From Washington DC
Broccoli Is a Favorite Food in the White House
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.
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.
Message from Paul Wenger, CFBF President
2013 CALIFORNIA ALMOND
FORECAST DOWN
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.
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.
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.