Posts Tagged: organic
Organic Tree Crops Workshop
Organic Avocado & Citrus Workshop
- In Person & Virtual Event –
DPR & CCA Continuing Education Units (in progress)
Oct 12, 2023 | 8:00am – 1:00pm UC Cooperative Extension | California Room 669 County Square Dr. Unit 100 | Ventura, CA 93003 |
Free Registration: |
Program Agenda
7:30 AM |
Check in
|
8:10 AM |
Welcome and Introduction Ben Faber, Farm Advisor, UCCE Ventura County
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8:15 AM |
UC Organic Agriculture Institute - Background and Current Activities Rob Straser, Extension Coordinator, UC Organic Agriculture Institute
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8:30 AM |
Updates from UCCE Ventura and Hansen REC Annemiek Schilder, Director, UCCE Ventura County
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8:45 AM |
- Break -
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9:00 AM |
Managing Pests Organically in Ventura County Tom Roberts, Pest Control Advisor, Integrated Consulting
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9:30 AM
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An Ecoinformatic Approach to Improve Citrus and Avocado IPM Bodil Cass, Extension Specialist, UC Riverside
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10:00 AM |
Nutrition and Soil in Citrus and Avocado Ben Faber, Farm Advisor, UCCE Ventura County
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10:30 AM |
Diseases Affecting Avocado Production in California Fatemeh Khodadadi, Extension Specialist, UC Riverside
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11:00 AM |
Citrus Root and Wood Diseases Philippe Rolshausen, Extension Specialist, UC Riverside
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11:30 AM |
Grower Panel Discussion
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12:00 PM |
Networking and Lunch (included)
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1:00 PM |
- Adjourn - |
|
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avocado fruit cluster
Online Organic Agriculture Seminar Series for Growers January 24 – March 21, 2023 Tuesdays, 12 – 1 pm
Please join us for a weekly lunchtime seminar series. Each week we'll be joined by a guest speaker for a 30-minute presentation followed by questions from the listeners and more general discussion.
The Zoom link will be the same each week. No pre-registration required.
Meeting link:https://ucanr.zoom.us/j/95260378391?pwd=TXNTNmtNalo5TzY0bjdISEszeXRXUT09
*The presentation (not the Q and A discussion) will be recorded and made available.
Habrá traducción al Español
Date |
Topic |
Tuesday, January 24 |
Nitrogen Mineralization from Organic Fertilizers and Composts Joji Muramoto, Organic Production Specialist, UC Santa Cruz |
Tuesday, January 31 |
Tools and Approaches for Assessing and Improving Irrigation Efficiency on the Farm Michael Cahn, Irrigation and Water Resource Farm Advisor, UCCE |
Tuesday, February 7 |
Organic Management of Nematodes Philip Waisen, Vegetable Crops Advisor, UCCE |
Tuesday, February 14 |
How to Identify and Scout for Insect Pests Alejandro del Poso, Assistant Professor of Entomology, Applied Insect Ecology - Turfgrass and Ornamentals, Virginia Tech University |
Tuesday, February 21 |
Why, How and When to Choose Between Open-pollinated, Hybrid, and Land-race seeds? Charlie Brummer, Director and Professor, Center for Plant Breeding, UC Davis |
Tuesday, February 28 |
Management of Soilborne Plant Pathogens with Organic Amendments Amisha Poret-Peterson, USDA-ARS, Davis |
Tuesday, March 7 |
Biology and Management of Thrips and the Diseases They Spread Daniel Hasegawa, USDA-ARS, Salinas |
Tuesday, March 14 |
Weed Management on Small farms and in Organic Production Systems Darryl Wong, Executive Director, Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems, UC Santa Cruz |
Tuesday, March 21 |
Recruiting Owls and Raptors for Pest Management Breanna Martinico, Human-Wildlife Interactions Farm Advisor, UCCE |
Questions? Contact Margaret Lloyd mglloyd@ucanr.edu, Aparna Gazula agazula@ucanr.edu or Lucy Diekmann lodiekmann@ucanr.edu, Hung Kim Doan hkdoan@ucanr.edu
Veggie
Organic Solution for Fruit Flies
A recent paper shows that a food-grade coating can successfully reduce the damage of cherry fruit fly on cherries. This has implications for control of olive fruit fly, spotted-wing drosophila (on blueberry and other bush berries), Mediterranean fruit fly and other tephritid flies. Read on:
Evaluation of Organic, Food-Grade Hydrophobic Coatings for Suppressing Oviposition and Increasing Mortality of Western Cherry Fruit Fly (Diptera: Tephritidae)
Abstract
To reduce risks and concerns of extensive insecticide use for controlling tephritid fruit flies, non or less toxic organic management options to the use of insecticides alone for fly control are needed . One such option is the use of physical or chemical barriers sprayed on fruit to protect fruit from fly attack. Surround wettable powder (kaolin) is the major organic barrier that has been developed that protects fruit (against sunburn) and deters insects. However, Surround has not been adopted to any large extent by growers for use against fruit flies due in part to the white residue it forms on fruit. A product that protects fruit while leaving no visible residue on fruit surfaces might be more acceptable for use.
