Pests and Diseases

Tim Pelican Says Be Watchful When Spraying

Safety When Spraying

By Jessica Theisman, Associate Editor

California Ag Today recently spoke with Tim Pelican, Agricultural Commissioner for San Joaquin County, about spray safety.

“We want to make sure that we’re not spraying anywhere near water, especially standing water or running water, because then it could run off and eventually show up in our work reports of our local water coalition,” he said.

“One reason sprays could be getting into the water is due to drift. There could be large gusts when farmers do not turn off their rigs at the ends of their rows,” Pelican said. “These spray safety hazards have been coming from a variety of materials such as sulfur and copper materials.”

Bee safety is always important when it comes to spraying.

“In San Joaquin County, we have almonds and cherry crops that require them,” he said.

“One issue is the lack of communication between beekeepers and the farmers on where the bees are. We also suggest that growers not spray during the day when bees are active,” Pelican explained. “That’s even if the spray label says it is okay around bees.”

California Ag Today2021-05-12T11:01:56-07:00March 5th, 2018|

Technologies for Spray Tank Mixes

Dave Cheetham on Game Changer

By Jessica Theisman, Associate Editor

California Ag Today recently spoke with, Dave Cheetham, Tech Marketing Manager with Helena Chemical Company. Cheetham said that technology has really been changing the game when it comes to spray tank mixes.

“With the materials that we are working with these days, they are much more powerful, a lot less active ingredients, and do a better job than traditional pesticides,” Cheetham said. “When you are looking at very complex mixes, results can vary from good to not so good.”

Water plays a big role in mixing. With water being the carrier source, it should always be in good condition.

“With the drought conditions that we experienced in California over the recent years, we saw some changes in our aquifers and we see a lot of salt, sodium and heavy metals,” Cheetham explained.

Keeping a mix consistent is the main goal.

“Formulation incompatibility can be a tough deal when you’re dealing with heavy ECs or wettable powders or dry flowable materials. Oftentimes, you can see some interactions occur and you’ll get precipitation, which can lead to active ingredient decomposition,” he said.

California Ag Today2021-05-12T11:05:13-07:00March 1st, 2018|

Kern County Ag Commissioner Notes Mild Winter

Weather and Pest Control this Season In Kern County

By Jessica Theisman, Associate Editor

California Ag Today recently spoke with Glenn Fankhauser, Agricultural Commissioner for Kern County. He let us know his thoughts about the weather in his county this season.

He said it has been a mild winter and it may affect future crop production. “We are not sure how it is going to affect fruit set. It could be negative for some of our stone fruits and cherries, but on the bright side, the mild weather allows farmers to plant certain field and vegetable crops earlier than normal,” Frankhauser said. “The little rain and shortage of water will challenge growers again this year.”

Fankhauser says that Kern County is doing what they can to stop Huanglongbing (HLB) disease, which is spread by the Asian Citrus Psyllid (ACP). HLB is the number one disease in citrus because once a tree is infected with a bacterium, it is deadly to the tree.

“We have our traps set, we are monitoring the levels, and we have a treatment coordinator that helps the growers to maximize their effect on the Asian Citrus Psyllid,” Frankhauser said. “By making sure the treatments are precisely coordinated, they are able to knock down more of the populations. There have not been any positive HLB trees in Kern County.”

Of course, any trees that become positive to the disease are immediately destroyed.

“We also have a group of citrus growers who are visiting homeowners and gaining voluntary removal of citrus trees at home,” he said. “They pay a nominal amount of money to allow a citrus tree to be removed. Once removed, they replace the citrus tree with a non-citrus shade tree.”

California Ag Today2021-05-12T11:01:56-07:00February 28th, 2018|

Grain Diseases Must Be Closely Monitored

Diseases are Always Evolving

By Patrick Cavanaugh, Farm News Director

Mark Lundy is a UC Cooperative Extension Specialist in grain cropping systems at UC Davis. Lundy runs trials on grain crops because California is such a diverse environment and there are different conditions from year to year so it’s important to be consistent in measuring yield and crop quality, grain diseases, and agronomic traits on small grains.

