Horticultural research projects announced

Jul 28, 2023

47 Ontario-led research and innovation projects that will enhance the productivity of Ontario’s agri-food sector and position it for continued growth.

“Ontario-led research is helping our farmers, processors and agri-food businesses be more competitive on a global scale,” said Lisa Thompson, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. “Through the Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance Tier 1 projects, our government is helping to develop the technologies and

Targeted diversification in the Ontario hop value chain for application in the brewing industry by lead applicant George van der Merwe

Chlorogenic acid as a molecular marker to identify peach and nectarine genotypes resistant to brown rot disease in Niagara peninsula by lead applicant Jayasankar Subramanian

Agricultural robotics for vegetable production and weed management by lead applicant Mary Ruth McDonald

An innovative approach to thinning plums for improved labour efficiencies, fruit quality and orchard economicsby lead applicant John Cline

Source : The Grower

Video: Seeing the Whole Season: How Continuous Crop Modeling Is Changing Breeding

Plant breeding has long been shaped by snapshots. A walk through a plot. A single set of notes. A yield check at the end of the season. But crops do not grow in moments. They change every day.

In this conversation, Gary Nijak of AerialPLOT explains how continuous crop modeling is changing the way breeders see, measure, and select plants by capturing growth, stress, and recovery across the entire season, not just at isolated points in time.

Nijak breaks down why point-in-time observations can miss critical performance signals, how repeated, season-long data collection removes the human bottleneck in breeding, and what becomes possible when every plot is treated as a living data set. He also explores how continuous modeling allows breeding programs to move beyond vague descriptors and toward measurable, repeatable insights that connect directly to on-farm outcomes.

This conversation explores:

• What continuous crop modeling is and how it works

• Why traditional field observations fall short over a full growing season

• How scale and repeated measurement change breeding decisions

• What “digital twins” of plots mean for selection and performance

• Why data, not hardware, is driving the next shift in breeding innovation As data-driven breeding moves from research into real-world programs, this discussion offers a clear look at how seeing the whole season is reshaping value for breeders, seed companies, and farmers, and why this may be only the beginning.