Gina Fernandez
Professor and Director of Graduate Programs
John D. and Nell R. Leazar Distinguished Professor
Kilgore Hall 260
Education
PhD Pomology Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 1994
MS Horticulture University of Minnesota St. Paul, MN 1987
BS Biology Ripon College, Ripon, WI 1981
Area(s) of Expertise
Dr. Fernandez started at NC State University in 1996. Her early years were focused on evaluating chemical and biological alternatives to methyl bromide and use of row covers in to increase yields of strawberries. She also tested blackberry and raspberry cultivars at research stations across the state. These trials showed that blackberries were very productive and helped to the develop a commercial blackberry industry in western NC.
She is now the strawberry, raspberry and blackberry breeder for the state. The focus of the strawberry breeding program is to develop disease resistant cultivars with superior horticultural traits. Raspberry breeding focuses on development of heat tolerance. For blackberry, she works with other breeders to test their material in NC. Dr. Fernandez also has statewide Extension responsibilities in blackberries and raspberries (aka brambles or caneberries).
Publications
- 'Liz' and 'Rocco' Strawberries , HORTSCIENCE (2020)
- Advances and challenges in raspberry and blackberry breeding , ACHIEVING SUSTAINABLE CULTIVATION OF TEMPERATE ZONE TREE FRUITS AND BERRIES, VOL 2: CASE STUDIES (2019)
- First Report of Anthracnose Causing Both Crown and Fruit Rot of Strawberry by Colletotrichum siamense in North Carolina , Plant Disease (2019)
- Inheritance of Resistance to Colletotrichum gloeosporioides and C. acutatum in Strawberry , Phytopathology (2019)
- The Status and Future of the Strawberry Industry in the United States , HortTechnology (2019)
- Two Loci, RiAF3 and RiAF4, Contribute to the Annual-Fruiting Trait in Rubus , Frontiers in Plant Science (2019)
- Protocol for Producing Three-Dimensional Infrared Video of Freezing in Plants , Journal of Visualized Experiments (2018)
- What We Know About Heat Stress in Rubus , Raspberry (2018)
- Black raspberry fruit composition over two years from seedling populations grown at four US geographic locations , Acta Horticulturae (2016)
- Comparative diversity analysis of southeastern Rubus germplasm through molecular and pedigree techniques , Xxix international horticultural congress on horticulture: sustaining lives, livelihoods and landscapes (ihc2014): international symposium on plant breeding in horticulture (2016)