In collaboration with the Benzie Manistee Horticultural Society, the Northwest Michigan Horticultural Research Foundation, and MSU, we are excited to announce a summer bus tour in coordination with our annual Northwest Michigan Horticultural Research Center’s (NWMHRC) annual Open House!
We will hop on the bus at the NWMHRC at 7:30AM, and we plan to tour innovative apple orchards in Leelanau County. The tour will focus on key production issues in Michigan apple production. Key topics will include, but not limited to, the following: novel fire blight management strategies that benefit apple quality, coloring apples, pre-harvest plant growth regulator (PGR) use, multiple leader systems, internal browning information, and lenticel disorder updates.The bus tour will head north up through Suttons Bay and Gills Pier with multiple stops along the way. We will have a catered lunch at the beautiful marina in Northport. We will head back south through Lake Leelanau, and we will wrap up the bus tour with a stop at Tandem Ciders’ production facility for an educational cider tasting and tour. The bus will drop off at the NWMHRC for the 2024 Open House.
The cost for this day-long tour is $80/person, and includes bus ride, lunch, bus snacks, and cider tasting. Space is limited to 100 people.
Bus tour participants and all other guests are encouraged to stay on the NWMHRC grounds for an equipment show, happy hour, and appetizers at the Open House!
This year’s open house will include a large-scale equipment show complete with demonstrations. The event will also include a free happy hour and heavy hors d’oeuvres. There will be no educational tours on-site, and the time will be dedicated to featuring novel equipment and technologies by Michigan’s top-notch equipment manufacturers and dealers.
