After 38 years, David Ramming has retired from the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS)-Parlier, California, where he bred grapes for California’s raisin and fresh market industries. Starting in 1975, he replaced John Weinberger who had just released ‘Fiesta’, the first grape developed to replace ‘Thompson Seedless’; the primary raisin grape for 100+ years. Since 1995, David has introduced four raisin grapes that helped make mechanized harvest a reality. ‘DOVine’, which ripens 2-3 weeks earlier than ‘Thompson Seedless’ was the first to be grown by San Joaquin Valley growers over large acreages. Trained using quad cordons, it is a vigorous variety that needs a large overhead trellis to grow. His most recent release in 2001, ‘Selma Pete’, was named after the late L. Peter Christensen, a world renowned UC Cooperative Extension Specialist who worked closely with David in developing cultural practices for new varieties. ‘Selma Pete’ has become the most widely planted raisin grape to date from David’s program and is grown on both open gable and overhead trellis systems. Additionally, two Muscat flavored raisin grapes were released prior to ‘Selma Pete’.
A technique pioneered by David known as embryo rescue has greatly shortened the breeding timeline for seedless grape advancement. Embryo rescue allows for seedless by seedless crosses by removing the small seeds and placing them on a nutrient-rich media, which allows them to grow into viable plants. All of David’s raisin and table grape varieties have been developed using this novel technique, which also has benefited California’s private grape breeding programs.
David’s most recent work has focused on incorporating resistance to powdery mildew and Pierce’s disease. He has been working with colleagues to determine what North American grapes have resistance and then using them to improve his breeding lines. Using molecular markers to find the progeny that have disease resistance in them, he has shortened the screening time. Young plants grown in incubators has saved time and money by not having to grow plants out in the field for evaluations or trials
In retirement, David plans on spending more time with his family and grandkids.
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