Dr. Clore was the central figure in Concord grape research and extension throughout his career and beyond. He assembled and published much of the information that forms the basis for Concord grape production today. He did original research on production problems of the crop, he stimulated specialists in other disciplines to work on Concord grapes and he assembled the known information from other areas, interpreting and adapting it for central Washington. In 1943, Dr. Clore worked with the pioneer grape growers and wrote a bulletin on grape culture. A few years later he published a bulletin on one of the cultural problems, zinc deficiency. At about that time he collaborated with Cornell University to start the work on balanced pruning of Concord grapes, finding that vines respond quite differently in central Washington than in western New York. In 1951, Dr. Clore published a bulletin on the sensitivity of grapes 2, 4-D, soon establishing that the herbicide can drift off target and affect grapes. That set the stage for what has now become 40 years of efforts to resolve the problems of chemical drift. Working with this crop and with the people who grow it led Dr. Clore and his colleagues to publish information on diseases, insects, mineral nutrition, irrigation, cover crops, weed control and climatic conditions, including winter injury. He investigated the effects of trellises of differing design, this leading to mechanical harvesting and its effect on fruit quality. His publications do not include the numerous examples of the publications and talks through which Walt took the information directly to growers and processors.
Award Requirements
The scholarship shall be awarded to undergraduate students pursuing a career in the small fruits industries with preference given to students with interest in Concord grapes. These interests may include the production, processing or marketing (economics) aspects. Recipients must be full time undergraduate students in the College of Agriculture and Home Economics at Washington State University.