Not just for pests, biocontrol agents are being researched for their effect on diseases by Vineland Research and Innovation Centre, which has surveyed and spoken with growers who use them.

An architect firm and condo developer are planning Canada’s first vertical forest for Toronto, and they’ve brought together an impressive team of experts including Vineland Research and Innovation Centre to make the ambitious project come to life.

Incorporating trees into green roof designs and building facades is not only appealing, but there is more demand than ever to plant rooftop trees. Vineland’s Darby McGrath explains.

With the global movement of plant material, a changing climate and resistance among pest populations, is it time we brought in new biocontrol agents?

Vineland has been identifying methods and creating new technologies to help tree propagators grow seedlings with better root quality.

Hard cider taste tests at Vineland Research and Innovation Centre show clear consumer preference for sweet fruity flavours over drier tannic ones, said Dr. Amy Bowen, research director of consumer insights at the centre.

Vineland’s research team has investigated how application methods of microbial biopesticides affect viability and coverage as part of an integrated pest management system.

February tends to be a slow time at Roelands Plant Farms Inc. But not this year. Roelands was tasked with propagating sweet potato slips to trial Vineland’s made-in-Canada variety of the popular storage vegetable on about 25 Canadian farms this year.

In partnership with the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers, Vineland is developing new Tomato on the Vine hybrids for market launch in 2021. In this video shot at Vineland’s Collaborative Greenhouse Technology Centre, you can check out an entire greenhouse tomato harvest in under two minutes.

Driven by demand primarily from farmers, the Ontario Fresh Grape Growers’ Marketing Board and Vineland teamed up four years ago to find new table grape varieties for the Ontario market.

More greenhouse growers are buying into biocontrol thanks largely to the work of a team of Vineland researchers.

Ready for commercial release in 2019 is Radiance, Vineland’s new sweet potato variety developed in Canada to suit the country’s growing season and conditions. The variety is currently being trialed from coast-to-coast, and should be appearing in Canadian grocery stores next year.