Cherry
Michigan Cherry Industry Research Priorities
Submitted by:
Cherry Marketing Institute
12800 Escanaba Drive, Suite A
Dewitt, MI 48820
Current and Future Plant Protection Issues:
- IPM Strategies for Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD).
- Disease protection (alternatives for increasingly difficult disease resistance to SI’s and SDI’s including leaf spot, brown rot and mildew).
- Insect protection (Plum Curculio, Cherry Fruit Fly, Mites & OBLR) via chemical and IPM efforts, basic biology & genetics.
- MRL issues that impact the export markets.
- Ground cover and weed management.
- Breeding program (leaf spot, Armillaria, etc.).
- Orchard replant issues.
- Abandoned Orchards.
Current and Future Cherry Marketing Institute Issues:
- New and expanded uses of cherries – both sweet and tart cherries.
- Varieties and/or production practices to discover or improve marketable traits, i.e., firmer texture, nutraceutical content, larger size, fresh market, sugar/acid balance, color etc. (high density plantings)
- Production development (IPM / Sustainability).
- Market research.
- Pits and ways to reduce them in finished product.
- Production trends world-wide.
Other Current Production Issues:
- Computerized weather station networks including new locations and new models.
- Fruit set, growth regulators.
- High density production & harvest management.
- Bacterial Canker.
- Orchard nutrient management, rootstock, photosynthesis with regard to soft fruit.
- Irrigation efficiency.
- Frost protection/delayed bloom.
- Wild life management issues in tree fruit.
- De-fruiting young trees
- Ground cover and weed management
Last Updated: September 2018