A couple of years ago I was contacted by a cherry grower in Uzbekistan asking for the contact details of a local retired fruit production consultant and regular contributor to Tree Fruit magazine.
I passed them on, and some time later the cherry grower was able to visit the consultant—who in turn contacted me and we all met.
I was able to show our visitor Aussie cherry orchards in season thanks to the openness and friendliness of growers in Victoria's north-east.
Elaine and I drove our visitor to Lilydale where he was able to meet with prominent cherry growers and tour the local orchards.
Photo 1 is a young tree from his home block. Our visitor tells me that the style and pruning of his trees has been influenced by his visit to Australia.
This has taken place because of the platform and reach of Tree Fruit on the web, and the international readers.
What a wonderful thing it is to share knowledge about growing cherries wherever you are in the world.
Our visitor is using some new ideas and pushing the boundaries by developing horticultural concepts such as greenhouse technology. He is also hosting cherry growers from surrounding countries eager to learn the latest methods.
The world's cherry growing community is one that shares a common goal: to grow premium sweet cherries. When visiting cherry growing regions around the world it is a great thing to share ideas and to learn from each other; and to return the hospitality that we are shown, to our visitors.
Our guest will visit cherry growing regions in Europe to further develop his knowledge and capacity to grow better cherries.
This is a good news story. I know he reads this column, so we wish him well for the cherry growing future.
See this article in Tree Fruit April 2017
