Franco Weibel

Activity areas

• variety and rootstock testing for organic fruit growing (apple and cherry)
  
• weed control concepts
  
• tree nutrition concepts
  
• quality assessment with emphasis on health related components
  
• testing suitability of holistic methods for quality assessments
  
• system comparison trials organic/conventional
  
improving Calcium uptake via the soil

Training / professional career

• Sabbatical (3 months) at Hort Research Institute at Havelock North, New Zealand to support different scientific and industrial activities to stimulate and improve organic apple production
  
• Diploma of Agronomy Engineer (Polytechnical Highschool ETH Zuerich (Switzerland), 1986)
  
• PhD (Polytechnical Highschool ETH Zuerich (Switzerland), 1994)
  
• born 06 May 1959 in Basel, Switzerland

Membership in advisory bodies / other activities

• Chairman of the "European Group of Researchers in Organic Fruit Growing" (EUGROF) including 14 European countries
  
• Member of the Swiss Expert Group for Organic Fruit Growing of "BIO-SUISSE" (the umbrella organization of the Swiss organic growers and traders) as co-ordinator and member of different working groups (quality, marketing, research & extension)
  
• Organizer of a session and a workshop on organic fruit growing at the XXVIth int. Congress of The Int. Society of Horticultural Science ISHS in Toronto August 2002
  
• Memberships in: the Swiss Society for Soil Science, the Swiss Society of Pomology (Fructus), the Int. Society of Horticultural Science ISHS (WG Plant Nutrition), the American Pomological Society, the German Society of Horticultural Science (DGG)