Recently, the product HydroShield (original formulation; Cuticle Supplement), a nonwax organic food-grade hydrophobic coating that simulates plant cuticles, was developed that protects cherries from water-induced cracking . Unlike Surround, HydroShield forms an invisible (to human eyes) coating on cherries. HydroShield incidentally also helps protect fruit against attack by insects, specifically Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura) (Diptera: Drosophilidae), reducing oviposition by this fly in Sweetheart cherries.
Newer organic options for protecting fruit from tephritid fruit fly attack are needed to reduce extensive insecticide use. Here, we evaluated organic, food-grade hydrophobic coatings that help protect sweet cherries (Prunus avium L.) from water-induced cracking for suppressing attack on cherries by western cherry fruit fly, Rhagoletis indifferens Curran (Diptera: Tephtitidae), as well as for their effects on fly mortality. Three formulations of coatings called HydroShield 13.20, 13.22, and 13.28 that form invisible elastic barriers on cherries and that consist of complex carbohydrates, fatty acids and occlusive agents, solvents, emulsifiers, emollients, surfactants, and other ingredients were tested. In the laboratory, fly visits on and oviposition in HydroShield-coated cherries were 66.1–92.8% and 59.1–99.5% lower, respectively, than in controls. The mean number of dead female flies exposed to HydroShield-coated cherries was 69.4–94.6% greater than of females exposed to control cherries. In the field, three sprays of HydroShield 13.22 and 13.20 on sweet cherry trees in 2020, when fly densities were high, reduced larval infestations in cherries by 32.1% and 31.8%, respectively. In the field in 2021, when fly densities were lower, three sprays of HydroShield 13.22 and 13.28 reduced infestations in cherries by 90.5% and 86.8%, respectively, but sprays also reduced cherry size and toughened cherries. HydroShield formulations show promise in protecting sweet cherry from attack by R. indifferens, but further testing is needed to improve formulations so that they suppress fly oviposition without affecting cherry quality.
https://academic.oup.com/ee/advance-article/doi/10.1093/ee/nvac033/6590995?login=false
Adult drosophila laying eggs
Maggots doing their thing on blueberry
Organic Certification Grants
Organic producers and handlers can now apply for U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) funds to assist with the cost of receiving or maintaining organic certification.
Applications for the?Organic Certification Cost Share Program?(OCCSP) are due Nov. 1, 2021.
“USDA is here to help all producers, including those who grow our nation's organic food and fiber. Many farmers have told us that cost was a barrier to their ability to get an organic certification,” said Zach Ducheneaux, administrator of USDA's Farm Service Agency (FSA). “By assisting with the costs, this program can help organic farmers get their certification along with the benefits that come with it.”
OCCSP provides cost-share assistance to producers and handlers of agricultural products for the costs of obtaining or maintaining organic certification under the USDA's National Organic Program. Eligible producers include any certified producers or handlers who have paid organic certification fees to a USDA-accredited certifying agent during the 2021 and any subsequent program year. Producers can be reimbursed for expenses made between Oct. 1, 2020 and Sept. 30, 2021 including application fees, inspection costs, fees related to equivalency agreement and arrangement requirements, travel expenses for inspectors, user fees, sales assessments and postage.
For 2021, OCCSP will reimburse 50% of a certified operation's allowable certification costs, up to a maximum of $500 for each of the following categories (or “scopes”):
- crops
- wild crops
- livestock
- processing/handling
- State organic program fees
Organic farmers and ranchers may apply through an FSA county office or a participating state agency.
