Corn for silage continues to mature. Black-eyed beans are sizing up, and the pods are beginning to dry. Cotton continues to be irrigated and cultivated. Alfalfa continues to be cut and baled.
Deciduous Tree Fruits, Nuts, And Grapes:
The stone fruit season continues on. Peaches are being exported to Brazil, Taiwan, Canada,Guatemala, Costa Rica, Honduras, Ecuador, El Salvador, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, the Dominican Republic, and Australia. Nectarines are being exported to Australia, Canada, Taiwan, Brazil, Honduras, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Costa Rica. Plums are being exported to China, Canada, Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Thailand. Hand-pruning and mechanical toppingcontinues to take place in some stone fruit orchards, after harvest. Immature stone fruit continuesto develop. Some older stone fruit groves are being removed after harvest. Grapes continue to mature and harvest has begun slowly, but will pick up next week. Grapes are being exported to Japan, Korea, the Philippines, and Thailand. Some vineyards continue to have leaves thinned to allow for better airflow and light. This year’s almond, pecan, walnut, and pistachio nuts continue to develop. Pistachios are being exported to Vietnam, India, Spain, and Hong Kong. Almonds are being exported Vietnam, Germany, Finland, Jordan, Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Japan, Costa Rica, Mexico, Indonesia, Colombia, and Argentina. Persimmons continue to develop. Irrigation continues for orchards and vineyards.
Citrus, Avocados, And Olives:
Valencia and navel oranges continue to be harvested. Late navel harvest is nearing the end, with oranges mainly being sent to juice from the field. Gassing of Valencia oranges to improve color continues. Valencia oranges are mainly being sent to domestic markets but they continue to be exported in small amounts to Mexico and Hong Kong. Ruby grapefruit and Finger limes are being exported to Mexico. Some citrus groves are being pruned and hedge rowed. Immature olives continue to develop.
Vegetables, Melons, Herbs, Berries:
Certified producers are picking tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, cucumber, watermelon, and squash. Summer vegetables continue to be sold at roadside stands and Farmer’s Markets. Blueberries are being picked and sold by local growers.
Livestock And Poultry:
Rangeland forage is of fair-good quality. The fed cattle price is at $112 per cwt.
Additional Comments:
Local wholesale nurseries are still shipping small orders of nursery stock to local and out-of-state retail nursery outlets. Nurseries continue to receive various flowers and plants daily. Bare-rootrose shipments continue to be sent to Florida.
Botrytis fruit rot or gray mold, caused by Botrytis cinerea, is common fruit disease in California strawberries. Botrytis cinerea has a wide host range infecting several commercially important crops including blueberry, grapes and tomato. Fungal infection can cause flower or fruit rot. Fruit can be infected directly or through a latent infection in the flowers. Moist and cool conditions favor fungal infections and increased sugar content in the ripening fruit can also contribute to the disease development. Initial symptoms of infection appear as brown lesions and a thick mat of gray conidia is characteristic symptom in the later stages of infection. As chemical fungicides are primarily used for gray mold control, fungicide resistance is a common problem around the world. In strawberry, cultural control options such as removing diseased plant material or using cultivars with traits that can reduce gray mold infections may not be practical when the disease is widespread in the field or cultivar choice is made based on other factors. Non-chemical control options are necessary to help reduce the risk of chemical fungicide resistance, prolong the life of available chemical fungicides, achieve desired disease control, and to maintain environmental health. Although there are several botanical and microbial fungicides available for gray mold control, limited information is available on their efficacy in California strawberries. A study was conducted in the spring of 2019 to evaluate the efficacy of several chemical, botanical, and microbial fungicides in certain combinations and rotations to help identify effective options for an integrated disease management strategy.
Methodology
Strawberry cultivar San Andreas was planted late November, 2018 and the study was conducted in April and May, 2019. Each treatment had a 20′ long strawberry plot with two rows of plants replicated in a randomized complete block design. Plots were maintained without any fungicidal applications until the study was initiated. Table 1 contains the list of treatments, application rates and dates of application, and Table 2 contains the type of fungicide used and their mode of action. Beauveria bassiana and Metarhizium anisopliae s.l. are California isolates of entomopathogenic fungi, isolated from an insect and a soil sample, respectively. These fungi are pathogenic to a variety of arthropods and some strains are formulated as biopesticides for arthropod control. However, earlier studies in California demonstrated that these fungi are also known to antagonize plant pathogens such as Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. vasinfectum Race 4 (Dara et al., 2016) and Macrophomina phaseolina (Dara et al., 2018) and reduce the disease severity. To further evaluate their efficacy against B. cinerea, these two fungi were also included in this study alternating with two chemical fungicides.
