Grow with Knowledge,
Prosper through Understanding

Welcome to “the Cherry Pit”with news and views at the heart of the BC Cherry industry.

As well as information about employment opportunities in our sunny BC cherry orchards, this site now includes current and past OKCGA newsletters, updates on current projects, events (see What's Up below), and issues, and a members’area providing access to full research reports from completed projects and reports. Membership is open. Join us! Click here for Membership Form.

LOOKING FOR WORK? Go to WORK IN OUR ORCHARDS to find a complete listing of the best orchards to work in. For foreign applicants requiring work visas, please be aware that Working Holiday visas are available from some countries. 

Recent News

  • Click on Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD) Monitoring Report for the Southern Interior of British Columbia July 28, 2010 update. And here for updated Spotted Wing Drosophila Monitoring and Management Recommendations for Commercial Tree Fruit and Grapes in the Interior of British Columbia from Dr. Acheampong.  
  • SWD posters to raise awareness and help control SWD spread are available for your farm, employee accommodation, fruit stands, neighbours, and local produce stores.  They can be downloaded here to print.      Poster 1    Poster 2
  • The June 2010 OKCGA Newsletter is now available and has been emailed to members.
  • A Cherry Picker Training Guide is now available on the web. This is a four page pamphlet you can view online or print out (double sided) to make your own pamphlets for cherry picking. Versions will be added in French, Punjabi, and Spanish. This is part of an ongoing project to delelop a manual for good cherry harvest and packing practices.
  •  Spotted Wing Drosophila Communications (Charlotte Leaming, OKTFC)

  • Susanna Acheampong at the Ministry of Agriculture is disseminating all information via email.  She sends out weekly updates on Thursdays.  Susanna’s email list consists of OKTF field men (OKTF redistributes to growers via their own email list), Christine Dendy (updates OKCGA website), Linda Edwards (forwards to Organic growers), Connie Bielert (to table grape growers), Hans Buchler (wine grape growers), and independent growers who have given their email addresses for this purpose.

    Traps are checked weekly by monitors hired by OKTF.  Trap captures will be reported by small geographic area.  With the first captures of the season individual growers will be contacted directly by the field person in their region (Molly or Charlotte).  We will continue to do this unless/until the trap captures become so widespread that area wide recommendations are more appropriate.

    In order to be as flexible as possible the working group of Molly Thurston, Charlotte Leaming, Duane Holder, Susanna Acheampong and Howard Thistlewood are holding weekly conference calls on Wednesdays to go over the weeks results and set plans for the coming weeks activities.

    (note: OKCGA has requested OKCGA growers be emailed directly during the harvest to ensure communication is not delayed. If you are not getting reports, please call Dr. Susanna Acheampong (250) 861 7230 or email susanna.acheampong@gov.bc.ca to be added to the list).

                                                                                                                         

    Please note that possible identification of SWD in our orchards is not like an STD! It is, no way, a reflection of any producer's horticultural practices. It is likely to be arriving in shopping bags from your grocery store, lunch kits, fruitstand purchases from outside the valley, and other sources of fruit, and hatching in compost piles, garbage bins, and dumpsters.  We do need awareness and we need grower and public support to learn how to reduce its entry to the BC Interior and control its spread.  SWD is a new pest we are having to learn about rapidly; it travels into the region in all manner of routes, including fruit transported into the valley from US or Lower Mainland BC for sale in fruit stands here. If we find it, it is important to the monitors, the professionals, and our fellow growers to share this information so we can learn about its spread, notify growers, and help in its control. Think about your orchard from a different perspective and consider how to control SWD in household waste and compost, employee camps, packing houses, fruit stands, disposal areas for cull fruit, dumpsters and garbage containers. Early control should help reduce build up of populations and pressure in the orchard and in the packing house.

  • SWD Traps are available and many already distributed. The committee continues to work on awareness and control measures.  Please click on the attached publication "Surveillance and Management of Spotted Wing Drosophila (Drosophila suzukii) in the Interior of British Columbia" for more information. For links to current updates and further information please go to BC Ministry of Agriculture and Lands: http://www.al.gov.bc.ca/cropprot/swd.htm  and Oregon State University: http://swd.hort.oregonstate.edu/
  • The 2010 MRL list is available here, downloadable in an Excel spreadsheet. Thank you to Hugh Philip for his work to update this and the BCFGA for sharing the cost of this annual update with the OKCGA. The list here will be updated if further revisions are made. Please take careful note of MRLs when planning your program for Spotted Wing Drosophila control - shipments to Europe from California have been detained and rejected for exceeding MRLs this year.
  • For a full and very interesting report, click on the 2009 International Cherry Symposium and Chilean tour report which is now uploaded on this site. Thanks to Nicole Verpaelst for the great work in putting this together and including a lot of interesting observations and photos!
  • 2009 research reports are now available in the Members Area.
  • The presentations from the OKCGA February 9th annual research meeting are now available in pdf format: 2010 AGM Presentations  BE PATIENT WHEN OPENING, SOME OF THESE FILES ARE BIG AND TAKE TIME TO LOAD.
  • 2010 Membership Renewals and contribution of 2009 Crop Levies are now overdue and required for orchard listings on our website.  If you have not recieved it by mail, please print out the current membership form and mail it in to us as soon as possible. And remember, the rebate of 40% of it through SR&D Tax Credits means a penny a pound for research really only cost you 0.6 of a penny! To meet and beat the growing competition in our cherry industry, research is as important as ever! Please support this essential part of our industry. Cherries are our business!
  • BCAC has added an open forum for producers to connect and speak their mind on current issues, connect with other producers, seek solutions, start new discussions, or even post ads.  The forum is part of the BCAC website www.bcac.bc.ca

    What’s Up...

    • Thursday, July 29, 2010 6:00 PM Cherry Day at PARC Summerland. 

      Ornamental Gardens at the Research Centre


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