Facebook
Twitter
Reddit
Pinterest
Tumblr
Delicious
LinkedIn
StumbleUponANR Blogs
UC Davis Spring Seminars: from Fruit Flies to Ants to Spider Glue and More!
Medical entomologist Geoffrey Attardo, assistant professor of entomology, UC Davis Department of...
A fruit fly, spotted wing drosophila, on a raspberry. The UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology's first spring seminar is on fruit flies. Alistair McGregor of Oxford Brookes University, England, will speak. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Botrytis v Biological Fungicides: Ready for the Rain
Just put out a study this morning with my colleagues from PSI screening a number of biological fungicides. These materials have been accumulating interest on the part of both growers and buyers as they seem to fit a more "natural" approach to food production attractive to consumers.
Trouble is, and I've had conversations concerning this with my colleague Gerald Holmes down south at CalPoly , that it's hard to get treatment separation in field fungicide screens for Botrytis. And much less for biological materials which tend to be of a lower efficacy.
Time to go all in to try and tease those treatment separations to come out. As (I hope) most of our industry participants know, Botrytis does not generally infect the mature fruit, and rather infects the open flower and lies dormant until the fruit reaches a certain ideal concentration of soluble solids. With that in mind, I'm thinking it's a good call to start these screens, especially of less established materials, early in the year when most of the early crop is still in the flower stage, and with the addition of these intermittent, late season rains we have the table set for a very solid piece of work.
Along with the weekly applications of fungicides, we'll be doing both in field evaluations of marketable and diseased fruit, and then take it even further with clinical evaluations in the lab once we have mature fruit.
I'm very optimistic here that we'll really bring something of value forward on Botrytis this year in strawberry.
The scene in the field this morning right before the rain. Plenty of open flowers, ready to receive spores of Botrytis.
8001 TJet Nozzle from a gang of 10. Brand new ceramic, Teflon tape and brass fittings. Doing high quality work and loving it!
UC ANR publishes nitrogen management advice for fruit, nuts and other crops
California growers can download a new series of publications summarizing efficient nitrogen management practices from UC Agriculture and Natural Resources. The publications are designed to assist growers in complying with state regulations for tracking and reporting nitrogen fertilizer applied to crops, in an effort to prevent nitrogen from leaching into groundwater.
The science-based publications are associated with a series of trainings for growers and Certified Crop Advisers to develop efficient nitrogen management practices, an effort coordinated by UC ANR's California Institute for Water Resources.
“Our role is to provide farmers, agricultural consultants and policymakers the best science possible for making decisions on managing and protecting California groundwater,” said Doug Parker, director of the water institute.
The free publications, created from training materials, lessons learned from the training sessions and from additional UC research, can be downloaded at http://ucanr.edu/nmgmtpublications.
The following publications are now available for download:
· Principles of Nitrogen Cycling and Management
· Irrigation and Nitrogen Management
· Nitrogen Management for Nut Crops
· Nitrogen Management for Deciduous Fruit and Grapes
· Nitrogen Management for Citrus and Avocado
· Nitrogen Management for Cool-Season Vegetables
· Nitrogen Management for Strawberry Production
· Nitrogen Management for Processing Tomato
· Nitrogen Management for Corn on California Dairies
The publications were authored by Parker of California Institute for Water Resources; Patrick Brown, professor in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences; Allan Fulton, UC Cooperative Extension advisor, Tehama County; Tim Hartz, UC Cooperative Extension specialist emeritus, UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences; Dan Munk, UC Cooperative Extension advisor, Fresno County; Daniel Geisseler, UC Cooperative Extension specialist, UC Davis Department of Land, Air & Water Resources; Michael Cahn, UC Cooperative Extension advisor, Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito counties; Richard Smith, UC Cooperative Extension advisor, Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito counties; Marsha Campbell, UC Cooperative Extension advisor emeritus, Stanislaus County; Sat Darshan Khalsa, UC Davis project scientist; and Saiful Muhammad, UC Davis graduate student.
Developed in 2014, the training program has been offered at 11 different locations around the state, most recently in Fresno. More than 1,000 Certified Crop Advisers have taken the training.
The nitrogen management training curriculum was developed by a group of UC ANR faculty, specialists and advisors. The first day focuses on the nitrogen cycle in crop production systems, nitrogen sources, irrigation and nitrogen management, and nitrogen budgeting. The second morning covers annual and permanent crops and nitrogen planning practices.
For more information on the nitrogen management training materials, visit http://ciwr.ucanr.edu/NitrogenManagement.
The Nitrogen Management Training and Certification Program is a joint effort between the California Department of Food and Agriculture, UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, California Association of Pest Control Advisers' Certified Crop Adviser Program and the Regional Water Boards.
How would you promote 4-H?
When creating an ad campaign, your target audience is your main consideration. You try to create a...
UC Merced researchers sample soil hydraulic properties in NRI Project in Five Points, CA, March 15, 2019!
March 23, 2019
News blog release for CASI blog site
Dr. Teamrat Ghezzehei, a soil physics researcher and professor at the University of California, Merced, along with Jessica Alvarez, a first-year graduate student working with him, sampled soils from the long-standing NRI Project field in Five Points, CA on March 15th. Alvarez is joining Samuel Araya, another one of Ghezzehei's students in using the NRI site as part of her graduate thesis work. The goals of this work are to determine and characterize soil hydraulic properties and functions in each of the four management systems that have been conducted in the NRI study now for twenty years. These systems vary in tillage intensity and also in terms of organic matter inputs to the soil via off-season winter cover crops. The four experimental treatments are standard tillage without cover crops, standard tillage with cover crops, no-tillage without cover crops, and no-tillage with cover crops. This study site is the only such site in all of California where the reduced disturbance system has been evaluated for so long. Their project has been supported by a grant from California's Department of Water Resources. To date, the study has determined significant changes in a number of soil properties including carbon and nitrogen content, water infiltration, aggregation, and biodiversity. The work of Ghezzehei, Alvarez and Araya will now add a very important piece, - soil water properties and function. We look forward to learning more of what they find soon.
Visitors at the long-term NRI Project field on March 15, 2019 (left to right) Jessica Alvarez, Teamrat Ghezzehei, Tom Willey, Steve Beck, and Tyler Beck
Tyler Beck, Steve Beck, Jessica Alvarez, and Teamrat Ghezzehei discussing soil health at the field station in Five Points, CA March 15, 2019
