Ines Hanrahan, project manager for the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission, discuss details of Cosmic Crisp trials on Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2016, at the Washington State University’s Roza test orchard northeast of Prosser. (Ross Courtney/Good Fruit Grower)
Researchers continue to educate growers about the ins and outs of growing the new Washington State University apple variety, Cosmic Crisp.
Among other tips, researchers are advising growers to avoid Manchurian crab apple pollenizers, and to use covers and overhead cooling. They also are discouraging them from thinning at all in the first few years.
“We need fruit to calm the trees down,” says Tom Auvil, a research horticulturist for the Washington State Tree Fruit Research Commission.
Auvil spoke at a Cosmic Crisp field day Sept. 14 at WSU’s Roza test plots in Prosser. The university plans to hold a companion field day at 10 a.m. Sept. 22 that starts in Quincy and concludes at the Sunrise orchard in Wenatchee.
The Cosmic Crisp, or WA 38, is the latest apple from the university’s breeding program that growers will begin planting commercially next year.
Learn more about the Sept. 22 field day, its agenda and directions, go to the WSU event page.
Editor’s note: The field day location was clarified to include the morning agenda item in Quincy.
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