Washington state is the International Fruit Tree Association destination this summer

Planes filled with tree fruit scientists, producers, nurserymen and other allied industries will be headed to Washington state this summer.

For two weeks, the International Fruit Tree Association (IFTA), Washington State University / International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS) and Washington state tree fruit industry will be hosting both the IFTA 2020 Summer Study Tour and the XII International Symposium on Integrating Canopy, Rootstock and Environmental Physiology in Orchard Systems. The latter is held every four years around the world. The last time this symposium was held in Wenatchee was in 1996.

The IFTA Summer Study Tour will be held July 22-25 in South Central Washington.

Orchard tours will include one day in Yakima/lower valley, one day in Prosser/Tri-Cities and an optional one-half day apple orchard establishment tour in North Pasco or a full day cherry tour in the Tri-Cities region on Saturday, July 25.

The tour will be based out of Richland and will include evening activities two of the three nights. The agenda is being finalized. Visit www.ifruittree.org after March 31 for updates and registration dates. For further information contact Karen Lewis at kmlewis@wsu.edu.

The ISHS international symposium kicks off Sunday night, July 26.], at the Performing Arts Center in Wenatchee, Washington. Stefano Musacchi is the XII Orchard Systems 2020 convener. The symposium will include four days of oral and poster presentations (Monday, Tuesday Wednesday and Friday) and one day of orchard tours (Thursday).

Symposium organizers anticipate roughly 100 oral presentations including 11 keynotes and 70 poster presentations.  Keynote speakers include Lailang Cheng, Cornell; Luca Corelli, University of Bologna; Ted DeJong, UC Davis; Gennaro Fazio, Cornell; Lav Khot, WSU; Karen Lewis, WSU; Terence Robinson, Cornell:  Stuart Tustin, NZ Institute for Plant and Food; and Maciej Zwieniecki, UC Davis.

In appreciation for our tree fruit industry and in an effort to include industry members that do not want to attend the entire symposium, the organizing committee is setting up the Friday schedule to include presentations that would be of most interest and use to producers.

This day of oral presentations will be available for individuals or groups to watch and listen via a zoom connection. The Friday agenda has not been finalized and zoom connect details are not yet available. We will broadly advertise once we have everything completed.

Registration information and updates can be found at  https://2020orchardsystems.com/. For additional information, please leave questions at https://2020orchardsystems.com/#contact.