College of Agriculture and Bioresources

Research Area(s)

  • Breeding fruit crops and adapting them for northern conditions and mechanical harvesting

Department

Plant Sciences

Research Interests

Breeding fruit crops adapting them for northern conditions and mechanical harvesting. Emphasis is on haskap, sour cherries, apples, interspecific strawberries, Saskatoons, and other fruits. Some breeding of ornamental and vegetable crops mainly for teaching purposes: coleus, begonias, edible-podded radishes, edible-podded peas, and container tomatoes. Techniques used include tissue culture, propagation, disease screening, interspecific hybridization, polyploid manipulation and evaluation for health value.

Education

B.Sc. (University of Maryland),
Ph.D. (University of Guelph)

Selected Recent Publications

S. Xue, R.H. Bors, and S. Strelkov, 2005. Resistance Sources to Xanthomonas fragariae in Non-Octoploid Fragaria Species. Hortscience, 40(6) 1653-1656.

R.H. Bors, 2005. Dwarf Sour Cherry Breeding at the University of Saskatchewan. Acta Hort. (ISHS) 667:135-140.

R.H. Bors and J.A. Sullivan, 2005. Interspecific Hybridization of Fragaria vesca Subspecies with F. nilgerrensis, F. nubicola, F. pentaphylla, and F. viridis. J.l Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci., 130 (3): 418-423.

R.H. Bors and L. Matthews, 2004. Dwarf Sour Cherries: A Guide for Commercial Production. University Extension Press. 88 pages.

R.H.Bors, 2000. A Streamlined Synthetic Octoploid System that Emphasizes Fragaria vesca as a Bridge Species. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Guelph. 272 pages.

Courses

Lecture Courses:

• PLSC 220.3 Fundamentals of Horticulture 
• PLSC 441.3 Advanced Fruit Growing 
• PLSC 470.3 Plant Propagation and Nursery Management

Undergraduate Thesis Courses:

• PLSC 492 Literature Thesis in Plant Sciences 
• PLSC 494 Research Thesis in Plant Sciences 
• PLSC 498.3 Tropical and Subtropical Agriculture

Major Awards

Stevenson Award - 2019 by the Manitoba Horticultural Association for the development of sour cherries and haskap