultures reflecting the industries they worked with,” says Distinguished Professor Kent Bradford, who began at UC Davis in 1982 and is now director of the Seed Biotechnology Center. “Vegetable crops is a very busy, dynamic, year-round, gambling, type of industry.”

Growers at the time were switching from a focus on individual commodities, instead rotating crops according to market value. Federal grant programs, meanwhile, were introducing new funding sources beyond the market orders.

“Vegetable crops were often annuals and the turnover was quick, sometimes just 60-90 days committed to one crop,” says Professor Arnold Bloom. “It’s not like a tree plant and you’ve got a 10, 15 year investment.”

As similar as apples and oranges

New advances in molecular genetics were upending the idea that all crops were different and required separate disciplines. DJim Lyonsepartment leaders like Larry Rappaport recognized the changes sweeping the industry and responded in the new wave of hires that came with the retirement of the previous generation. This served to quell the abrasive atmosphere that pitted traditional production specialists against the new molecular biology trend.

“Forty years ago what you worked on in tomatoes had virtually no relevance for what was going on in apples,” says Professor John Yoder. “But with molecular biology and genetics and genomics it’s clear they’re all pretty similar. Whatever happens in tomatoes the same thing happens in apples.”

This meant researchers in one department could more easily work on new crops outside their unit, forming collaborations that were once stilted by the silos that separated everyone.

Weed science finds a home

From the 1930s, when Doc Robbins chaired the Division of Botany on the UC Berkeley University Farm, weed scientists were housed under a single unit. That was disrupted when Botany transitioned in 1994 into the Division (now College) of Biological Sciences, which the group saw as too far removed from their research fields. They had two options: split into separate departments or together find a new home.

“We didn’t want to split because we learned a lot of our discipline by interacting with each other,” recalls Cooperative Extension Specialist Joe DiTomaso.

Though many weed scientists were involved with Agronomy, Pomology or Range Science, they found a home in the Department of Vegetable Crops. Yet this separation from their discipline for those members lasted only ten years. In that time, the Weed Resources and Information Center (RIC) became the second official center on campus in 1997, after the Vegetable RIC.

Joe Di TomasoWith the formation of the Department of Plant Sciences, “the merger brought all the commodities of agriculture together in one department, as well as faculty working in rangelands,” says DiTomaso. “It put those of us who were not directly in communication with our commodity-based colleagues in the same department.”

Plant Sciences in the future

DiTomaso, who spent his undergraduate education at UC Davis and returned for his doctoral degree and later as a faculty member, says, “I’ve lived all three lives you can live.”

He speaks from this experience and a long career when he says, “We’re now all in the right department.”

As many from the DiTomaso’s generation retire, many new members have arrived at Plant Sciences over the last ten years. Though they haven’t had the personal connection to the old founding departments and to the immense undertaking of the merger, they are establishing new directions for the department and its members in the 21st century.

G. Khush“The faculty we’ve hired have been very successful by any measure,” says Bloom. “The vast majority are extremely engaged and doing exciting things.”

A brief history…

Vegetable Crops had many other significant milestones in its long history, including:

  • D.F. Jones discovered cytoplasmic male sterility in onions, resulting in the development of onion F1 hybrids.
  • J.E. Knott produced the Handbook for Vegetable Growers, which has become the bible for vegetable crops and was updated by O. Lorenz and V. Rubatzky, two other prominent members in the department.
  • Jack Hanna developed tomato varieties for machine harvesting.
  • C. M. Rick and G. Khush led renowned research into tomato chromosomal engineering.
  • Rick also worked on tomato species and the development of a tomato stock center.
  • Louis Mann is respected for his research in onions.
  • Shan Fa Yang discovered the ethylene cycle.
  • Leonard Morris is known for his post harvesting work.
  • Frank Zink is a famed melon breeder.
  • Paul Smith is remembered for his pepper taxogenetics and evolution.


More news from: University of California, Davis


Website: http://www.ucdavis.edu

Published: February 23, 2015

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