Patrick Cavanaugh, Author at California Agriculture News Today

From Santa Maria, Santa Barbara County

Keeping Drip Lines Open for the Season

Dave Peck is with Manzanita Berry Farms in Santa Maria. He noted that maintaining drip lines is important. Traditionally, hydrogen peroxide or sulfuric acid, are used to clean out the drip line residues in the conventional fields. However, Peck said that the organics are more tricky since there is a lot of fish oil-based products that are difficult to completely clean out of the lines. Hydrogen peroxide is also registered on organics, but it is only marginally effective.

However, Peck has thought of a different strategy of keeping the drip tape flowing for the entire season. “When planting, we put in an extra pair of drip tapes, so we have four rows of tape down the row,” he said.

“We hook up two for the first half of the season, when those tapes begin to plug up and we begin to notice, we’ll switch to the other pre-installed new set for the rest of the season. Pricewise, it is cost-effective compared to the chemicals people use to clean drip lines,” he noted.

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:47:13-07:00July 9th, 2013|

From Tulare County

High Temps Slowing Tree Fruit Season

High temperatures continue to take a toll on California Tree Fruit. When temps are above 100, the fruit shifts to a shut-down mode, and any fruit exposed to sunlight is prone to sunburn—hurting quality.

The season started out early, but high temperatures prior to July 4, and over the last week have slowed things down.

Growers farming peaches, plums and nectarines, as well as other fruits, are making sure that the mid-season varieties are adequately irrigated.

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:47:13-07:00July 8th, 2013|

From Sacramento

Message from Paul Wenger, CFBF President

Now that the U.S. Senate has passed comprehensive immigration reform, the leader of California’s largest farming organization says the House of Representatives should follow suit. California Farm Bureau Federation President Paul Wenger said the bill passed today by the Senate will help family farmers and ranchers address chronic problems in hiring an adequate, legal immigrant workforce.

“People who work on California farms make a big contribution to our state and its economy,” Wenger said. “It’s time we provide immigrant farm employees with a system that recognizes their contributions and permits them to work legally on our farms and ranches.”

Wenger said the agricultural program included in the Senate immigration bill represents an agreement among agricultural organizations and the United Farm Workers on a system to benefit both farmers and their employees. It contains an agricultural program that accounts for people who want to enter the U.S. to work on farms and the people who are already in the country and can earn a chance for legal status while continuing to perform farm jobs.

“People who are already in the country would have to pass a background check. If they don’t have legitimate work documents, they should be required to pay a fine. They should also be allowed to come out of the shadows and continue to contribute to our communities,” Wenger said.

He noted that the program in the Senate bill represents a bipartisan compromise.

“It’s not perfect but it’s a big improvement from current programs that don’t work for either farmers or their employees,” Wenger said, encouraging the House to adopt similar reforms.

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:47:13-07:00July 6th, 2013|

From Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties

Whiteflies Impact Strawberries

According to Surendra Dara, Strawberry and Vegetable Crops Advisor and Affiliated IPM Advisor, UC Cooperative Extension, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties Greenhouse whitefly (Trialeurodes vaporariorum) is the predominant species of whiteflies on strawberries in the Central Coast.

“What used to be a pest causing yield loss through direct damage has now emerged as a vector of a devastating viral disease called pallidosis-related decline of strawberries,” Dara explained

In addition to strawberries, greenhouse whiteflies have a wide host range that includes important commodities such as avocados, caneberries, grapes, lettuces, peppers, tomatoes, and ornamentals grown in the Central Coast. All these crops serve as a source of infestation to each other and increased the threat of whiteflies not only to agricultural fields, but also to nurseries, and home gardens in the recent years.

Agricultural Commissioners’ offices in both Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties and UCCE office received calls this year from strawberry growers, nursery producers, and the ornamental industry to address the whitefly issue.

In response to this issue, UCCE unit serving these two counties increased the outreach about whiteflies, their feeding damage, and disease vectoring potential through extension meetings and publications.

Some fields in the Santa Maria and other areas which suffered from heavy whitefly infestations early in the production season later developed symptoms of pallidosis-related decline.

Diagnostic tests conducted by CDFA and USDA laboratories in Salinas and Corvallis (Oregon) identified multiple viruses that cause the decline. Extent of infection varied from mild disease symptoms in some fields to total dieback. Corresponding damage also varied registering up to 65% yield reduction in some fields.

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:47:14-07:00July 5th, 2013|

Blue Prune Drop

Blue Prune Drop and Leaf Scorch in Glenn and Tehama Counties

According to Bill Krueger UC farm advisor emeritus, Glenn County and Richard Buchner UC farm advisor, Tehama County, overheated prunes are succumbing to pressure due to high temperatures over the last few weeks. Blue prune drop and, in some cases, an associated leaf scorch, often develops following the rapid onset of high temperatures as occurred in June of this year.

