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Popular cultivar almost wasn’t
Coral Champagne cherries ripen after Chelan and about ten days before Bing. New tree fruit
Chelan Fruit gears up
Orondo Ruby is a yellow-fleshed cherry that has more blush and matures earlier than Rainier.
SWD challenges growers
Unlike the common drosophila flies, spotted wing drosophila will attack cherries before they are ripe.
Cherry insurance reduces risk
Cherry insurance can provide a financial shelter for growers when the crop is rained on.
First Bite
As the Northwest cherry season draws closer, for the first time in six or seven
Cherry rootstock testing continues
It will be a few more years before new precocious, dwarfing rootstocks for sweet and
Tip top cherry
Kim and Troy Toftness with their children Brock and Brylee. Their Skylar Rae cherry brand
Yakima Valley is the industry’s backbone
Two Blondes Vineyard near Zillah was planted in 2000 by Andrew Will and Chris Camarda.
Yakima Valley AVA turns 30
PHOTO COURTESY OF WASHINGTON WINE COMMISSION The Yakima Valley American Viticultural Area, established by the
Last Bite
1 True or false? The Z-Trap is a device for killing Zetzellia mali? 2 How
White varieties need more water
What works well on red wine grape varieties might be too much of a good
Top five things to consider before going organic
When you heard at the coffee shop that organic Honeycrisp apples were returning well over
Organic hurdles
Growing apples in the eastern United States under USDA organic certification standards is not easy,
Optimizing production
With some new apple varieties, like Honeycrisp, selling for more than $50 a box wholesale,
Fruiting walls with windows
American fruit growers are land-rich by Italian standards, Dorigoni says. In Italy, orchard land
Fruiting wall principles
The tall spindle orchard design that is being so steadfastly encouraged by researchers—and adopted by
Trends in organic tree fruit
Washington State University’s sustainable agriculture specialist David Granatstein keeps tabs on organic tree fruit production
Pest pressures challenge organics future
The favorable climate and relatively low pest and disease pressure in the arid West have
Plantings set record pace
If Washington’s 129-million-box apple crop took you by surprise last fall, consider this. If there
Why organic cherries are in decline
Organic cherry acreage in Washington State was up. Now it’s down. What’s behind the flux
Pear growers surveyed on biological control
Implementing stable biological control programs requires growers and pest managers to have a much better
Nothing easy about organic weed control
Research in a newly planted organic vineyard showed just how difficult and labor-intensive weed control
Evaluating grape sites
Michelle Moyer demonstrates how WSU's vineyard site evaluation computer model works. PHOTO BY MELISSA HANSEN
Hudson Valley’s wholesalers
Two of the largest wholesale operations on the International Fruit Tree Association tour in New
The Top Five
Soil has been called the “living skin” of planet Earth, an essential but fragile part
The root of the matter
This excavated root system is from a 40-year-old Concord own-rooted vine. PHOTOS COURTESY OF ALAN
Testing tree health
Dennis Smith, horticulturist with G.S. Long Company, Inc., in Yakima, Washington, has been doing soil
Nutrient information needed
As yield expectations have soared in recent years, so has the importance of nutrient management.
Rescue thinning
If you’ve thinned and thinned and there are still too many apples on the trees,
Orchard ground covers
For 21 years now, Dr. Ian Merwin has tended a 320-tree apple orchard on the
WSU seeks licensee
Washington State University’s Research Foundation, which owns the new WA 38 apple, has issued an
Cornell releases wine grape varieties
A new white variety is cold tolerant; a new red variety is disease resistant.
Grape harvesters are going high-tech
The grape harvester, on display at an Italian equipment show, can sort fruit in
Simple rules
A century ago, Ford Motor Company adopted the assembly line and began cranking out Model
Most vineyard tasks mechanized
This trunk scrubber of the vMech system is used by Ste. Michelle Wine Estates to
Mechanizing vineyard saves hundreds per acre
At year’s end, when costs of all the grapevine tasks are added up, Ste. Michelle
Thin, thin, THIN!
Phil Schwallier Thinning rules In an article in Good Fruit Grower in 2009, Cornell University’s
How integrated mite control works
One of the keys to integrated mite control was that the western predatory mite Typhlodromus
Calculating the value of biological control
Washington State University entomologist Dr. Stan Hoyt developed integrated mite control in the late 1960s
Another Geneva mixup
For the second time in as many years, there has been a stumble along the
High-tech nursery cuts propagation time
Pear rootstocks growing in the tissue culture lab. PHOTOS BY GERALDINE WARNER A
Positive trends for Bartletts
The Pacific Northwest canned pear industry is in a good position now, based on inventory,
New grape disease reduces yields, quality
Left: A Merlot grapevine shows redleaf symptoms on mature leaves in the lower portions of
Promotion and management of pear fruiting
Left: D’Anjou tree sprayed at two weeks after bloom with 80 ppm ReTain relative
Developing a disease management program
Washington State University viticulture extension specialist Dr. Michelle Moyer suggests growers consider the following when
What could replace Manchurian?
The apple industry uses Manchurian crab as a pollinizer because of its compatibility with the
Water inside grapes
The Syrah cluster on the right was treated with the antitranspirant Vapor Gard; nontreated cluster
The Top 5: What growers can do to improve pollination success
Inspect the bees you receive. A strong hive should have enough adult bees to cover
Conserving wild pollinators
PHOTO COURTESY OF MARY ANN FRAZIER Cornell University has a new publication called Wild Pollinators
Good to Know: Consumer expectations of apple quality
Everyone has a favorite apple variety but what makes it so? How do Washington State