Stone fruit growers from New York and neighboring provinces and states are invited to attend. Andersen and others believe New York orchardists should consider their options to diversify operations by expanding their plantings of stone fruits. We would like to help growers develop other profit centers out of stone fruit, and spread their labor and equipment expenses over a longer harvest season.
Consumer demand is there for fresh, u-pick, and processed fruit.
Sessions are being led by breeders, plant pathologists, and entomologists from the NYS Experiment Station, the Hudson Valley Lab, and other universities. Growers, nurserymen, and industry leaders will also participate. Topics will include ground cover management, replant considerations, irrigation, higher density cherry orchards, copper and bacterial pest control, options for the NY sweet cherry orchards, apricot, cherry and plum varieties to consider, peach varieties and rootstocks, cankers and associated problems, nutritional requirements of stone fruits, brown rot, and stone fruit profit centers. Steve Hoying, leader of the Lake Ontario Fruit Team, invites growers of new sweet cherry orchards to bring slides to show and tell. Activities will begin with registration at noon on Monday, March 16, and run until late afternoon on Tuesday, March 17.