Treatments were applied with a CO2-pressurized backpack sprayer using 66.5 gpa spray volume. Five days before the first spray application and 3 days after each application, all ripe fruit were harvested from each plot and incubated at the room temperature in vented plastic containers. The level of gray mold on fruit from each plot was rated using a 0 to 4 scale (where 0=no disease, 1=1-25% fruit with fungal infection, 2=26-50% infection, 3=51-75%, and 4=76-100%) 3 and 5 days after each harvest (DAH). Due to the rains, fruit could not be harvested after the 3rd spray application for disease rating, but was harvested and discarded after the rains to avoid cross infection for the following week’s harvest. Data were analyzed using analysis of variance using Statistix software and significant means were separated using Least Significant Difference separation test.
Results
Gray mold occurred at low to moderate levels during the study period. Along with B. cinerea, there were a few instances of minor fungal infections from Rhizopus spp. (Rhizopus fruit rot) and Mucor spp. (Mucor fruit rot). Pre-treatment disease ratings were statistically not significant (P = 0.6197 and 0.5741) 3 and 5 DAH. While the chemical standard treatment with the rotation of Captan, Merivon, Switch, and Pristine (treatment 2) appeared to result in the lowest disease rating throughout the observation period, treatments 3 and 5 after the 1st spray application, treatments 5 and 11 along with 3, 4 and 6 after the 2nd spray application, and treatments 3 and 5 along with 11 after the 4thspray application also had similar disease control at 3 DAH. When disease at 5 DAH was compared, the lowest rating was seen in treatment 2 after the 1st and 2nd spray applications, and treatments 2, 3, and 11 after the 4th application. Several other treatments also provided statistically similar control during these days.
When the average disease rating for the three post-treatment observation events was considered, treatment 2, 3, 5, and 11 had the lowest disease at both 3 and 5 DAH. Treatments 4 and 12 at 3 DAH also had a statistically similar level of disease control to treatment 2.In general, most of the treatments provided moderate to high control compared to the disease in untreated control when the post-treatment averages were considered. Only treatment 7 and 13 had lower control at 3 DAH.
Discussion
This study compared a variety of registered and developmental products along with two entomopathogenic fungi in managing B. cinerea. Considering the fungicide resistance problem in B. cinerea in multiple crops, having multiple non-chemical control options is very important to achieve desirable control with integrated disease management strategies. Since the active ingredients in the botanical and bacterial fungicides used in this study are not public, discuss will be limited on their modes of action and efficacy at this point. Similarly, the active ingredient of WXF-17001 is also not known, however, an earlier study by Calvo-Garrido et al. (2014) demonstrated that a fatty acid-based natural product reduced B. cinerea conidial germination by 54% and disease severity in grapes by 96% compared to untreated control. The product used by Calvo-Garrido et al. (2014) is thought to be fungistatic and reduce the postharvest respiratory activity and ethylene production in fruits.
While chemical fungicides have a specific mode of action, biological and other products act in multiple manners either directly antagonizing the plant pathogen or by triggering the plant defenses. For example, amending the potting medium with biochar resulted in induced systemic resistance in tomato and reduced B. cinerea severity by 50% (Mehari et al., 2015). Luna et al. (2016) also showed that application of β-aminobutyric acid and jasmonic acid promoted seed germination and long-term resistance to B. cinerea in tomato. Burkholderia phytofirmans, beneficial endophytic bacterium, offered protection against B. cinerea in grapes by mobilizing carbon resources (callose deposition), triggering plant immune system (hydrogen peroxide production and priming of defense genese), and through antifungal activity (Miotto-Vilanova et al. 2016). Similarly, entomopathogenic fungi such as B. bassiana are also known to induce systemic resistance against plant pathogens (Griffin et al. 2006). Compared to other options evaluated in the study, entomopathogenic fungi have an advantage of controlling both arthropod pests and diseases, while also having plant growth promoting effect (Dara et al. 2017).
