The 2023 annual meeting for Armillaria Root Rot Solutions (2020-51181-32142) was hosted by Michigan State at the Southwest Michigan Research and Extension Center, in Benton Harbor. Michigan leads the nation in tart cherry production, but also has fair amount of peach production for the area. Both peaches and cherries are detrimentally affected by ARR but due to graft incompatibility between the species, the solutions for a single genetic resistance rootstock is complicated.
Alongside the meeting, we were able to tour their research station, and see several ongoing experiments. Pictured below is a peach grown and trained on a trellis to be “2D”. This high density production aims for reduced labor and harvest needs, and potentially suitable for mechanical harvest.

