It is with deep sadness that I entrust to these brief lines the memory of my dear colleague Nicola Dallabetta, who passed away on 24 June last.
For many years he worked at the Agricultural Institute of San Michele all'Adige, now the E. Mach Foundation, and had recently embarked on a new adventure through collaboration with Agromillora. Despite this professional change, his contacts and collaboration with his colleagues at the Foundation remained the same as before, maintaining his friendship and his desire to experiment with new things such as the recently started trials on apple and cherry rootstocks.
Those who knew him through work appreciated his technical expertise, his closeness to the world of production, and his professionalism, but also his interpersonal skills during study trips with colleagues from other research institutes.
I cherish the memory of the friendship and work we did together, and send my thoughts to his wife Elizabeth and daughters Rachel and Rebecca.
Farewell, Nicola.
Tommaso Pantezzi
Fondazione E.Mach
28 Aug 2026
In Alicante, pre-harvest 24-BL treatments reduced sweet cherry cracking by up to 50% while improving fruit size, firmness, red color and anthocyanin content. Tests on ‘Sunburst’ and ‘Skeena’ suggest a promising strategy to protect orchards from extreme rainfall events.
20 Jan 2025
The objectives of the study was to phenotype a segregating population of sweet cherries for selected key traits of the Zipper model and for their susceptibility to cracking, for which the QTLs for cracking susceptibility were established earlier.
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Strigolactones strengthen postharvest defenses in sweet cherries against Botrytis cinerea. Research on the Xianfeng cultivar shows that 0.1 μM reduces gray mold, lesion development and fungal biomass by activating phenylpropanoids, flavonoids and defense proteins.
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Managing frost damage in cherry trees requires action from dormancy breaking through vegetative growth. Preventing ice nucleation, protecting cell membranes, and controlling Pseudomonas and bacterial canker can help preserve orchard health, resilience, and productivity.
