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Encanto Farms Nursery > Topics > NPGS vs. UCD, etc.
 
 


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HarveyC

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Posted Reply with quote  #1 
I don't know why it is something that bugs me a little, but it does.  Maybe because I attended a university that was a rival with UCD :)  We do not get any cuttings from "UCD" (University of California at Davis), eat figs grown by UCD, etc.  We should leave UCD out of any discussions of figs.

As part of a land grant, UCD received land outside the town of Winters, west of Davis.  This facility is called the Wolfskill Experimental Orchard.  UC Davis leases some of this land as well as some of the land at the Davis campus to the USDA's Agricultural Research Service's National Clonal Germplasm Repository.  Look, there is not even any mention of UCD on it's web site devoted to the Davis germplasm operations: http://www.ars.usda.gov/main/site_main.htm?modecode=53-06-20-00

At Wolfskill, I believe NPGS leases everything to the right of one roadway that heads back to the orchards.  Visitors get warned to stay out of the UCD field plots where experiments are often being conducted.  To the best of my knowledge, UCD is not working with any figs and I'm not aware of any fig breeding being done by NPGS.  The role of NPGS is to collect and preserve germplasm.

NPGS is a bit difficult to remember and I typically say GRIN which represents the Germplasm Resources Information Network which is the data we find online.  Maybe USDA would be easiest to use, like "I received my cuttings from USDA-Davis last year."

Since the NPGS role is to preserve germplasm and not produce crops, little effort has usually been made to try to optimize crop yields or quality.  When the curator changed a few years ago some staff commented that they were happy to finally have a little money for some fertilizer.  They still do pretty good for not trying.

Thanks, I feel better now.... ;)
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DesertDance

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Posted Reply with quote  #2 
Harvey, I see you are really upset about this, but this is a quote from the NPGS front page on their site.  See?  ars. usda.gov  So, we are making an assumption that US DA is University of California at Davis?  And we are wrong?

Policy for use of content from this web site:

Policies for use of material from this web site may be found at http://ars.usda.gov/disclaim.html#Privacy

Somehow they are connected.  Not sure if or not.  You have raised questions.

Also, Jon and Dennis have gone to UC Davis to taste and view figs for a while.  They always post results here.

Confusing

Suzi
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Zone 9b, Southern California. "First year they sleep, Second year they creep, Third year they leap!"  Wish List:  I wish all of you happy fig collecting!  My wishes have been fulfilled!
jake

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Posted Reply with quote  #3 
usda=

 
 

U.S. Department of Agriculture
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HarveyC

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Posted Reply with quote  #4 
Suzi, I'm not very upset, just annoyed. I've gone to many tastings at Wolfskill, eating fruit from trees grown by the USDA. UCD's involvement is limited to being a landloed.
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DesertDance

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Posted Reply with quote  #5 
Do we all feel guilty?

National Plant Germplasm System

Request Germplasm

The National Plant Germplasm System provides germplasm to support research and education objectives.

Due to the intensive effort and resources required to ensure availability of germplasm for this purpose, we are unable to distribute it for home gardening or other purposes that can utilize readily available commercial cultivars

I think I feel lucky to have received many cuttings from them over the years.  Most of my cuttings have been wine grapes, but they deliver!!  This is my first year to request figs, and you all know, the vineyard is my love!

Suzi
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DesertDance

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Posted Reply with quote  #6 
Wow Jake!  You just put a new perspective on this whole thing.  Thanks for your post!
Suzi
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pitangadiego

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Posted Reply with quote  #7 


Don't know all the ins and outs, but the WEO orchard, which contains the varieties held by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), National Clonal Germplasm Repository for Fruit and Nut Crops (NCGR), Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN) seems to be on UC Davis Property according to this historical marker. The personnel do work for the USDA, and this is reflected in their e-mails addresses. However, as recently as September 2012 I have received email from them that was through UCD (ucdavis.edu)

I suspect that they have some cooperative agreements between them, and are somewhat intermingled.

When requesting cuttings, you are dealing with the USDA.
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HarveyC

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Posted Reply with quote  #8 
All of the people we contact and work with through NPGS are Federal employees of USDA.  As I said earlier, UCD owns Wolfskill but leases some of it to the USDA.  Howard Garrison, Jeff Moersfelder, Malli, and others all have USDA email addresses.  At one time they did have UCD email addresses as they also operated on UCD's computer network, but that changed quite a few years ago.  I see a couple of "research affiliate position have UCD email addresses at http://www.ars.usda.gov/PandP/locations/people.htm?modecode=53-06-20-00, but that's it.

I'm not very important in the scheme of things but know how things operate pretty well since I was involved in an import project.  As you know, I farm chestnuts.  The dean of the School of Ag and his wife are both former chestnut researchers and they've been to my farm and I've been to their home.  I once asked for help in importing some chestnuts and the dean's wife put me into contact with Foundation Plant Material Services which also leases land on the UCD campus (directly south of NPGS).  Funny, my seemingly small request got chestnut researchers across the U.S. to meet along with UCD staff and NPGS staff (Chuck Simmons, former curator).  There was discussion of including a chestnut repository at Wolfskill but Simmons requested that UCD lease it a little more land on which to do this.  Even though the dean and his wife were nuts about chestnuts, the university needed the land itself for other needs so it never happened.  It wasn't a big deal, but it was mentioned to me a couple of times by Malli.  Believe me, they are separate.
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scott_ga

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Posted Reply with quote  #9 
This is just one of the plant/seed repositories operated by the US Department of Agriculture--Agriculture Research Service--National Clonal Germplasm Repository throughout the United States. http://www.ars-grin.gov/npgs/holdings.html

USDA ARS units are often located near and often have cooperative agreements with Universities. The people operating the USDA repository at Wolfskill are USDA-ARS-NCGR personnel, although there will likely be UC Davis researchers who work with them and a cooperative agreement with UC Davis. Here's a history of these units: hortsci.ashspublications.org/content/41/5/1188.full.pdf


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persianmd2orchard

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Posted Reply with quote  #10 
Very interesting read, thanks for the insight.
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