May 15, 2025

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Cherries

Featured stories about cherries — and more — in this issue.

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The wire affixed to this leafhopper enables it to complete an electrical circuit when it sticks its stylet into this host plant, which is also wired up. This setup allows scientists to record the rhythms of the leafhopper’s feeding behavior, which they hope will offer new insights into how integrated pest management practices could interrupt the insect’s ability to transmit X-disease. (Courtesy Jacob Pitt/Washington State University)

Solving for X-disease

Different leafhoppers, different concerns

A Concord juice grape vineyard in Pennsylvania, part of the Lake Erie grape region. Concord growers rely on fungicides to protect against black rot and other diseases. (Courtesy Megan Luke/Lake Erie Regional Grape Program)

Fungicide label changes may challenge vineyard management

It’s easy to monitor moths when populations are high, but at low levels, traps can be inefficient. New models from WSU aim to provide more insight into the dynamics of low populations. (Ross Courtney/Good Fruit Grower)

Maximizing codling moth models

Grower Tim Buhr shows International Fruit Tree Association visitors a block of covered (in season) sweet cherry trees during IFTA’s winter tour in Western New York in February. He said high-density sweet cherries can be profitable but are difficult to grow. (Matt Milkovich/Good Fruit Grower)

New York cherries under nets

Commercial netting trials, using both structured and drape netting, cover Rainier cherries during harvest in June 2023 at Finley Cherries northwest of Benton City, Washington. Growers are deploying netting to help mitigate weather-related risks. (TJ Mullinax/Good Fruit Grower)

Nets providing shield, shade and shelter for cherries

Piet Bosman, center, of Dutoit Agri, one of South Africa’s largest tree fruit growers, talks to members of the International Fruit Tree Association about the company’s experience learning to grow sweet cherries — a relatively new crop in the country — during a tour in December 2024 in the Koue Bokkeveld region. (Kate Prengaman/Good Fruit Grower)

Sweet cherries in South Africa

Organizations representing Montmorency cherries, the main variety of the U.S. tart cherry industry, are seeking new sales outlets, and Amy Cohn, new leader of the Cherry Marketing Institute and Cherry Industry Administrative Board, wants to lead the way. (Matt Milkovich/Good Fruit Grower)

A unified voice for tart cherry industry

Wunsch Farms managing partner Raul Gomez studies wood chips and soil in a high-density row of Honeycrisp trees last June. The Northwest Michigan farm uses wood chips as mulch to retain nutrients and moisture in the region’s sandy soils. (Matt Milkovich/Good Fruit Grower)

A century of change seeds a family farm’s success

A pollen suspension deluges Tieton cherry blooms in early April at a Washington Fruit Growers orchard near Plymouth, Washington. Once the stuff of research ambitions, electrostatic pollen application has become a mainstay for growers who want to give their bees a boost. (Ross Courtney/Good Fruit Grower)

Growers sticking with spray-on pollen

From left, growers Joel Crist, Patrick Dorsing, Justin Finkler and Chalmers Carr discuss economic decision-making during the International Fruit Tree Association’s winter conference in Rochester, New York, in February. (Matt Milkovich/Good Fruit Grower)

Growing uncertainty for tree fruit producers

Tieton cherries blooming on April 4 in an orchard near Plymouth, Washington. (Ross Courtney/Good Fruit Grower)

Thurlby: Tariff tic-tac-toe

Good Stuff, May 15, 2025

Reagan, left, and Jacob Haas

Reagan and Jacob Haas, young growers from Wapato, Washington

International experts head to Washington for tree fruit conferences this year