Rotating fungicides with different mode of actions reduces the risk of resistance development and using some combinations will also maintain control efficacy. This study provided the efficacy of multiple control options and their combinations and rotations for B. cinerea. This is also the first study demonstrating the efficacy of entomopathogenic fungi against B. cinerea in strawberry.
Masked Chafer (AKA white grubs) have been problematic for blueberry growers, particularly in the Central Valley of California. The good news is that researchers and entomologists have come up with both organic and conventional methods treatments for these soil pests. Watch this brief interview UC Cooperative Extension Farm Advisor David Haviland to learn about these options and read more about it in California Fresh Fruit Magazine.
Citrus thrips have been a major nuisance for California blueberry growers, but how do you keep them under control and when should you apply crop protection materials? Is there an organic treatment available? Watch this brief interview UC Cooperative Extension Farm Advisor David Haviland as he answers all these questions. Read more about blueberry pest management in California Fresh Fruit Magazine.
Consumers want strawberries to be red, sweet, ripe and juicy, like those fresh picked from a garden. Suppliers want them to be easy to handle and ship, without getting squished. Commercial strawberry growers need their crops to be high-yielding and disease-resistant.
An international team of scientists led by the University of California, Davis, and Michigan State University has taken a step that might allow breeders to grow a strawberry to satisfy all those needs. They’ve sequenced and analyzed the genome of the cultivated strawberry, which will provide a genetic roadmap to help more precisely select desired traits. The study was published today (Feb. 25) in the journal Nature Genetics.
“Without the genome we were flying blind,” said Steven Knapp, professor of plant sciences and director of the UC Davis Strawberry Breeding Program. “It was like having a library of books, but all the books’ pages were blank.”
Protecting strawberries from disease
The U.S. is the world’s largest producer of strawberries, and almost 90 percent of them are grown in the cool, coastal climates of California. Growers are constantly struggling to fight off diseases like Fusarium wilt, Verticillium wilt and Macrophomina without having to use fumigants. The assembled genome will allow scientists to pinpoint specific genes that can protect the plant against diseases. Strawberries can also have diseases that may involve several different genes, similar to complex diseases in humans. Sequencing the genome will help unravel that complexity.
“The genome sequence is powerful because it provides scientists with barcodes for nearly all the genes in strawberry. We can use that information to identify genes that play an important role in traits of agricultural importance,” said Knapp.
Similarly, scientists may also be able to find genes in the strawberry that lead to increased flavor or aroma for the consumer, while maintaining the firmness and shelf life for producers.
Origins of the strawberry
Patrick Edger, co-corresponding author with Michigan State University, and his team also deciphered the complex evolutionary history of the cultivated strawberry. While humans are diploid species, meaning each cell contains two complete sets of chromosomes, one from each parent, the cultivated strawberry is an octoploid. Each cell in a strawberry plant contains eight complete sets of chromosomes, so untangling its evolution is a feat.
“Strawberry has a rich history that spans the globe, ultimately culminating in the fruit we enjoy today,” said Edger.
Other UC Davis authors in the study include postdoctoral scholars Thomas Poorten and Michael Hardigan. The study was funded by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, the National Science Foundation, and the California Strawberry Commission.
The 2018 California blueberry crop is well underway; however, freeze events have had a significant impact on blueberry production in both California and Georgia. Watch this brief interview with outgoing Executive Director of the California Blueberry Commission, Alex Ott as he explains the current status of the crop. Read more in California Fresh Fruit Magazine.
Bringing Irrigation & Nutrient Management Decision Support to the Field
Date: Wednesday, June 6, 2018
1pm – 4:30pm
Location: UCCE Ventura, 669 County Square Drive, Ventura, CA 93003
California Room
669 County Square Drive Suite 100 Ventura CA 93003 805-645-1451 • ceventura.ucanr.edu
Learn how to use CropManage to support irrigation and nutrient management decisions and record-keeping
Learn the new version of CropManage (3.0) – also available in SpanishCropManage is a free online decision support tool for water and nutrient management of coastal crops. Based on in-depth research and field studies conducted by the University of California, CropManage provides real-time recommendations for efficient irrigation and fertilization applications— while maintaining or improving overall yield.
At this free workshop, we will provide hands-on training so that you can learn to use the newest version of CropManage (3.0) which has been updated to be more compatible for in-field use by farm staff. CropManage is now available in Spanish.
