More Rain, More Fungi, More Use for Multiuse Fungicides

With More Rain, More Fungi, More Use for Multiuse Fungicides

By Patrick Cavanaugh, Deputy Editor

With spring rains, many vegetables, tree fruits, grapes and nuts succumb to fungi pressure. However, during the past few years, only trivial amounts of spring rain have moistened California’s soil and lulled farmers to abandon their vigilant watch for fungi proliferation. But now, the strong likelihood of El niño-driven wet weather this spring could catch growers off-guard.

“We have an El niño coming that has already been tagged, ‘Too big to fail,’ which will bring a lot of rain. So it’s really important for folks to think about switching gears this year on their pest management mindset. With more rain, comes more fungi disease. We always see really high pressure disease years with rain,” said Kate Walker a technical services representative with BASF Corporation on the Central Coast, who advises use of a multiuse fungicide product already on hand.

Anthracnose in Strawberries, UC Statewide IPM Project

Anthracnose in Strawberries (Source: UC Statewide IPM Project

Strawberries, in particular, are vulverable to fungi. “We have heard from our strawberry growers,” said Walker, “that these fungal diseases are always present in California, but they vary significantly in their severity year-to-year depending on the weather,” noted Walker.

“One major disease that accompanies higher moisture, Anthracnose, often called leaf, shoot, or twig blight,” Walker explained, “results from infection caused by the fungus Colletotrichum. I’ve heard some growers have not experienced Anthracnose issues in 10 years,” said Walker. “As it emerges and becomes more problematic in strawberries, farmers really need to know which types of fungicides to use to manage this and other diseases.”

“It is very important for farmers and PCAs to walk through and scout their fields for disease,” Walker said, “and when they identify one, to become very aggressive with their fungicide management program. So, as representatives for BASF, we are lucky to have multiuse fungicide products available to control these diseases, such as Merivon Fungicide.”

Walker noted Merivon has two modes of action, “so it is very broad-spectrum. Typically we position Merivon in California for use on powdery mildew and Botrytis, but what we seldom talk to growers about is its utility for Anthracnose. We see a lot more Anthracnose in Florida and on the East Coast due to the increased rains; whereas, it usually doesn’t come through every year in California. So it is good to for farmers and PCSs to know that the product with which they are familiar for use in Botrytis, is also very effective with other issues, like Anthracnose.”

Walker offered, “Another very common disease that flourishes with increased rain, Rhizopus, occurs post-harvest, after the berries are picked up from the field. Again, Merivon has utility for Rhizopus as well, so growers don’t have to change or reinvent their program to manage these diseases.”

Walker said, “Rhizopus is an airborne bread mold. It is very common in the air and in the soil, so anytime a fruit or a nut is exposed to the spores blowing in the wind, it is vulnerable to infection with this disease.”

California Ag Today2016-05-31T19:27:02-07:00December 4th, 2015|

UC Cooperative Extension Farm Advisor in Ventura County

By Laurie Greene, Editor California Ag Today

Ben Faber, UC Cooperative Extension Farm Advisor in Ventura County, works with growers who farm a variety of different crops including blueberries, raspberries, blackberries and strawberries as well as lemons and avocados.

Faber is developing new approaches for better avocado pruning to increase yield. “We have not done a lot of pruning on avocados in the past,” Faber said, “because this plant species responds to pruning in a very rapid fashion with a lot of shoots and water sprouts, so people have been scared to prune avocados. Over time, we have learned how to prune avocados somewhat differently than other tree crops.”

Faber said the two pruning choices are a heading cut and a thinning cut. “A heading cut,” he explained, “is often what you see peach growers doing, indiscriminately cutting into a branch. Well, they are actually doing is selecting the branches that will be the fruiting branches for the next year. Whereas, if you do that in avocados, you just get a lot of wild regrowth.”

So Faber believes the strategy in avocados has to be a thinning cut, “where you prune back to a sub-tending branch or a crotch so the remaining branch continues growth. This method controls growth lower down in the branch. It has taken a long time to discover this, though it seems simple now.”

He added, “Thinning cuts are all about keeping the tree from ‘crowning out,’ which reduces yield. As neighboring trees start shading each other, the flowering and fruiting spreads to the very top of the tree. This is where you see significant yield reduction because instead of having fruit form all over the tree’s canopy, fruit and flower production forms only on the very top of the canopy.” Faber said.

