College of Agriculture & Natural Resources

• MIFruitcast: Meet the Educators

  Published on January 18, 2024
  Welcome to MIFruitcast, an MSU Extension podcast focused on fruit production. In this episode, we interview MSUE fruit educators.

• MIFruitcast: Fire blight Management with George Sundin

  Published on March 28, 2024
  In this episode, we talk to Dr. George Sundin, MSU's tree fruit pathologist, about fire blight biology and management Hosted by Lindsay Brown and Cheyenne Sloan https://www.bensound.com/free-music-for-videos License code: BN8AVCJZJCUEGJDA

• MIFruitcast: Biological Controls with Jackie Perkins

  Published on December 1, 2023
  Welcome to MIFruitcast, an MSU Extension podcast focused on fruit production. In this episode, we discuss biological controls with tree fruit integrator Jackie Perkins.

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  Apple Decision Tool

  Published on August 11, 2025
  In this episode of MIFruitcast, Jackie Perkins shares information about the new Apple Decision Tool.

• Pear rust mite

  The overwintering stage is a light brown, wedge-shaped adult, which cannot be seen without a 15X hand lens. The summer forms are nearly white in color, and even smaller than the overwintered adults.

• Twospotted spider mite

  Adult and nymphal mites are yellowish to pale green with a dorsal pair of apparent dark "spots". Males are smaller than females and have a pointed abdomen. The female takes on an orange tinge in the fall.

• Tufted apple bud moth

  Adult is an inconspicuous moth, varying from mottled gray at the wing base to brown at the wing tip, with a lighter colored margin along the wing's leading edge. Two or three groups of tufted scales can be seen on the top of the wings.

• Fire blight

  Blossom blight occurs in the spring. Infected blossoms first exhibit a water soaking, followed by wilting and their eventually turning brown on apple and nearly black on pear. Individual flowers or the entire cluster may be affected.

• Brown stink bug

  Stink bug adults have a broad, flattened, shield-shaped body and a narrow head. The brown stink bug is brown to grayish-brown and slightly speckled.

• Speckled green fruitworm

  The adult is grayish beige with two purplish gray spots on its wings and a hairy thorax. The eggs are laid on the upper surface of the leaves.

• Alternaria fruit rot

  The disease appears as velvety dark green to black, circular, sunken lesions on mature fruit; the infected tissue is firm and brown. Disease is typically associated with over-ripe or damaged fruit, or fruit held in storage.

• Moldy core and core rot

  Moldy core is associated with several different fungi. Infection is initiated at the calyx end and the fungi proceed to grow inward into the carpel tissue or locules and cause a core rot.

• European fruit lecanium (Brown apricot scale)

  The adult female scale is nearly hemispherical and shiny brown, with several ridges along the back. Nymphs are light colored.

• Brown marmorated stink bug

  Brown marmorated stink bug adults are shield-shaped, with mottled brown coloration on the upper and lower surface. They can be distinguished by lighter bands on antennae and they have darker bands on the membrane part of the front wings.

• Black peach aphid

  These smooth-looking, pear-shaped insects have long antennae and a pair of cornicles extending from the posterior end of the body.

• Gypsy moth

  The adult male is brownish and marked with blackish zigzag lines. The adult female is whitish with brown transverse zigzag stripes and does not fly. The masses of oval and yellow eggs are laid on the trunk of trees and covered with hair left by the female.

• Plum curculio

  The adult is mottled grayish black and brown. Its head is prolonged into a large but short snout that bears antennae. Each elytron has a series of humps with the 2nd and 3rd pairs separated by a clear transverse band.

• Gray mold

  Lesions usually start at the calyx or stem end of the fruit or at wound sites as small water-soaked areas. As lesions age, they enlarge, turning from grayish-brown to light brown, and eventually to a darker brown.

• Skeletonizers

  The adults of the skeletonizers are brown and short, with transverse bands on each forewing. The larvae are yellow to pale green with numerous hairy discs on each segment of the body.

• European red mite

  Adult female European red mites are less than 0.5 mm and dark red with eight legs. Adult males are smaller than the females and have a pointed abdomen. Males are usually dull green to brown.