John KempfRegenerative Agriculture Entrepreneur

Pinion trials vs. conventional fungicides in cherries

15 Jun 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:15

In this field walkthrough, the speaker contrasts a control plot with a Pinion‑treated trial in a cherry orchard, focusing on powdery mildew development. The control leaves exhibit abundant bright‑white conidia spores, the classic powdery‑sugar appearance that spreads the disease. In the Pinion trial, conidia are markedly reduced; only a single leaf shows the typical white spore layer, and most leaves display mycelium without the expected conidia, sometimes with a grayish hue. The speaker notes this as an early trend suggesting Pinion may suppress spore formation, but cautions that the season must run its course before definitive conclusions can be drawn.

Chapters

So here we are on the control part, and this is what we're noticing as we walk through here. I'd say there's more leaves with mildew, and when we look at these leaves, the colonies of mildew, all of them have this bright white conidia spores growing on top, which is what spreads the infection so, so readily. Whereas over in the pinion trial, we see less of this. In fact, we only found one leaf that really had any healthy looking conidia spores like this. Yeah. Spores aren't forming like, like it should be. That there should be that white powdered sugar look. So we can see mycelium along surface of the leaf, but we don't see the conidia up. Here's a rare exception here. The— this you can actually see the white conidia spores, so powdery look on top of the surface. Mycelium there, but we don't see that. And the other thing is that's still not bright white like I expect to see. And here's a little piece of— here's a little dot of it here, and it has a, you know, it has a grayish tone to it. Yep. There, it's bright white if it's going to town. So too early to tell now for sure, but I, I think it shows a trend here. We need to ride the season out to know for sure.