“Keeping the avocado fruit lower in the tree is better for harvesters to grab,” Faber commented. “So, growing fruit high in the tree presents not only yield loss, but a worker safety issue as well.”

California Ag Today2016-05-31T19:28:11-07:00July 9th, 2015|

New IPM App

Free Download of IPM Info App Now Available

Extending research information is a critical service of Cooperative Extension. Using modern technology and channels of communication is important to successfully convey that information to growers, PCAs, and other key players in the agriculture industry.

UC IPMInfo App Logo

Smartphone usage has become widespread and smartphone applications are becoming popular in agriculture as they provide quick and easy access to information, help growers monitor a diverse set of variables, and facilitate decision making. However, there have been no such applications to assist California strawberry and vegetable growers.

In an effort to provide simple access to important pest and disease information for various crops readily available to the agricultural industry , Surendra K. Dara, UC Cooperative Extension San Luis Obispo County, developed IPMinfo—the first IPM information app from University of California.

First released in December, 2014 and updated in April, 2015, this new IPM app is now available for free download for iPhones on App Store, featuring extensive pest and disease information generated by Dara’s strawberry and vegetable extension program. With one-touch access, agricultural professionals can learn the biology, symptoms of plant damage, and management options for pests and diseases.

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:30:24-07:00May 15th, 2015|

Farmer Kable Munger Expands Operations to Other Countries

Fed up With California, Some Farmers are Relocating to Other Countries

By Patrick Cavanaugh

Kable Munger of Delano-based Monarch Farms is fed up with the man-made drought and over-regulations in California.

“We farm and process about 800 acres of pistachios, and we are one of the owners of Naturipe, which is the world’s largest producer and marketer of blueberries. We’ve always farmed in California until the last five or six years with the water situation, the regulations on water and other regulations, we have been expanding into Mexico and South America because that is where we can do what we want to do as farmers,” said Munger.

“In those countries, people understand that we are doing a service for them and not just taking away,” said Munger.

“Even on the environmental side, people have the misconception that farmers are not taking care of the environment; but in fact, it is just the opposite,” noted Munger. “If we didn’t have all this farming and all these trees, how do we get clean air? And we are good stewards of the water, most of California is using drip irrigation, we are conserving water, we are doing all that is asked of us. The problem, I think is in the urban areas, people don’t understand what we are doing and where the food comes from.”

In the other countries where they operate, “They look at us as providing a service, providing food,” Munger said.

“Here in the states, food’s been fairly cheap and readily available, so I think the public is losing respect for where the food comes from and its value. And also I think that as a country we are losing sight of what food security should be. We should be able to grow our own food. When you go to countries that don’t grow their own food, they understand what that means,” said Munger.

“In these other countries, you don’t have the same regulations, the labor is much cheaper, and it is a much easier place to do business. They understand that we are all stewards of the environment, and they do not think that a fish is more important than humans,” noted Munger.

“When you look at the water in California, over 60% goes to the ocean. There is really not a water shortage; it is all political.”

“We need to build more dams for the times when there is enough rain to capture it. But anytime we start to build a dam, there is some spider or something else in the way. We have to realize that the world existed all these years without someone protecting it, and we need to protect it, and we can do it in a reasonable way. But what the environmentalists are doing right now is not reasonable.”

“If you really look at the U.S., what have we really done in infrastructure since World War II? How man dams have we built? How many freeways have we built? Over time, we do something that will help the economy, but it has all stopped. For example, they say ‘we don’t want you to do this.’ They go to build a project, for example, a solar project, and they stop it because they say the sunrays will hurt the bird’s eyes. There’s nothing we can say to please them.”

”I was in China in a few days ago, and there was this bridge, 19 miles over the ocean, and I asked, ‘when did they start it?’ They answered, ‘Oh, in about one and half years. ‘I asked: ‘Did it take them 18-19 months to get permits, and they said, ‘no, it took us that long to build a bridge over the ocean.”

“We’re in Chile. Twenty years ago, Chile was off the radar. There was hardly anything coming out of Chile. Now Chile is the second largest ag producer, and the largest producer in the off-season, and feeds the world. It is a major exporter. Now Peru, they’ve changed their policies. Now the whole world is flocking to Peru. The public is so comfortable that they do not even realizing how much ground we are losing.”

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:30:30-07:00February 20th, 2015|