TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — Michigan State University horticulture professor Jim Flore is being recognized by the cherry industry for his work in the field – literally and figuratively.

The Cherry Marketing Institute (CMI) honored Flore July 7 as its Cherry Industry Person of the Year. He received the honor at MSU’s Northwest Michigan Horticultural Research Center, where public tours are conducted in concert with the National Cherry Festival.

The distinction is awarded to individuals who have shown exemplary support for the industry. Flore earned bachelor’s, master’s and Ph.D. degrees in horticulture from MSU, and in 1974 he joined the university as a member of the faculty. His program areas include understanding the response of trees to biotic stress.

His current work in biotic stress includes work on the effect of simulated leaf damage for strawberry, apple and initiated experiments with cherry. Flore has really been a leader in helping the cherry industry move forward, said Phil Korson, executive director of CMI.

“Recently, Jim has been looking at that misting technology to keep the buds from blooming,” Korson explained. “It keeps the tree a few degrees warmer and keeps the buds alive.”

This project has shown the ability to delay cherry and apple bloom by up to 10 days in the spring. Given the near-total loss of the 2012 cherry crop because of a series of devastating early warm-ups followed by cruel frosts, growers are looking for more ways to protect their crop.

The method Flore is trying out involves the installation of irrigation-type piping in the canopy of orchards in order to apply a fine mist of water on the trees. This system is typically used in high-density orchards for the application of fertilizer.

In this system the water cools the tree buds, slowing growth and development. The practice could theoretically provide the water necessary for cooling with a tiny fraction of the amount used by a conventional sprinkler.

This method of cooling the trees would be used in conjunction with so-called over-the-row harvesting, in which a machine would touch the branches rather than the tree trunk. The person operating the harvester would be positioned above the canopy.

“If we can develop the over-the-row technology, we can start harvesting fruit in year three rather than year seven,” Korson said.

Cherry trees cannot be harvested with a traditional tree shaker until they are seven years old. “Misting is just one part of the new system,” he added.

Denser orchards would be a requirement in order to accommodate the piping; this would also be a more efficient use of space, allowing greater yields per acre.

Researchers began to evaluate over-the-row harvesters for cherry trees at least as far back as 2008. Trees or bushes are harvested one side at a time with one kind of experimental harvester. Another kind shakes the tree limbs to remove the fruit.

Over-the-row harvesting is similar to methods used for harvesting blueberries and raspberries, where contact is made with tree branches rather than the trunk. Flore is one of the researchers looking into these new harvesting methods.

He was born in Benton Harbor and raised on a farm, where his parents grew 17 different crops, including sweet and tart cherries. They were early adopters of frost irrigation for strawberries and grapes and the mechanical harvest of cherries – the Friday limb shaker in 1964.

Flore’s father was also instrumental in the early organization of growers through Great Lakes Cherry.