Peter M Hirst
Facts for Fancy Fruit Editor & Professor of Horticulture
Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture
Area(s) of Interest: Commercial Tree Fruit Production
Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture
Area(s) of Interest: Commercial Tree Fruit Production
We are delighted to be hosted for our Summer Tour by Garwood Orchards – one of the larger and best run operations in the state. This applies to their fruit, vegetable and farm marketing activities. Whether you are a fruit grower, a vegetable grower or a farm marketer, you are bound to be inspired and[Read More…]
We’re getting close to the time when growers need to make chemical thinning decisions – for many the most perplexing and risky decision they will make all year. Even with a relatively mild spring without too much interference by spring frosts, this is a tricky call to make. In most cases, there are plenty of[Read More…]
We all know that it in the last two weeks, temperatures have warmed up considerably, but when we plot out the growing degree days (GDD), we can see how dramatic this warming trend has been (Figure 1). In Lafayette a couple of weeks ago, we had accumulated less than 100 GDD – now we’re closing[Read More…]
Would you buy something if you didn’t understand how it worked or what to do with it? Likely not… Imagine a customer of yours who doesn’t know how to select, prepare or store the fresh healthful produce that you are growing and offering for sale. How likely is it that they will buy that product?[Read More…]
What a difference a couple of weeks of warm weather makes. Crop development is progressing rapidly with warmer weather. Apples in the south are around 10 mm, and in full bloom here in Lafayette. Peaches in southern areas of the state are still in the shuck, but barely. Folks in southern areas are getting ready[Read More…]
Fruit crops are finally starting to grow in the Lafayette area after a few days of warmer weather. Apples are at 1/2 inch green to tight cluster. Peaches have 1/2 inch vegetative shoots. There are no live flower buds in our planting. Cherries are at swollen bud. Early grapes varieties are at swell. Raspberries have[Read More…]
“Spring” might be too strong a word to describe conditions this year. As we see from Figure 1, we’re now officially the latest spring so far this decade, and about the same as the long-term average. Having said that, a good part of our Growing Degree Day accumulation has come from one warm day on[Read More…]
For organisms that don’t regulate their temperature (such as plants and insects), the rate of development is largely controlled by the temperature of their environment. As we know, fruit trees and vines need a certain amount of “winter chilling” that they use to measure when winter is over. After the chilling period, plant development depends[Read More…]