Crops currently supported by CropManage in Ventura County include strawberry and celery. In the Watsonville area, raspberry, head, romaine, and leaf lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, bell pepper, spinach, baby lettuce, cilantro and mizuna, in addition to strawberry and celery.
Who should participate? Vegetable and berry growers, ranch managers, other farm staff, and technical service providers are welcome. The workshop is for both new and current CropManage users.
What to bring? This is a participatory workshop. Please bring a tablet or laptop computer so that you can follow along and participate in the exercises. Each participant will need a user account for CropManage. Please set up a free user account at v3.cropmanage.ucanr.edu before the workshop.
Questions: Andre Biscaro at asbiscaro@ucanr.edu or 805-645-1465.
AGENDA
1:00 – 1:30 Registration and computer set-up
1:30 – 3:00 Getting started with CropManage 3.0
3:00 BREAK
3:15 – 4:00 Strategies for using CropManage for decision support and record-keeping 4:00 – 4:20 Advanced features and interfacing sensors with CropManage
4:20 – 4:30 Discussion of new features or changes needed
2.5 Continuing Education Units (CEU) applied for Certified Crop Advisers (CCA)
It is the policy of the University of California (UC) and the UC Division of Agriculture & Natural Resources not to engage in discrimination against or harassment of any person in any of its programs or activities (Complete nondiscrimination policy statement can be found at http://ucanr.edu/sites/anrstaff/files/215244.pdf ).
Inquiries regarding ANR’s nondiscrimination policies may be directed to John I. Sims, Affirmative Action Compliance Officer/Title IX Officer, University of California, Agriculture and Natural Resources, 2801 Second Street, Davis, CA 95618, (530) 750-1397.
A honey bee helps pollinate Carolyn Read’s boysenberry bushes. Photo by Jonathan Snapp-Cook/USFWS.
By Joanna Gilkeson – It would be easy to call Carolyn Read a preservationist and leave it at that. How many people would settle in a ranch house built 130 years ago and raise a family there?
Or call her a conservationist. Read has made sure that native plants that were in danger of getting choked out by other invasives are again thriving in the arid reaches of her San Diego-area ranch.
Make sure you give Read credit for her business sense, too. She started a horse-themed magazine more than 30 years ago that remains an award-winning publication on the West Coast. She’s also raising and selling boysenberries.
Read is a rancher, an active community member, an equestrian advocate, a conservationist, a historian, an entrepreneur, a grower, a mother and a grandmother — all of which stem from her opportunity to build a life on the land.
A honey bee gathers nectar from black sage (Salvia mellifera), a coastal sage scrub plant, on Carolyn Read’s property. Photo by Jonathan Snapp-Cook/USFWS.
She’s worked with others to ensure that a ranch started in the 1800s remains viable, even as development nears its borders. Among her collaborators: the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), which advised her as Read restored a hillside with coastal sage scrub. From that collaboration came a friendship with a Service biologist. That connection has roots as hearty as the sage scrub growing on the hills.
Read, 86, is just happy to remain on the land that she has tended so carefully for more than five decades.
“I am grateful for the opportunity to acquire and raise my family in this home,” she said recently, “and for the living heritage the area has given us.”
Read walking along her boysenberry bushes before demonstrating the irrigation system. Photo by Joanna Gilkeson/USFWS.
A Blessing
In 1874, an Arkansan by the name of Reynold Bascomb Borden traveled cross-county in a covered wagon. It came to a halt in a valley blanketed by coastal sage scrub and sunshine. In 1882, he would construct one of the first homesteads in this remote valley, now present-day San Marcos, in San Diego County.
The family kept the clapboard house until 1929. It went through more owners until 1963, when it was put up for sale. Three parties expressed interest in it. One was a young woman who needed space for a growing family.
“At the time, I was a single mom with four children,” Read said. “…For some reason the family who owned the property at the time chose me.”
It was a blessing. “I was able to establish roots, a chance to make a home.”
A Belding’s Orange Throated Whiptail on Carolyn’s property. Photo by Jonathan Snapp-Cook/USFWS.
Today, the property also is home to California quail, hummingbirds, pollinators, lizards, rattlesnakes and birds of prey.
She pointed to a hawk’s nest in the top of a eucalyptus tree.
“That’s the 12th generation of this pair of hawks,” Read said. “They just had their babies. The small sparrows torment them.”
‘Strong Connection’
In 2012, Read decided she needed help to restore wildlife habitat on her land. She worried that the native flora was getting overwhelmed by invasive plants.
