Cherry

Michigan Cherry Industry Research Priorities

Submitted by:
Cherry Marketing Institute
12800 Escanaba Drive, Suite A
Dewitt, MI  48820

Current Plant Protection Priorities

  • IPM Strategies for Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD)
  • Disease protection (alternatives for increasingly difficult disease resistances to SI’s and SDI’s including leaf spot, brown rot, and mildew).
  • Insect protection (Plum Curculio, Cherry Fruit Fly, Mites, OBLR, San Jose Scale, and trunk Borers) via chemical and IPM efforts, basic biology and genetics.

Future Plant Protection Priorities

  • Emerging parasitoids for SWD.
  • Breeding program (leaf spot, Armillaria, etc.).
  • MRL issues that impact the export markets.

Current Marketing Priorities

  • New and expanded use of cherries- both sweet and tart cherries.
  • Pits and ways to reduce them in finished products.
  • Production trends world-wide by variety for tart cherries.

Future Marketing Priorities

  • Varieties and/or production practices to discover or improve marketable traits, i.e. firmer texter, nutraceutical content, larger size, fresh market, sugar/acid balance, color etc. (high density plantings).
  • Market Research
  • Production development (IPM / Sustainability).

Other Production Priorities

  • Computerized weather station network upgrading.
  • Wildlife management issues in tree fruit.
  • Ground cover and weed management.

 

Last Updated: September 2021