This funding will be complemented by an additional $20 million for organic and transitioning producers through the Pandemic Assistance for Producers initiative. More information on that funding will be available in the coming weeks.
To learn more about organic certification cost share, please visit the?OCCSP webpage, visit?usda.gov/organic, or contact your?local USDA Service Center.
organic farm
If It's Brown, Leave It on the Ground
For quite some time, farmers and researchers have been focusing on how to bind carbon to soil. Doing so makes food crops more nutritious and increases yields.
However, because carbon is converted into CO2 when it enters the atmosphere, there is a significant climate benefit to capturing carbon in soil as well.
Too much carbon finds its way into the atmosphere. Should we fail to reverse this unfortunate trend, we will fail to achieve the Paris Agreement's goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2030, according to CONCITO, Denmark's Green Think Tank.
As such, it is important to find new ways of sequestering carbon in soil. This is where a team of researchers from the University of Copenhagen and the Technical University of Munich enter the picture.
In their new study, they argue for the potential of simply allowing agricultural crop residues to rot in fields.
"Fragments of dead plants in soil are often considered as fast food for microbes and fungi. But our study demonstrates that plant residues actually play a more significant role in forming and sequestering carbon in soil than what was once thought," explains Kristina Witzgall, a PhD Candidate at the Technical University of Munich and the study's lead author.
In the past, researchers mainly focused on carbon storage in the surfaces of minerals like clay. However, the new results demonstrate that plant residues themselves have the ability to store carbon, and perhaps for longer than once supposed.
This is because a number of important processes take place directly upon the surface of these plant remains.
"We demonstrate that agricultural crop residues are absolutely central to carbon storage and that we should use them in a much more calculated way in the future. Plant residues make it possible for carbon, in all likelihood, to be stored in soil for roughly four times longer than if they aren't added," states Carsten Müller, the study's co-author and an associate professor at the University of Copenhagen's Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management.
Fungi and soil clumps store carbon
To understand how plant residue sequesters carbon, it is important to know that plant tissue already contains carbon absorbed by plants from the atmosphere via photosynthesis. As plant matter rots, carbon can be transferred into the soil in a number of ways.
"Our analysis shows that plant residues, as they interact with fungi, play a surprisingly large role in carbon storage. As fungi fling their white strands around plant fragments, they 'glue' them together with the soil. The fungi then consume the carbon found in the plant matter. In doing so, they store carbon in the soil," explains Carsten Müller.
In addition to fungi, the researchers' analyses also show that the soil structure itself determines the amount of carbon that can be stored.
"When soil is glued together in large hard lumps by the stickiness of bacteria and fungi, plant residues are shielded from being consumed by bacteria and fungi, which would otherwise eat and then emit some of the carbon as CO2 into the atmosphere," says Kristina Witzgall.
She goes on to say that while carbon can be stored in soil from weeks to a thousand years, the usual duration is about 50 years.
Reducing CO2 in the future
The method of leaving crop residues like stalks, stubble and leaves to rot is not unheard of when it comes to enhancing agricultural land.
However, deploying rotten plants as a tool to store carbon should be taken more seriously and considered as a strategy to be expanded, according to the researchers behind the new study.
"The fertile and climate-friendly agricultural lands of the future should use crop residue as a way of sequestering carbon. We will also be conducting experiments where we add rotten plant matter deeper into the soil, which will allow carbon to be stored for even longer periods of time," says Carsten Müller.
If we work to create better conditions for carbon sequestration in soil, we could store between 0.8 and 1.5 gigatonnes of carbon annually. By comparison, the world's population has emitted 4.9 gigatonnes of carbon per year over the past 10 years.
All in all, the researchers' findings can be used to understand the important role and promise of crop residues for carbon storage in the future.
However, Kristina Witzgall goes on to say that a variety of initiatives are needed to increase carbon sequestration, such as crops that can absorb atmospheric carbon and the restoration of lost forests.
Read the whole story: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-24192-8
Images:
Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images of the interface of plant litter (POM) and soil minerals, where soil minerals are (a) attached to the litter surface (scale bar = 100 µm) and (b) enmeshed with fungal hyphae and extracellular polymeric substances (EPS; scale bar = 10 µm). Similar images were obtained from at least 10 independent locations in each soil texture.