Ohio Fruit News: Disease and Pest Management

Do you have a problem with your fruit trees, bushes, or vines? Submitting quality samples is key to accurate disease diagnosis and effective management—especially for tree fruits, pome fruits, soft fruits, and berries. To prepare high-quality fruit samples, collect tissue showing all stages of symptoms and include the entire plant if possible. Be sure to wrap roots securely to prevent drying and use plastic bags to retain moisture during transit. For tree and pome fruits, send three branch sections measuring between half an inch to two inches thick and six to eight inches long, selecting branches that include both healthy and symptomatic tissue, especially from wilting areas. Keep these samples cool and bagged until shipment. For soft fruits and berries, use paper bags instead of plastic to reduce excess moisture and help preserve fruit quality. Mature fruits should be packaged separately, but submitting the whole plant is ideal. Secure all materials in sturdy boxes to avoid damage during shipping. Proper packaging and sample selection lead to more accurate evaluations and better disease management recommendations.

Visit the Ohio Fruit News and read more on identification and management!

Continue reading Ohio Fruit News: Disease and Pest Management

Join OSU Extension online and Learn how to Prune Fruit Trees

🍏 Online Fruit Pruning School – March 4, 2025! 🍑

Join us for a three-part online workshop where you’ll learn expert pruning techniques to enhance production and quality in your fruit trees and small fruit plantings.

🗓️ Date: March 4, 2025
🕘 Time:

  • 9:30-10:30 AM – Apple Tree Training and Pruning
  • 10:30-11:45 AM – Peach Tree Training and Pruning
  • 1:15-2:30 PM – Small Fruit Pruning (Aronia, Currants, Elderberries, Gooseberries, Grapevines, and Hardy Figs)

Connect live with Ohio State University experts for presentations and a Q&A session!

🔗 Register here: https://osu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_3dwRkDkKToyxWMQU_h7iog#/registration

#FruitPruning #OSUExtension #SustainableFarming #Horticulture #FruitTrees #AgEducation #PruningTechniques 🌳✨

Ohio Fruit News 2024 Summary of March Topics

The March issue of Ohio Fruit News (OFN) is attached and also available online. In this issue you will learn about:

  • Fruit Tree Planting Tips
  • Updates on Chlorpyrifos
  • Tips for tuning up your sprayer
  • Woolly apple aphid identification and management
  • Best practices for planting strawberries

January Issue of the Ohio Fruit Growers News

Bunch of elderberries with ripe fruit.

The January issue of Ohio Fruit News is available here and also available on-line. In this issue you will learn about:

  •  Proposed changes to the registrations for Ziram, Thiram and Ferbam, three fungicides that are critical to fruit disease management
  • The current status of agricultural water standards for the Produce Safety Rule
  • Fruit disease diagnosed in 2023 by the Plant and Pest Diagnostic Clinic

If the PDF version does not open please follow this link: https://u.osu.edu/fruitpathology/fruit-news-2/

2023-2024 Midwest Fruit Pest Management Guide

The 2023-24 Midwest Fruit Pest Management Guide is now available.  The easiest way to get a hard copy is to order from the website https://mdc.itap.purdue.edu/item.asp?Item_Number=ID-465.  You can also download the guide for free.

This guide provides conventional pest management recommendations for commercial tree fruit, small fruit, and grape producers throughout the Midwest and surrounding states. These recommendations have been formulated to provide up-to-date information on pesticides and their application.

Live Fruit Update on September 9 – Featuring Brambles (Blackberries and Raspberries), Grapes, Hardy Figs and Hardy Kiwis

Join us for timely fruit research updates for your farm and garden, and to get your questions answered by experts from The Ohio State University. This FREE, online-only event will feature several video presentations recorded from the OSU South Centers research fields, as well as live question and answer segments. The event will take place from 10-11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, September 9, 2020, using the Zoom meeting platform.

When registering, you can submit questions you would like answered during the event. To register, visit https://go.osu.edu/fruitupdate. Be sure to include an email address that your monitor regularly, as this will be the method we use to send you the link to join the event.

This event is made possible via funding by a Specialty Crop Block Grant from USDA through the Ohio Department of Agriculture and by a Viticulture Extension grant from Ohio Grape Industries Committee.

Fruit Q A 2020 Flyer