Little Cherry Disease Update Pt 1
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson with today’s Fruit Grower Report. With a rough year for growing cherries behind them, one of the concerns on the minds of many for 2023 is controlling and managing Little Cherry Disease.
Northwest Cherry Growers president, BJ Thurlby says unfortunately, it hasn’t gone away …
THURLBY … “The Little Cherry Disease situation is definitely an issue for this industry and it’s one that we’re, as an industry, trying to address and figure out how we’re going to deal with it. The good news is it’s been a big enough deal over the last three or four years that most growers are very aware of it and they have a treatment plan in place.”
But the numbers, Thurlby says would be helpful …
THURLBY … “Our friends at the USDA have been, in the last two years, doing different ag census work, but we would like to get together with the USDA and actually do another acreage survey just for tree fruit, apples, pears and cherries. And one of the big reasons we want to do that on the cherry front is to try to ascertain, how many trees have we lost to this little cherry disease, and we know it’s significant.”
Just how significant, Thurlby had to ball-park it …
THURBLY … “You know, in our discussions with growers and WSU, working on this issue, and the Tree Fruit Research Association, we think that we’ve probably lost 2-million boxes off the top of our crop, and I’ve been on record saying that in a couple of different areas and I think it’s still true.”
Tune in tomorrow for more on Little Cherry Disease and what’s being done to mitigate the damage.
