Apple and stone fruit farming is complex, demanding work — and it’s getting more costly every season. Pests don’t follow schedules, and the margin for error is slim. Since 2009, the IPM Institute of North America’s Specialty Crop Grower Services team has been the trusted partner for orchard growers across the upper Midwest and Northeast — helping them manage pests smarter and bring a high-quality crop to harvest, season after season.
We work exclusively East of the Rockies, with growers at every scale — from family orchards to the region’s most established operations.
Full-Season Partnership
From planning to harvest, we provide hands-on technical consulting and integrated pest management support — customized to your operation, your crops, and your goals. Whatever your size and needs, our team works alongside you through every stage of the growing season.
Our services include:
Planning & Strategy: Personalized integrated pest management plans, spray programs, and written instructions tailored to your orchard — including pest monitoring training and use of thresholds.
On-the-Ground Support: Scouting, pest identification, trap maintenance, sprayer calibration, and pre-harvest damage assessments.
Data & Documentation: Digitized pesticide application records for food-safety certifications, pesticide reporting, and third-party audits.
Ongoing Education: Subscription to AppleTalk — our weekly Tuesday conference call and notes covering real-time pest activity, new products, and strategies from across the region. With 17 sessions, this subscription runs from green tip to the last sprays applied before harvest.
Pest Management Expertise: We offer a deep understanding of the pest complex, biology, and behavior, and will help you understand how all these factors influence your pesticide and non-pesticide options. We will help you:
- select pesticides to protect pollinators and beneficial insects;
- recommend biological controls and mating disruption tools;
- understand effective non-chemical pest management controls.
Plus, we’re independent consultants — we sell expertise, not products. That means our recommendations are always driven by what’s best for your orchard, not a sales quota.
Who We Work With
We work with apple and stone fruit growers at every scale across the upper Midwest and Northeast, East of the Rockies, from two-acre family orchards to 100+ acre wholesale operations. Whether you’re new to pest management or an experienced grower who simply needs a skilled extra set of eyes in the field, we have a service model that fits.
Our clients trust us because we’re in the field with them — not just advising from a distance. We made 200 scouting visits to orchards in 2025. This means we know what’s happening across the region in real time, and we bring that knowledge to every grower we work with.
Ready to Talk?
Every orchard is different. Let’s start with a conversation about your operation, your challenges, and what success looks like for your season.
Sustainable pest management isn’t just good for your crop — it’s good for the land you’re farming and the communities around it.