Damaged prunes color prematurely (turn blue) and usually drop from the tree. The sun-exposed fruits on the top or south side of the tree are more likely to be affected by becoming sunken or flattened. Leaf scorch and dieback may develop in leaves and twigs near the damaged fruit. When damaged leaves dry, the veins may be a darker brown than the rest of the leaf.

Blue prune drop is associated with heat stress. Excessive heat results in damage to the fruit that is thought to produce a toxin which is transported to spurs, leaves and shoots resulting in the leaf scorch symptoms. Leaf scorch symptoms are always associated with damaged prunes. They do not occur in areas of the tree with no fruit or on young trees without a crop. Anything affecting fruit temperature can have an effect. This would include:

1. Irrigation – Drop and particularly scorch are generally more severe on shallow soils with limited water holding capacity or in orchards toward the end of their irrigation cycle at the onset of heat. Adequate soil moisture insures maximum evapotranspiration and cooling of the plant.

2. Tree Position or Fruit Location – Leaf scorch is usually worse on overheated border trees, or on the south side of individual trees with greater sun exposure.

3. Cultural Practices – Blue prune appears to be less severe in orchards with cover crops than in clean tilled or drip irrigated orchards. Transpiration from an adequately irrigated cover crop should contribute to orchard cooling. In addition, a vegetated orchard floor reflects less sunlight than dead vegetation or bare ground.

4. Nutrition – While blue prune and leaf scorch does not appear to be directly related to potassium deficiency, anything adversely affecting tree health and condition could contribute to higher fruit temperatures. Adequate tree nitrogen levels promote vegetative growth that shades fruit from direct sunlight.

Krueger and Buchner report they have no sure ways of preventing blue prune drop and the associated leaf scorch. However, you can reduce the risk by making sure trees are healthy, vigorous and well supplied with water. Because the damage is caused by heat and not a disease, it should not continue to expand in the tree. Damaged wood should be pruned out during the dormant season.

Source: University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources Cooperative Extension

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:47:14-07:00July 4th, 2013|

From Modesto

Almond Quality and Food Safety Discussed

On Tuesday, nearly 150 almond industry members attended the Almond Board of California’s symposium in Modesto.

Here are highlights of the discussions:

Scott Burnett, Ph.D. manager of corporate Quality and Safety for MOM Brands spoke about footwear hygiene to control any possible pathogens being transferred outside or from the incoming raw material side of hot and cold cereal manufacturing plants, to the rest of the plant.

Burnett noted that plants should let hygienic zoning serve as a guide. He said controls should be safe and validated for effectiveness. “Footwear hygiene goals should be attainable, measurable and improvable,” noted Burnett. “Also tread styles should be easy to clean without great effort.”

Burnett said the best sanitizers, as a shoe bath, are isopropyl alcohol (IPA)/ quaternary ammonium compounds (QAC).

***

Trevor Suslow, Ph.D., UC Davis Dept. of Plant Sciences, shared insights on what the produce industry is doing about food safety standards. He said that almond growers should be aware of nearby sites such compost piles, or dairies.

He said adjacent land activities, soil amendments and animal intrusion can cause contamination of pathogens to move into market channels and sicken people.

Suslow also noted that Salmonella could persist in the dry soil for a long season. He said growers should always evaluate risks.

***

Melinda Chen, Ph.D., a consumer safety officer at FDA/Center for food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN).

She spoke about FDA audited 43 different almond processing facilities and found a whole host of minor violations among the companies. They wrote up Form 483 Action plans for 10 facilities.

“Most of the violations concerned Good Management Practices (GMP) among company employees,” noted Tim Birmingham with the Almond Board of California. “Most are fairly easy things for our industry to tackle,” he said.

***

Themis Michailides, Ph.D., UC Plant Pathologist, based at the Kearney Ag Center in Parlier, spoke about the success of AF36 an atoxigenic strain of Aspergillus Flavus that is now being applied in pistachio orchards. This strain displaces the toxic strains of A. Flavus, which ultimately reduces Aflatoxin contamination in the orchard.

Michailides noted that 2013 is the second season that AF36 will be used in pistachio orchards. He said that research is now working on registrations in almond and fig orchards.

Michailides also reminded attendees about the roll of Navel Orangeworm in causing injury to almonds where A. Flavus begins to develop and start producing Aflatoxin.

He also noted that NOW adults could also bring in A. Flavus spores from one nut to another. He explained that larvae in mummy nuts also have A. Flavus attached to them. This is all the more reason to sanitize each winter to reduce the load of A. Flavus in the trees.