Lundy’s work is predominantly on California wheat, but there are many trials on barley.

“Improved varieties have been the mainstay of my work,” Lundy said. “I came at it from a water and nitrogen management background, and one of our goals is trying to disentangle the environment that you can’t control from the environment that you can control. But this is the second year where we have some of those gradients in there so we are trying to maintain the attributes we have, while also trying to add some value.”

And diseases have been closely monitored within the trial system, noted Lundy.

“We do try to keep track of disease, and so when there are diseases of concern such as stripe rust, which was historically a big problem for growers, it has been successfully addressed through breeding,” he said.

The breeding is spearheaded by Jorge Dubcovsky, a professor at UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences working on wheat genes.

“Stripe rust is still something we have to keep an eye on, and it’s certainly a disease that is always evolving,” Lundy said. “And because resistance is not permanent, we’re always looking for the big diseases that can be detrimental to the production system, such as stripe rust.”

“We also keeping track of leaf rust,” Lundy said. “I’m not a pathologist by training, so I’ve been learning on the job, and I’m grateful to the former UC Cooperative Extension Specialist Lee Jackson, who was a pathologist. He created a nice knowledge base for us to build on.”

California Ag Today2021-05-12T11:05:13-07:00February 27th, 2018|

Mycotoxins are Serious Business

Sanitation Fights Mycotoxin Infections

By Jessica Theisman, Associate Editor

In nature, there are fungal metabolites called mycotoxins, and some of them can infect crops. However, certain cultural practices can eliminate them. California Ag Today recently spoke with Bob Klein, manager of the California Pistachio Research Board, based in Fresno, about the topic.

“We see mycotoxins as a result of fungal infection that comes from the Navel Orange Worm. It is damaged predominantly, and if a crop is contaminated with possible mycotoxins, such as one known as Aflatoxn, it can hurt exports. Over 70 percent of our crop is exported, and some of our major markets are very sensitive to a mycotoxin contamination,” Klein said.

“The best programs start with orchard sanitation. Many growers are lax on sanitation or spend low amounts of money,” he explained. “Those who are frugal are spending $200-250 an acre on sanitation, and so growers need to be prepared for that.”

As far as insecticide applications, look at the growers’ data, not what is published in replicated field trials.

“More sprays are better than fewer sprays,” Klein said.

California Ag Today2021-05-12T11:01:56-07:00February 15th, 2018|

CropLife America Advocates For Crop Protection

#GiveACrop Campaign Helps Consumers Understand Importance of Crop Protection

By Patrick Cavanaugh, Farm News Director

California Ag Today recently spoke with Genevieve O’Sullivan, the Director of Communication and Marketing for CropLife America based in Washington, D.C. They’re advocates for crop protection companies.

“So every day, my job is to talk about why pesticides are necessary tools for farmers, and one of the ways we’ve done that is with a campaign called giveacrop.org, where we have 12 humorous videos on why farmers use pesticides. … Our most recent ones are focused specifically on the importance of pesticides as an important tool,” O’Sullivan said. “It’s all about The Talk—having a conversation about the importance of crop protection materials.”

“We help the average consumer understand the importance of crop protection tools,” she explained.

With the videos, CropLife America has chosen a of couple different occupations—like a chef, a hairdresser and carpenter—to feature.

“What we do is take away the main tool they need and then show how much harder it is to do your job or possibly [they’re] not even be able to do the job without the tools, and they are quite humorous,” O’Sullivan said.

“They feature our mascot, The Pest, and he is that guy that nobody can stand. But thank goodness farmers have pesticides to deal with the pests on their property,” she said.

The campaign also promotes #GiveACrop.

“It’s more than a hashtag. It’s the satisfying crunch of spreading the word about crop protection,” O’Sullivan explained. “Whether you’re a proud grower or a satisfied shopper, when you #GiveACrop, you’re saying that you’re not afraid to have the talk about the produce you love and the pests you don’t.”

“So go ahead, take a harvest selfie. Show us your bumper crop. And tag it like you mean it,” she said.

To see the videos, go to giveacrop.org, where you will also find facts versus myths.

