Latest Research

Blossom thinning has the greatest potential to increase fruit size and can promote return bloom next season. Growers have an opportunity to assess the efficacy of blossom thinners before applying post-bloom thinner.

Irrigation is the application of controlled amounts of water to plants at needed intervals.

Apple harvesting is a labor-intensive work accomplished manually and typically by seasonal pickers.

Traditional spraying systems in orchards and vineyards operate at a constant rate using a standard nozzle setup, which can be inefficient due to variable row spacing and canopy sizes.

Soil moisture sensors have proven to be effective for assisting in irrigation scheduling for tree fruit orchards.

Researchers at the Fruit Research and Extension Center are developing and evaluating a sensor-based irrigation system for specialty crops.

Irrigation is an important component of field management for tree fruit crops.

An important part of orchard scouting is to keep good records. A new mobile scouting spreadsheet, developed by Penn State, will help you keep track of what you are seeing in the field.

Conventional orchard spraying systems typically spray with a fixed spraying rate, which can lead to a huge amount of agrochemical waste every year.

Blossom or green fruit thinning is a critical task for crop load management in apple production.

As one of the United States' largest producers of tree-bearing fruits, Pennsylvania is the 4th largest producer of apples and the 3rd largest producer of peaches. However, growers are faced with new and different challenges every year.