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:47:14-07:00July 3rd, 2013|

From Modesto

2013 CALIFORNIA ALMOND
FORECAST DOWN

California’s 2013 almond production is forecast at 1.85 billion meat pounds, down 7.5 percent from May’s subjective forecast and two percent below last year’s crop. The forecast is based on 810 thousand bearing acres.

Production for the Nonpareil variety is forecast at 650 million meat pounds, four percent below last year’s deliveries. The Nonpareil variety represents 35 percent of California’s total almond production.

After a very cold winter, the 2013 almond crop began bloom two weeks later than normal. Bloom was strong and fast, which shortened overlap and pollination time. High winds in early April knocked nuts and branches off trees, as well as knocking down some trees. Nonpareil drop was reportedly heavy.

Despite the late bloom, harvest is expected to start earlier than normal this year. Mite pressure has been high this year. Water has been a concern for growers in the San Joaquin Valley this year, as rainfall was very low and allotments have been reduced.

The average nut set per tree is 6,686, down five percent from 2012. The Nonpareil average nut set of 6,141 is down 7 percent from last year’s set.

The average kernel weight for all varieties sampled was 1.36 grams, which is the lowest average kernel weight in 40 years. The Nonpareil average kernel weight was 1.48, the lowest average kernel weight for Nonpareils. A total of 98.9 percent of all nuts sized were sound.

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:47:14-07:00July 1st, 2013|

Riverside Tree Has Special Significance

Saving the Original Mother Navel Orange Tree

More than two years into a quarantine on citrus trees in much of Southern California, the Asian citrus psyllid continues to spread. This spring researchers discovered the tiny insects on the 140-year-old Eliza Tibbets tree in Riverside, known as the parent of navel orange trees the world over.

To control the insects’ spread, researchers already have introduced a parasitic wasp that preys on the psyllids and their larvae. Southern California growers also are using a rotating regimen of pesticides to protect the state’s $2 billion citrus crop. But protecting the Eliza Tibbets tree will require special measures, and friends of the tree are raising money to build a specialized mesh enclosure around the canopy.

Riverside citrus historian Vince Moses says the seedless navel oranges we know so well today are “a mutant of a Brazilian variety called the Selecta.” Eliza Tibbets, one of Riverside’s founders, introduced two of the Selecta’s mutant offspring to California in the 1870s. Beside her house in Riverside, the trees yielded America’s first seedless fruit: large, brightly colored and easy to peel.

One tree died in 1921, and the lone survivor now stands nearby at an ordinary intersection ringed with small apartment buildings and a strip mall. But in the late 19th century, the area was transformed by Tibbets’ introduction. “There were thousands of acres of navel orange groves, with streetcar lines, with irrigation canals,” Moses says.

Tibbets’ neighbors used cuttings from her two original trees to establish the first navel orange orchards in California. Over the years, mutations of their offspring provided new varieties to farmers from South Africa to Pakistan. California became a global hub for citrus, and by the turn of the 20th century, Riverside was the wealthiest city per capita in all the United States.

But today the tree that made it all possible is at risk of contracting citrus greening disease, caused by a bacterium called huang long bing. In Chinese, Moses says, huang long bing translates roughly as “the yellow shoot disease. If the psyllid bites this parent tree, and injects huang long bing, they’re gone. There’s no known cure.”

Citrus greening curls the leaves of new growth on orange trees and causes the fruit to have a bitter metallic taste. The psyllids in California aren’t yet infected with huang long bing, and growers here have not experienced any losses. But the disease already has spread throughout all 32 citrus-growing counties in Florida and much of Texas.

Tracy Kahn, a botanist who curates UC Riverside’s Citrus Variety Collection, explains that most infected trees die within a few years. “They’re losing trees in Florida left and right,” she says, “and it’s really hard to keep an industry going because trees have a very short life.” The Citrus Variety Collection is the largest in the world, with more than 1,000 kinds of fruit, many of them descendants of the Tibbets tree. To guard against citrus greening, clones of every variety in the collection are now being kept in a nearby greenhouse, too, as a botanical backup.

Giorgios Vidalakis, a citrus virologist with the university’s Citrus Clonal Protection Program (CCCP), says it’s only a matter of time before citrus greening spreads to orchards in California.

“We know it’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when,” he explains. Inside a large greenhouse at the CCCP’s quarantine site in Riverside, researchers use cuttings to propagate new varieties for California citrus growers in a pathogen-free environment.

Vidalakis says that citrus greening is an example of a pathogen getting around the quarantine system. “We believe that a single tree, brought into Miami, Fla. — right now, that one tree is destroying the $10 billion Florida citrus industry,” he says.

