Lots of things can go wrong in a cherry’s growing season. In early spring, warm temperatures encourage bud development, which makes the buds more vulnerable to subsequent cold. (Courtesy Jennifer ...

Measuring yield variability in a tart cherry orchard block has never been an exact science. For some growers, it consists of sending someone to count the number of bins and roughly gauge the distance ...

To embrace an integrated pest management approach to pear psylla management, growers needed to have faith that natural enemies would show up in the orchard at the right time and magnitude to protect ...

Pests seem indestructible in an orchard, where they breed like crazy. Throw those bugs in a lab, and the story changes. They don’t like their diet. They won’t mate. They won’t lay eggs. And if another ...

To address the growing concern over codling moth management, the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission assembled a new industry task force last fall. Today, the task force consists of 29 members, ...

Washington wine grape growers should be looking to New Zealand as a model for premium wine production — and there’s opportunity for growth. That’s according to Greg Livengood, a global wine and grape ...

Brown marmorated stink bugs really like pears. And cherries. And hazelnuts. So, as BMSB naturalizes in many of Oregon’s extra-orchard landscapes, growers face a new pest pressure and plenty of ...

Winemakers are asking for white grapes. Brokers are scrambling to keep up with white wine demand. Growers are planting or grafting white varieties. Washington’s white wines are having a moment, ...

Attention on soil health has been growing as a way for farmers to deepen their understanding of the soils they manage and to assess the value provided by these farmers and soils. Essentially, soil ...

Hiring and training employees results in piles of paperwork and records that must be retained for audits and inspections. Those paper piles signal opportunities for technology to offer solutions, said ...

Every year, apple fruit thinning overlaps with cherry harvest, posing tough labor management decisions. Northwest engineering researchers are working on a bot for that. Students and researchers at ...

Several years ago, grower Jason Matson started to wonder if the decay problems Matson Fruit was dealing with could be caused by cross-contamination from the recirculating fungicide drencher at his ...