Growing with growers since 1946
Sign In
Subscribe
Washington State University graduate student Jassim Alhamid sprays a dispersal of cellulose nanocrystals on Scifresh apple blossoms near Prosser, Washington. (Courtesy Matt Whiting/Washington State University)

Protecting fruit from cold with spray-on jackets

March 27, 2019
A prototype mechanical pollinator creeps through an almond orchard in February this year in Israel. The machine, under development by Edete Precision Agriculture Technologies, uses horizontal “cannons” fastened to a vertical stanchion to blast dry pollen onto waiting blossoms. The goal is to automate the process using lasers and GPS. (Courtesy Edete Precisions Agriculture Technologies)

New technology explores pollination automation

March 21, 2019

Orchardists testing bee-attractant paste

March 21, 2019
Pollen is stirred in a spray suspension during research trials in 2015 by Washington State University’s Matt Whiting in Prosser. Whiting has since improved the suspension and licensed it privately, while he continues his research into using it in a mechanical electrostatic pollination system under the banner of the university. (TJ Mullinax/Good Fruit Grower)

Researcher spins off pollen suspension

March 19, 2019

Hyperparasites: enemies of enemies of enemies

March 12, 2019
Precision-guided Sterile Insect Technique involves using CRISPR/Cas9 and guide RNAs to genetically create a brood of dead females and sterile males, which would then be released to mate with wild females that would in turn lay unviable eggs, as this diagram shows. It’s one of several projects underway by researchers at the University of California, San Diego to use genetic manipulation as a tool to control spotted wing drosophila. (Courtesy Anna Buchman/University of California, San Diego)

Genetic control for spotted wing drosophila

March 12, 2019

Looking for the sweet spot in powdery mildew resistance

March 6, 2019
Woolly apple aphids colonize a branch, evidenced by the white fuzz in the foreground, while graduate student Adrian Marshall surveys the pest’s population under netted trees in April 2018 at Washington State University’s Sunrise Research Orchard near Wenatchee. As netting becomes more popular to reduce sunburn, Marshall is studying its effects on entomology, both the good bugs and bad bugs. (Ross Courtney/Good Fruit Grower)

A look at the ins and outs of netting

March 5, 2019
WSU reseaBruce Greenfield, right, and Louis Nottingham of Washington State University hang trap cards in pear blocks lined with reflective mulch in June at the Sunrise Research Orchard near Wenatchee, Washington. Nottingham, an entomologist, has determined that reflective mulch helps repel pear psylla early in the growing season. (Ross Courtney/Good Fruit Grower)rcher finds reflective mulch keeps pear psylla out in early season. (Ross Courtney/Good Fruit Grower)

Reflective mulch proves repellent

March 5, 2019
Thousands upon thousands of cold, mature sterile moths wait to be whisked away to orchards in British Columbia. (TJ Mullinax/Good Fruit Grower)

Sterile codling moth factory ‘a funky business’

February 28, 2019