University of Illinois Extension

Events (6)

Stateline Fruit and Vegetable Growers Conference

Mon, 02/06/2023 - 12:00

NIU-Rockford

2023 Southern IL Fruit & Vegetable School

Wed, 02/08/2023 - 12:00

Mount Vernon Hotel and Event Center

A display of vegetables on a cutting board with overlay text that reads register now.

2023 Southwestern Illinois Commercial Tree Fruit School

Thu, 02/09/2023 - 12:00

Knights of Columbus Hall

person choosing apple on tree

Spring into Gardening 2023

Sat, 02/25/2023 - 12:00

Broadway Christian Church

gardeners trowel and rake in loose soil

Pruning Apples and More | Christian County

Thu, 03/02/2023 - 12:00

Christian County Extension or Online

Pruning a fruit tree with a small pair of pruning shears.

Lessons for Living: Fall in Love with Apples | Macoupin County

Tue, 09/26/2023 - 12:00

Macoupin County Extension

Bushels of different types of apples in old wooden baskets. Text in middles reads Lessons for Living

Blog Posts (48)

Love tree fruit, love the planet: Enjoy a fruiting plant for many years

A cluster of green pawpaws in a tree

Use terminal bud scars to gage growth rate of trees

Interesting and Brief: A History of Apples & Their Uses

Manage brown rot of peaches and other stone fruit in the garden

Managing brown rot of peaches and other stone fruit in the garden. Peach fruit infected with brown rot. Fruit is covered in brown fuzzy mass.

Visit a forest of food at The Refuge Food Forest

Black and red blackberries ripen on stems in the grass

Planning spray schedules for fruit trees

Make your tree fruit and small fruit pruning plans now; reach out to Extension for resources

Nick Frillman teaching pruning workshop at Refuge Food Forest

Choose apple trees for size and pollination

Do a little 2022 garden planning

Hazelnuts: A native plant is a new crop for Illinois

developing hazelnuts

Winterizing your home orchard

How to get fruit plants ready for winter: Start preparing for a successful harvest

How to get fruit plants ready for winter: Start preparing for a successful harvest. Unharvested apples and apple mummies in an apple tree.

A tough nut to crack: Unlock the healthy benefits of black walnuts

Nutritious, delicious black walnuts

Pawpaws are a native fall fruit that taste delightful

Make way for apple season

Red apples on the left side, green apples on the right side, with text that says "it's apple season!"

Celebrate National Peach Month

Peaches on tree

The wonderful wild pawpaw: America's largest, least-known tree fruit

Honeyberries are an early-season treat for berry lovers

Hidden beneath the leaves, honeyberries produce small blue-purple fruits on a shrub.

Protect apple foliage and fruit with a spray schedule

close up of red apples on a tree

Don’t lose your crabapple and apple foliage

apple blossoms

Time to do all kinds of pruning

Where is all our fruit? Four big factors of fruit tree production

Red apple hanging from tree

Black currant: growing favor for a blast of flavor.

black currants

Manage pests and disease in home orchards

Benefits of training your apple and fruit trees

How plants survive freezing temperatures

Fruit tree pollination is complicated

Fruit trees have a place, even in a small yard

How to prune fruit trees for healthier trees and better harvests

Person holding pruners getting ready to prune branch off a fruit tree

Ordering seeds from garden catalogs

How to winterize your young and fruit trees

Pawpaw

Weather influences foliar disease

Bacterial Leaf Scorch Infecting Illinois Oaks

This pin oak tree tested positive for bacterial leaf scorch and displays the most distinctive symptoms characterized by brown leaf margins, a colorful band and green tissue along leaf veins.

Controlling Spotted-Wing Drosophila

How to Prune Fruit Trees and Maximize your Home Orchard

Clipper cutting tree branch in winter

How to Plant a Fruit Tree

Planting a fruit tree requires digging a hole the size of the roots.

More Early Spring FAQs: Lawns, Trees and Seeds

Chilling Hours Help Break Spring Dormancy

Peach Leaf Curl

Peach leaf infected with peach leaf curl

The history of blueberries: From Native American staple to domesticated superfood

The blueberry, commonly known as one of our “superfoods”, was not grown in cultivation until 1912 due a previous lack of understanding about their very specific soil requirements.

Answers for Early Spring FAQs

Enjoy spring blooms twice this year

lilac blooms in a vase

Creating an Edible Landscape

Scarlet runner beans growing on a fence

Training your Apple Tree

apples in tree

What’s Not-So-New in the Home Orchard

harvested apples filling a crate with trees blurred in background

Not All Trees Are Good Trees

Bronze leaves of Tree of Heaven

Preparing Black Walnuts for Eating

News Releases (20)

Get the dirt on growing healthy plants

Fruit trees need an annual trim to bear best fruit

Build confidence in fruit tree pruning with free educational workshop

Time to prune the fruit trees: Let University of Illinois Extension help you this winter with upcoming programs

Southern Illinois growers rely on Extension's sound production advice

2021 Fruit & Vegetable VIRTUAL Conference

Four Seasons Gardening webinars return in 2021

Fruits on Friday

Preventing fruit tree diseases starts in the dormant season

Use winter to plan for a fruit garden

Time to prune the fruit trees: Let University of Illinois Extension help you this winter with upcoming webinars

Grow apple trees in your urban garden

Get Growing webinar series announced for growing vegetables and fruit

All About Berries Series in Christian County

Successful Backyard Orchard program

Conferences Set for Fruit and Vegetable Growers Feb. 4 & 5

Pruning Apples and More Workshop - Macoupin County

Pruning Apples and More Workshop - Montgomery County

Mileur Orchard to Host Upcoming Twilight Meeting

Residents Learn about Production and Marketing of Fruit

Staff (4)

Christopher Enroth

Christopher Enroth

Horticulture Educator

Nick Frillman

Nick Frillman

Local Food Systems and Small Farms Educator

Andrew Holsinger

Andrew Holsinger

Horticulture Educator

Ken Johnson Staff Photo

Ken Johnson

Horticulture Educator