California Ag Today2021-05-12T11:01:56-07:00February 12th, 2018|

Cannabis Growers May Be Using Illegal Materials

Illegal Pest Control by Cannabis Growers

By Patrick Cavanaugh Farm News Director

Big problems are arising in the cannabis growing areas of California.

John Fournier runs Acadia Regulatory Consulting in New York State. He on an EPA list of registration consultants. And because his company is high on the alphabetical list, he gets calls from cannabis growers in California who are looking for help in dealing with pests and diseases on their crops. Because cannabis production is federally illegal and the registered crop protection material products fall under federal guidelines, there are essentially few materials that growers can use.

“The biggest pressures for cannabis growers are powdery mildew, fungus gnats, and mites. If a grower had a bad spider mite outbreak, they would want to protect a super valuable investment. The question is, what are they willing to do to protect that investment? And in a situation like that, maybe you’ll go buy a miticide off the shelf somewhere,” Fournier said.

“As long as it’s not restricted use, anyone can buy it and use it on your crop. In that situation, that’s going to be a product that’s not approved for cannabis use on the state approved lists, difficult to control legally. There are also fungus gnats, which are a problem with plants that are overwatered.”

A lot of growing happens underground, and growers will have a soil mixture that is overwatered, which is one of the most common problems in cannabis.

“When the soil is overwatered, algae will start growing in the soil, and fungus gnats will find the crop and start feeding on the algae,” Fournier explained. “And then they’ll start feeding on the fine root hairs of the crop itself so they can actually kill the crop, if the outbreak is bad enough. Fungus gnats can be controlled by either an insecticide to kill the gnats, or you can use a biocide to kill the algae. Again, the materials must be registered for cannabis.”

According to Les Wright, Fresno County Agricultural Commissioner, illegal cannabis farms have been raided and officials have found empty containers of rodenticides, nematicides, insecticides, and miticides, all illegal for use on cannabis. “We always find illegal crop protection materials and many of them had labels in Spanish, most likely from Mexican syndicates.

Again, there are no conventional materials registered.

Now here’s the part where it gets dangerous. According to Fournier, “In states where recreational cannabis has been legalized, I have spoken to people who have said they’ve discovered through some means or another … dangerous levels of pesticide residues on cannabis, where a grower had obviously used hundreds of times more than the labeled rate of an insecticide to save their crop, and obviously this could be dangerous to consumers.”

California Ag Today2021-05-12T11:01:56-07:00January 26th, 2018|

Band Canker Affecting Younger Almonds

Almond Band Canker Becoming a Big Problem

By Patrick Cavanaugh, Farm News Director

Brent Holtz is a UC cooperative extension Pomology Farm Advisor for San Joaquin County. He recently told California Ag Today about how the fungus band canker on almonds is becoming more prevalent in the San Joaquin Valley.

“I’ve seen a lot more band canker, which is caused by a pathogenic fungus, Botryosphaeria dothidea, and we’re seeing it on young orchards, especially in in San Joaquin county,” said Holtz. “We’ve seen that a lot out in the delta and we’ve seen it in eastern San Joaquin county where the soils tend to be a little heavier, maybe old dairy ground and richer and we don’t really know why.”

“We’re seeing so much more, but it’s a fungus that infects usually the trunk or the main scaffolds, and we call it band canker because sap balls will come out at the site of the infection and create a band that circles around the trunk or the scaffold,” Holtz explained. “That’s why we call it band canker.”

It’s starting to show up in the orchards that have not been shaken yet, as a wound needs to happen before the infection sets in.

“We think it’s showing up in a lot of orchards before we start shaking the trees and usually in most cankers, we would have to have a wound that would have to happen first before the infection would take place either through a wound or a wound from shaking the tree,” Holtz said.

“Some of these orchards with symptoms tend to be trees that are growing very vigorously, and we suspect maybe that they’re growing so fast, growth cracks are created that the fungus may have got in and caused the infection.”

Trees with band canker on the trunk may not survive. And band cankered scaffolds have to be removed, which affects the tree’s architecture and will reduce yields.