Jonathan Snapp-Cook, Partners Biologist, translocates California sagebrush (Artemisia californica) to the restoration site. Photo by Carmen Wilson.
Jonathan Snapp-Cook, a Service biologist, visited her ranch. He knew right away that they shared an appreciation of land stewardship.
“It was obvious she had a strong connection to the historical and cultural aspects of her property and wanted to conserve wildlife,” said Snapp-Cook. “I knew it was going to be the beginning of a good partnership.”
Snapp-Cook and Read embarked on a restoration project to benefit native wildlife. A portion of the hillside behind Read’s house was chock-full of invasive plants while native coastal sage scrub voluntarily grew on the property’s dirt roads.
The idea: transplant the coastal native sage scrub in the roadway to the tract where invasives grew. It was best, they decided, to use the plants they already had to make the restoration take root.
As Read described it: “If the plants are able to make it on their own, then that’s who survives. They are the survivors.”
So far, the native plants are winning. Snapp-Cook and Read have completed three small, flourishing sections of restoration — but they didn’t do it alone. Read’s hired farm hands, family and grandchildren helped restore the hillside, one plant at time.
The restoration project has been a lesson for Read and her family; they see the sage scrub as a valuable member of the ranch ecosystem.
“Jonathan has been quite an inspiration to me, to walk across the property with a biologist, and the native plants he finds, he points out all these things happening at my feet,” she said. “It’s become a very enlightening friendship.”
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Partners Biologist Jonathan Snapp-Cook overlooking the invasive species on Carolyn Read’s property. Photo by Celeste Medina-Ontiveros/USFWS.
Horses & Berries
The view from Read’s front porch has changed since she moved in. Over the years she has watched development slowly creep toward her ranch. The 14-acre property is flanked by rows of white-and-beige houses on one side. An open space soon to be developed shares a property line on another. A hillside of coastal sage shrub touches a third.
Even as San Marcos extends its borders toward her, Read remains determined to protect the land and the creatures that live there.
Carolyn Read walks a horse out to pasture. Behind her is a remnant of her previous career as founder of Horsetrader magazine. Photo by Joanna Gilkeson/USFWS.
Every inch of the 14-acre ranch continues to be productive, which includes seven acres of preserved habitat. Read has four horses on site, with pastures to match. Three years ago, she turned her attention to a local delicacy.
Read began growing boysenberries – a move driven in equal parts by an appreciation of history as well as the bottom line.
The boysenberry enjoys historic importance in Southern California. In 1932, Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park, California, created a new kind of produce – a cross between red raspberries, blackberries and loganberries. The Knott family dubbed it the boysenberry.
The new berry was a tough thing to cultivate, its bushes riddled with thorns, but the payoff was good, too. Consumers loved the boysenberry. So does Read.
Carolyn Read’s boysenberries straight out of the crisper and ready to sell. Read became organically certified in April 2018. Photo courtesy of Carolyn Read.
“I started selling my berries to the neighbors, and I’ve gotten so much good feedback from the community,” she said. “I’ve connected with my neighbors because of the berries and they’re wonderful people.”
The berries also have made their way into local high-end restaurants through a contract with a San Diego produce distributor. “I don’t even know how it all happened,” Read said, “but I’m grateful.”
Growing and sharing California’s homegrown classic fruit is the way Read has chosen to share the living heritage of the homestead with the greater community.
For Read, the boysenberry provides a tangible, tasty link to the area’s rich history.
“Without the places that keep our stories alive…we lose some of the most profound parts of our local history,” she said.
She feels that way about her ranch, too. “It is part of who I am,” she said. “I would like to see some of that lifestyle preserved for future generations.”
California quail make themselves at home on the Pepper Hill Borden Homestead.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service supported this Nature’s Good
Neighbor through our Partners for Fish and Wildlife program. Our Partners program would like to acknowledge the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service for introducing them to this local landowner. The Partners program is a voluntary initiative that works with private landowners to improve fish and wildlife habitat on their land. A phone call or email is all it takes to learn more with one of our 250 private lands biologists. If you are interested in improving habitat for fish and wildlife on your land, find your local Partners for Fish and Wildlife biologist.
Joanna Gilkeson is a public affairs specialist out of the Pacific Southwest Region in Carlsbad, California.
Origins of the strawberry
