At the MI spring peach meeting today! Learning about all kinds of topics from frost protection for buds with nano particles to disease management to ID info about Spotted lanternfly 🍑

Research led by PSU grad Hannah Schneider and building on more than a decade of work by the lab of Penn State's Jonathan Lynch has identified a mechanism that may improve corn resilience: psu.edu/news/research/…

Had a great day with growers and such knowledgeable speakers yesterday at the West Central Spring Hort Day! More information to follow from talks on orchard nutrition, fruit ripening, bitter pit and spotted wing drosophila. 🍒 🍎 🍑 🍐

At the Michigan State University Extension IPM school today to learn about ground cover management tools and see orchard demos! 🍎 🍒

Researchers report that climate change will result in more issues with lack of rainfall in the Great Lakes region. Optimizing irrigation efficiency will be important for tree fruit production. This article outlines some great tools to improve irrigation efficiency.

What a week here! Trees are in bloom and bees are buzzing in orchards🍎 🍐 🍑 🍒

#ASHS2023 "Root and Rhizosphere Dynamics and Plant Phenotype Responses to Biostimulants in Controlled and Natural Conditions" Experts present their experiences with different types of plants and biostimulants in a variety of environmental settings. ashs.confex.com/ashs/2023/meet…

We’ve had great apple thinning weather this season! I’m working with a grower to track fruit growth rates - hence the dots on fruitlets. It’s warm now but should cool off a bit later this week for more thinning on later varieties.

They came! Cement trellis posts for our Project GREEEN apple and pear training systems trial at the MSU West Central MI Research and Extension Center. They are for our V training system. Can’t wait to get them installed! MSU AgBioResearch

Models of sweet cherry cold hardiness have potential application for use as a decision support tool for cold damage management as well as crop site suitability modeling. #HortScience doi.org/10.21273/HORTS… UBC Science Okanagan

Fruit maturity testing in West Central MI has begun! I love this time of year 😁 🍎 🍐 cool nights this week have really improved red color!

SnapDragon, developed at Cornell University, was named 2023 Outstanding Fruit Cultivar by the ASHS Fruit Breeding Professional Interest Group. cals.cornell.edu/news/2023/10/s…

Michigan State University Extension is hosting Fruit School this week! For the beginning farmer session, Jackie Perkins is giving a great talk on integrated pest management (IPM) and scouting for insect pests during the growing season. 🍎 🫐 🍒 🍑 🍐 🍓 🍇 🐛MSU Extension

Warmest winter in Michigan since 1895! Mean temperature averaged 30.5˚F, or 10.3 ˚F above normal. Minimum temps showed the highest increases. This is consistent with a long-term trend towards warmer winter temperatures in Michigan. ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitor…