NIAB EMR is a horticultural and agricultural research institute at East Malling,

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

in England, with a specialism in

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants (angiosperms) that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which angiosperms disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particular have long propaga ...

and clonally propagated crop production. In 2016, the institute became part of the NIAB Group.

History

In 1913, East Malling and Wye Fruit Experimental Station was established on bought by

Kent County Council Kent County Council is a county council that governs the non-metropolitan county of Kent in England. The non-metropolitan county is smaller than the ceremonial county, which additionally includes the Unitary authorities of England, unitary auth ...

at East Malling. It was under Wye College's control and initially advised by

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

V H Blackman of

Imperial College Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a cultural district in South Kensington that included museums ...

. Ronald Hatton was appointed director of the station in 1914 and remained in post for the rest of his career. Hatton prioritised basic research; was concerned about the conditions of horticultural workers like fellow

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

, and principal of the college, Alfred Daniel Hall, and merely ''tolerated'' requests for practical advice from the growers he served. The station became independent of the college in 1921. The original buildings are still in use today. Some of the finest and most important research on perennial crops has been conducted on the site, resulting in East Malling’s worldwide reputation. Some of the more well-known developments have been achieved in the areas of plant raising,

plant culture (especially the development of

rootstock A rootstock is part of a plant, often an underground part, from which new above-ground growth can be produced. It could also be described as a stem with a well developed root system, to which a bud from another plant is grafted. It can refer to ...

s), fruit breeding, ornamental breeding, fruit storage and the biology and control of pests and diseases.Apples: British to the Core - BBC4 June 2011
/ref> From 1990 a division of Horticulture Research International (HRI) was on the site. HRI closed in 2009. In 2016, East Malling Research became part of the National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB) group.

Apple rootstocks

In 1912, Ronald Hatton initiated the work of classification, testing and standardisation of

apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

tree

s. With the help of Dr Wellington, Hatton sorted out the incorrect naming and mixtures then widespread in apple rootstocks distributed throughout

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. These verified and distinct apple rootstocks are called the "

Malling series The Malling series is a group of rootstocks for grafting apple trees. It was developed at the East Malling Research Station of the South-Eastern Agricultural College at Wye in Kent, England. From about 1912, Ronald Hatton and his colleagues ...

". The most widespread used was the M9 rootstock.

Location

It is situated east of East Malling, and north of the Maidstone East Line. The western half of the site is in East Malling and Larkfield and the eastern half is in Ditton. It is just south of the A20, and between junctions 4 and 5 of the

M20 motorway The M20 is a Controlled-access highway, motorway in Kent, England. It follows on from the A20 road (England), A20 at Swanley, meeting the M25 motorway, M25, and continuing on to Folkestone, providing a link to the Channel Tunnel and the ports a ...

East Malling Research Station - geograph

References

External links

{{authority control Horticultural organisations based in the United Kingdom Research institutes in Kent Agricultural research institutes in the United Kingdom Genetics or genomics research institutions Botanical research institutes Apples Buildings and structures in Kent Research institutes established in 1913 1913 establishments in England Horticultural companies of the United Kingdom Tonbridge and Malling