I would like to introduce you to the Participatory Fruit Tree Breeding Project of the Eastern Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Lowlands—a new network of orchardists, growers, and tree stewards working together to share, explore, and improve upon fruit tree genetics available to growers in our bioregion. Through this initiative, we aim to deepen connections between growers, improve our skills as growers, document important fruit traits, and inspire the next generation of orchard keepers.

In a developing collaboration with the Ecological Farmers Association of Ontario and Seeds of Diversity, we are inviting you to contribute information on fruit or nut trees you are growing (their species and variety, as well as fruit quality and any special details), to a directory of varieties being grown in our bioregion.

This directory will have two primary purposes:

1. to facilitate exchange among members so that more growers have access to varieties that do well here,
2. and to assess the performance of the wide diversity of edible trees being grown here (i.e. someone out there may have a rare pear from Bulgaria that tastes like watermelon and never gets pear scab, a peach variety that barely gets peach leaf curl, a mystery pawpaw that has incredible flavor and a high flesh:seed ratio, an almond variety that produces well in zone 5a, and so on) in order to identify optimal candidates for breeding.

Seeds of Diversity has catalogued and facilitated the sharing of seeds for decades, mainly of annual and biennial vegetables and herbs, with a small amount of edible shrub and tree species; we are excited to expand upon their existing system to include more fruit and nut trees.

We plan to annually solicit year-end feedback from growers on how their varieties have grown, to identify the standout individuals with better disease resistance, better flavor, better performance amidst the various stressors of each year, and other qualities. We will also offer newsletters throughout the year to support growers in identifying and managing various challenges and share best practices in organic orchard care.

In addition, we aim to host at least one scion exchange & grafting workshop event each year, in rotating locations, to facilitate sharing and skill-building among members, and to build more of a community of fruit growers in southern Ontario.

A major part of the project is genetic exploration and developing new varieties. I plan to use this directory to identify standout parents for a breeding program suited to the unique features and challenges of our bioregion. I am developing a breeding orchard, into which I will graft ideal varieties alongside varieties sourced from national and international gene banks. This breeding orchard will be a genetic repository to generate future seedling trials, both of intentional crosses and open-pollinated seedlings, in an effort to increase fruit tree diversity and generate new varieties worth growing and sharing. Beyond contributing germplasm, members will also be invited to host grow sites to trial seedlings, if they want.

I will have much more to write about this - I'm beginning a Masters degree at the University of Waterloo this autumn to develop a solid foundation for this project - but for now this is a good introduction.

Before long we will have proper intake forms for participation, but for now please be in touch with any ideas, questions, or lists of trees you are growing.