Three Purdue specialists to speak at 2008 fruit growers meeting

May 1, 2008

Three Purdue specialists to speak at 2008 fruit growers meeting

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Central Indiana tree fruit and small fruit growers will have the opportunity to meet and discuss fruit production at Anderson Orchard in Mooresville on May 8 during the Central Indiana Commercial Fruit Growers Twilight Meeting.

The free event, sponsored by the Purdue University Cooperative Extension Service, will begin at 5:30 p.m., and participants will tour the orchard to see the development of the new season's crops and learn methods for the production of high quality fruit.

"One of the topics we will discuss is the 2007 drought and its effects on production," said Roy Ballard, Purdue Extension educator and co-coordinator for the event. "We hope attendees come away with a better understanding of what this means for their own farms."

Three Purdue specialists will present during the meeting. Janna Beckerman, professor of botany and plant pathology, will speak about fire blight prevention and control; Rick Foster, professor of entomology, will speak about the control of mites and codling moths; and Peter Hirst, professor of horticulture, will discuss effective fruit thinning.

Two things could occur if the fruit crop is not thinned properly, Hirst said.

"One is that you will have heavy production with poor quality fruit," he said. "The second thing is a phenomenon called biennial bearing, which means you will have a heavy crop one year and barely any crop the next."

Hirst said some varieties of apples are more susceptible to this phenomenon than others and the method for thinning can be risky.

"You need to remove enough of the fruit for good fruit quality, but not too many or production suffers," he said. "We want to explain how growers can tailor the methods for thinning to get the best result from their trees."

Other topics being discussed will include the impact of the late spring freeze on tree condition and different aspects of modern fruit culture and crop protection.

Pre-registration is not mandatory, but encouraged. To register, or for more information, contact Roy Ballard at (317) 462-1113 or rballard@purdue.edu. To see the meeting flier, visit https://www.ces.purdue.edu/Hancock/08fruitmeetingflyer.pdf.

Writer: Hannah Brescher, (765) 494-8402, hbresche@purdue.edu

Sources: Roy Ballard, (317) 462-3111, rballard@purdue.edu

Peter Hirst, (765) 494-1323, hirst@purdue.edu

Ag Communications: (765) 494-2722;
Beth Forbes, forbes@purdue.edu
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