To protect the Tibbets tree, Vidalakis says, “We have created a buffer zone, removing citrus relatives and ornamental plants. For huang long bing, we don’t have the solution yet. The best solution now, to buy us time until science finds a more permanent solution, is to build a protective structure” around the tree. Such a structure would keep infected psyllids from feeding on the tree’s sap and could cost as much as $50,000. The city has pledged to cover part of the cost, but additional donations are welcome.

“Right now, it really keeps me up at night,” Vidalakis says. “We don’t want to be the generation that loses that tree. But if the mesh plan works, Vidalakis thinks they can keep the tree alive indefinitely: “I don’t see any reason we can’t go on forever.”

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:47:15-07:00June 10th, 2013|

Protecting Salinas Valley Water

Monterey County Growers Fighting

Cal-Am Water On Pumping

By Patrick Cavanaugh, Editor

Monterey County Farm Bureau Executive Director Norm Groot says: “We do think we can support a collection of source water out of the sandy dune aquifer if that provides enough water for the desalinization process, and that would solve the problem of the proposed taking of water from the Salinas Valley Basin,” said Groot.

“What this comes down to is no harm, and how will Cal-Am prove that they will do no harm. We have hydrologist looking at this from many different angle, we firmly believe that it will be very difficult to prove that there will be no harm to the Salinas River Ground Water Basin if Cal-Am punctures into the 180-foot aquifer,” noted Groot.

“There is a prohibition through a Monterey County ordinance that prohibits pumping from the 180 foot aquifer in the coastal zone, with is about 12,000 acres comprised of the Castroville Seawater Intrusion Project. And this was done for a reason,” said Groot. “It was to allow the salt water intrusion to not get worse.

Groot said that through various projects and hundreds of millions of dollars that farmers have spent over the last 60 years, we are starting to see some turnaround of the salt water intrusion. “We are finally seeing it slow down and we would like to stop it and reverse it.

And if Cal-Am sticks a straw into the 180 foot aquifer and start pumping, it will most likely be made worse. “And remember that there is a complete prohibition for growers to take water from the 180 at this point, and that should be taken into consideration here.

“What it comes down to is jeopardizing all the efforts that the farming community in the Salinas Valley have done so far to improve their situation in the ground water basin. We believe the water rights are very clear and we would like to have that respected.”

Eric Sabolsice, Jr, California American Water, Director, Operations, Coastal Division, said the company may have to turn to the Sandy Dunes Desalinization Project, and will use that water if there is enough to service their customers. “I really do not think we will be able to take from the 180 foot aquifer and prove that we will not be harming Salinas Valley agriculture,” he said.

Members of California State Water Resources Control Board.

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:47:15-07:00June 10th, 2013|

Monterey County Ag is Big

Monterey County
Posts Record 2012 Crop Value

According to Eric Lauritzen, Monterey Ag Commissioner, Monterey County’s crop value for 2012 was a record $4.14 billion which is an increase of 7% or $285,000,000.

Some noteworthy changes in 2012 include: head and leaf lettuce values were up slightly; strawberry value increased by 10% and wine grape value was up 52%, after two years of declining production. Spinach value increased 47% to move into the top ten for the first time.

The value of nursery products increased by 18% overall, with a continuing decrease in cut flowers and increases in vegetable transplants, orchids and potted plants. Beef cattle declined 3% under drought conditions.

This year’s crop report features efforts by our agricultural industry and other partners to improve the health of Monterey County children and increase the availability of fresh fruits and vegetables in schools. Beyond the immediate health benefits, having these choices early in life can affect life-long eating habits. Many schools are aware of the benefits, but lack the equipment and support to offer healthier eating choices to students. This powerful collaborative effort is gaining momentum and deserves our recognition and support.

It is always important to note that the figures are gross values and do not represent or reflect net profit or loss experienced by individual growers, or by the industry as a whole. Growers do not have control over most input costs, such as fuel, fertilizers and packaging, nor can they significantly affect market prices. The fact that the gross value of agriculture is holding steady reflects positively on the diversity and importance of our agriculture industry.

The report is our yearly opportunity to recognize the growers, shippers, ranchers, and other businesses ancillary to and supportive of agriculture, which is the largest driver of Monterey County’s economy. As such, we would like to extend our thanks to the industry for its continued effort to provide vital information that enables the compilation of the Monterey County Crop Report. While we continually strive to improve upon this information, without the industry’s assistance, this report would not be possible.

Lauritzen noted that special recognition for the production of the report goes to Richard Ordonez, Shayla Neufeld, and all of the staff who assisted in compiling this information and improving the quality of the report.

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:47:15-07:00June 5th, 2013|

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California Ag News…
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About Patrick Cavanaugh

Blue Prune Drop and Leaf Scorch in Glenn and Tehama Counties

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California Ag News… At Your Fingertips!

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