Cherry Institute Set For Friday In Yakima

Cherries will take center stage, in central Washington Friday, during the 2025 Cherry Institute.  The day long even allows growers from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Utah to talk about the past season, thoughts for the year head, trade and much more.  President of Northwest Cherry Growers B.J. Thurlby said they’ll also have a session focused solely on one of the biggest concerns grower face right now; Little Cherry Disease.

“One of our researchers, Corina Serban, is going to update the industry on the use of dogs in detecting Little Cherry Disease in the trees. And these dogs are able to smell, the trees apparently have a little bit different scent to them when they have little cherry in them, and so we've actually seen good results of dogs identifying little cherry in the orchard.”

Other topics of note will focus on irrigation, the H-2A program, and new variety efforts at Washington State University.  Thurlby says the expectation is 400-500 growers will attend Friday’s Cherry Institute, which kicks off at 8 a.m. at the Yakima Convention Center.

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