There is evidence that micro sprinklers hitting the trunk could also increase the start of an infection.

“It seems to be showing up a little higher concentration where it was on a micro sprinkler irrigation system, where the sprinkler was actually hitting the trunk,” Holtz said. “We don’t seem to see it as much in orchards with a drip irrigation, so we are advising growers to consider drip or to put a splitter in their micro sprinklers so it can avoid wetting the trunk repeatedly with each irrigation.”

California Ag Today2021-05-12T11:01:56-07:00January 24th, 2018|

Overwinter Pests and New Pesticide Regulations Near Schools

A Focus on Overwintering Pests and New Spray Regulations Near Schools

By Patrick Cavanaugh, Farm News Director

California Ag Today recently spoke with Ryan Jacobsen, CEO and executive director of the Fresno County Farm Bureau, about pest pressures in Fresno county as well as new pesticide regulations that were put put in place around K-12 schools and licensed daycare centers beginning Jan 1.

“When you talk about pest pressure, the warmer temperatures that we saw last year because of the multiple storms that were rolling through helped help many pests get through the season and start in greater numbers earlier in the year, and that’s what we saw happen. We have had many warm days so far this winter, and it will be interesting to see if pests respond to that in the coming spring,” Jacobsen said.

“There definitely this time of year when it comes to so many of our different other crops that folks are doing all their different cultural practices to make sure that they are doing what they can in vineyards, orchards and open grounds to reduce those pest pressures for the upcoming year and hopefully you get through the season,” Jacobsen explained.

And there are new regulations that farmers will have to follow when spraying within a quarter mile of schools and licensed daycare centers between 6am and 6pm. But Jacobson says that this won’t be a big change for farmers, as Central Valley farmers had been following regulations like this for many years.

“Most of these have been in practice by these growers in south Joaquin Valley for years. Our kids are going to those same schools, and we’re trying to be the best neighbors and stewards of the land next to these schools as possible,” Jacobsen said. “Nevertheless, every time you get to government involved, obviously there’s going to be some difficulties and some paperwork or regulatory red tape that’s going to be added to the process there. And I think that’s what you’re seeing with these current rules here in Fresno County.”

“And I know where our agricultural commissioner’s office has worked hand-in-hand with local growers regarding spraying near schools,” he said. “But in anticipation of these rules, and just even before they were even discussed, the industry did what they could to make sure that these applications that were next to schools were done appropriately successfully and that there was no issue.

California Ag Today2021-05-12T11:01:57-07:00January 2nd, 2018|

Walnut Blight Protection is Important

Disease Prevention in Walnut Orchards

By Brianne Boyett, Associate Editor

California Ag Today recently spoke with Jim Adaskaveg, professor of plant pathology at UC Riverside. He’s a plant pathologist, microbiologist and epidemiologist. He discussed the importance of protecting walnut trees from walnut blight.

Adaskaveg explained how walnut blight is problematic due to the higher rainfall in the northern part of the state.

“We’ve been working on this for a number of years, and overall, the northern part of the state is always higher at risk because of the higher rainfall in Glenn County,” he said. “There is much higher risk for disease in Northern California, so a lot of the growers have planted later blooming varieties such as Chandler to avoid the blight infections.”

“Rick Buchner [at UC Cooperative Extension] Tehama County and his group called that the prayer stage, which is when the female flower becomes exposed as it emerges from the bud. Those two timings would be for high disease pressure. If you had a history of the disease and you know that the disease is in your orchard, then we would suggest that timing,” Adaskaveg said.

“If you don’t have disease, and you still want to protect yourself, we say just spray at the pistillate flower emergence or the prayer stage. That sets a good way to initiate the spray program,” Adaskaveg explained.

Growers must keep in mind canopy expansion when applying materials.

“Walnuts are big trees, and as they go through bloom, all the leaves started emerging almost weekly. The tree canopy in that first three weeks of the season is doubling in size. By the time you get three or four weeks after that, the catkin flowering trees in full canopy will require a reapplication of materials,” Adaskaveg said.

California Ag Today2021-05-12T11:01:57-07:00December 29th, 2017|

Previous 121314 Next