Virginia Tech celebrates a fruitful 100-year partnership with Virginia’s fruit and wine industries

A changing climate. Earlier flowering and frost dates. Bacterial and fungal infection. Insect infestation. Chemical resistance and restrictions.

These are just a few of the existential threats that face Virginia’s orchards and vineyards, which contribute more than $2 billion a year to the state’s economy – and billions more in economic activity from wineries and agrotourism.

They are also the problems that scientists at Virginia Tech’s Alson H. Smith Jr. Agricultural Research and Extension Center (AREC) in Winchester have dedicated their careers to solving. 

What started in 1921 as a lab with a single entomologist today boasts 25 full-time employees and 13 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, all united to ensure a fruitful future for Virginia – and the nation’s – tree fruit and wine grape industries. Located on 124 acres of rolling hills, orchards, and vineyards, the Alson H. Smith Jr. AREC is a scientific test bed that brings discoveries and practices refined in the lab to test plots in the nearby fields – and from there to farms across the commonwealth.

Virginia ranks sixth in wine grape production in the U.S. and is the 10th largest apple producing state. The Alson H. Smith Jr. AREC partners with growers, as well as the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Virginia Agribusiness Council, the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, and universities from other fruit-growing regions, to ensure the industry continues to thrive.

“Over the past century, our researchers have worked on hundreds of projects that have produced new knowledge, influenced grower decisions, increased economic output, and delivered sustainable food,” said entomologist Kevin Rice, director of the Alson H. Smith Jr. AREC. “We carry on this tradition proudly, working directly with our agricultural producers and industry stakeholders to ensure a sustainable future.”

A celebration 100 years in the making

In August, more than 60 people attended the AREC’s 100th anniversary celebration and field day – delayed three years by COVID-19 – to learn about the center’s history and current research and to tour its labs and facilities. Several growers testified to the impact of the AREC’s research on their operations.

Diane Kerns, a commercial apple grower and president of Frederick County-based Fruit Hill Orchard Inc., told the crowd, “This AREC is an invaluable resource for us in the tree fruit industry. Having access to the researchers, not only through the informational meetings, knowledge, and exchange of information, but also through blogs and emails … and the personal relationships – to be able to email, call them up, talk to them, ask a question – is massive. I really think that gives us an advantage in our industry over folks that don’t have this right in their backyard.”

Bill Tompkins, vineyard manager for Veritas Vineyard and Winery in Charlottesville, praised the role of the AREC and its former director and viticulturist Tony Wolf in driving the growth of Virginia’s wine industry from just a handful of wineries to around 350 today.

“I joined Veritas 14 years ago as their vineyard manager,” Tompkins said. “The fact that I knew nothing about viticulture, farming, or agriculture – I was a British army officer and spent 36 years in the British Army – is no obstacle to allowing you to grow grapes when you have people like Tony Wolf and the folks here to give you sound advice on what to do.”

Keith Yoder, professor emeritus of plant pathology, highlighted several of the AREC’s historical achievements, which include the following:

• Discovery of the effectiveness of the first plant growth regulator to be registered for fire blight shoot blight management, prohexadione-calcium, commercially known as Apogee (Tree Fruit Pathologist Keith Yoder and Horticulturist Ross Byers).
• Developing the Pollen Tube Growth Model, which guides farmers bloom thinning their apple trees to improve yearly crop yields (Initiated by Ross Byers; completed by Keith Yoder and Horticulturists Rongcai Yuan, Greg Peck, Sherif Sherif, and Leon Combs).
• Driving the growth of Virginia’s wine industry from six wineries to over 300, through site selection, production methods, grape evaluation, and economic and budget predictors (Viticulturist Tony Wolf).
• Adapting the Alternate Row Middle method of spray application to reduce pesticide use, improve integrated pest management, and save growers money (Tree Fruit Pathologist Ken Hickey with Fred Lewis, Penn State University). 
• Introducing the Tree Row Volume method of spray rate calculation in orchards, along with a slide rule calculator to help growers estimate rate of chemical required per acre based on tree height, tree width, and row width. (R.E. Byers with K. D. Hickey and Entomologist Clarence H. Hill).
• Studying photosynthetic inhibitors to help other horticulturists and farmers understand the interactions between cloudy weather, fruit set, and timing of thinning applications to optimize crop loads (Ross Byers).

Ensuring a flourishing future

Researchers at the Alson H. Smith Jr. AREC are currently working to address many of the most pressing issues confronting the fruit industry, including bacterial and fungal diseases, fungicide and pesticide resistance, invasive insects, and changing temperatures and weather patterns while also continuing to improve the industry’s social, environmental, and economic sustainability. 

Rice said the AREC hoped to obtain funding to build a biosafety level 2 greenhouse and controlled environmental agriculture facility. The new facility would be one of the first specifically for tree fruit in the nation and would enable researchers to test and formulate solutions to pathogens, invasive species, and changing temperatures in a controlled setting – before they arrive. 

“We would be able to adjust the temperatures in the greenhouse to the predicted models for future temperatures,” Rice said. “Then we could proactively inform growers of which varieties will do best under future conditions.”

The Alson H. Smith Jr. AREC is one of Virginia Tech’s 11 Agricultural Research and Extension Centers spread throughout the commonwealth to bring the expertise of Virginia Tech researchers directly into the communities they serve. Researchers partner with farmers, government agencies, and industry leaders to tackle problems in the lab and on the field – and deliver research-based solutions through Virginia Cooperative Extension agents to help Virginia agriculture thrive.