Blog
South Carolina Heirloom Butter Beans The Hershberger lab was featured in an article published today in the Post and Courier: SC gardener’s trove of seeds could play a part in combating climate change, disease. Over the course of the past sixty years, Mr. Carold Wicker of Prosperity, South Carolina, has collected and maintained these and other vegetable seeds from the Dutch Fork region of the state. Last month, Historian and University of South Carolina distinguished professor Dr. David Shie...
The Hershberger lab joins SweetCAP The Sweet Corn Coordinated Agriculture Project (SweetCAP), is a USDA NIFA-funded, multi-institution and multi-disciplinary effort to support sweet corn improvement across the US. Earlier this year, a second iteration of SweetCAP was selected for funding through the Specialty Crop Research Initiative. Throughout the project, the Hershberger lab will work closely with Dr. Marcio Resende and his University of Florida sweet corn breeding program to develop and...
Tyler Williams joins the lab as a Research Specialist Tyler received his B.S. in Biology from Francis Marion University in Florence, South Carolina. Most recently, Tyler was an Agricultural Research Assistant with the USDA and Clemson at the Pee Dee REC. Over the past year, he has gained experience in fieldwork, lab-based, and plant breeding activities. Tyler hit the ground running in the middle of field season and is quickly learning the ropes. We’re glad to have him on board!
It’s official - we have decided on our first crop! The Hershberger lab has started efforts towards building a butter bean (Phaseolus lunatus) breeding program. Butter beans, for those of you not from the Southern US, are also known as Lima beans. While Lima beans have become a trope elsewhere, for many South Carolinians these beans evoke more positive memories: shelling beans with Grandma on the front porch, summer family meals, and plenty of bacon fat. What do butter beans bring to mind for...
Mobile spectrometer considerations
Context Maybe you’ve read about mobile spectrometers in the latest issue of your favorite journal, or maybe the lab down the hall can’t stop talking about them at the department coffee hour. Regardless of how you first heard about them, mobile near-infrared spectrometers can seem too good to be true. Can you really predict the quality of your grain, fruit, or root non-destructively and without investing in a benchtop spectrometer that costs more than a brand new car? The answer is, of cours...
Welcome! The Hershberger lab will open its doors on May 1, 2022.
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