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Another pest in almonds? Just what we needed, right? Only this one you can’t see. Almond growers have been dealing with nematodes for a long time; however, the peach root knot nematode is new to California almond orchards. Watch this brief interview with UC Riverside Nematologist Andreas Westphal as he explains and read more about it in Pacific Nut Producer Magazine.
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Almond trees are collapsing all over the California, and it’s not just an old age thing anymore. If you are experiencing this in your orchard, your trees may have Ganoderma Heart Rot. Watch this brief interview with UCCE Nut Crops Advisor Mae Culumber as she explains, based on her recent presentation at the Grape, Nut & Tree Fruit Expo.
Please thank this video’s sponsor Trece for their industry support.
So how much potassium does an almond or pistachio orchard need? How and when should it be applied? Watch this brief interview with UCCE Orchard Systems Advisor Phoebe Gordon as she shares some facts and considerations for growers to maintain a healthy orchard and prevent potassium deficiencies. Read more about best practices for orchard management in Pacific Nut Producer Magazine.
Please thank this video’s sponsor Trece for their industry support.
UC Cooperative Extension specialist Jeff Dahlberg, also the director of the UC Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center (KARE) in Parlier, invoked his 35 years of sorghum expertise to increasing interest in growing the crop in California and to better understanding plants’ ability to tolerate drought. Dahlberg retires Jan. 8.
As a Peace Corps volunteer in Niger in the early 1980s, Dahlberg was intrigued by sorghum, a staple food being cultivated by the country’s vast population of subsistence farmers.
“I was impressed with the fact that sorghum was so drought tolerant,” Dahlberg said. “Nigerien farmers relied solely on rain for their sorghum and millet crops.”
Upon returning to the U.S., he earned a master’s degree at the University of Arizona and a Ph.D. at Texas A&M, where his research focused on sorghum. He worked with the USDA Agricultural Research Service in Puerto Rico for 7 years and then spent the next 10 years as research director with the National Sorghum Producers in Lubbock, Texas.
When Dahlberg took the helm of the 330-acre UC agricultural research center in 2010, he and colleagues at the UC West Side Research and Extension Center and at UC Davis began conducting sorghum forage variety trials. Sorghum wasn’t new to California. In the past, it had mainly been used for animal feed. But Dahlberg believed the crop’s adaptability – excellent for forage, biofuels and gluten-free human food – offered the grain a rosy future in the Golden State.
“With our research, we have provided California farmers who are thinking about growing sorghum access to locally generated, research-based information to help them make the decision,” Dahlberg said.
In 2015, Dahlberg and UC Berkeley specialist Peggy Lemaux launched a sweeping drought research project at KARE. The five-year study, funded with a $12.3 million grant from the Department of Energy, researched the genetics of drought tolerance in sorghum and how soil microbial communities interacted with sorghum roots to battle drought stress.
A journal article published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2018 presented the first detailed look at the role of drought in restructuring the root microbiome. The plant switches some genes on and some genes off when it detects water scarcity and access to water.
“That has implications for feeding the world, particularly considering the changing climate and weather patterns,” Dahlberg said.
In recent years, Dahlberg helped reestablish tea research at Kearney, initiated nearly 60 years ago in a study funded by Thomas J. Lipton, Inc. At the time, Lipton was seeking to grow tea for the instant tea market. When the Kearney tea research program was scrapped in 1981, a researcher had a handful of the best tea clones planted in the landscape around buildings at Kearney.
Those shrubs became the basis for a new tea research trial planted at Kearney in 2017 with UC Davis professor Jackie Gervay Hague to determine whether drought stress impacts the production of phenolics and tannins in the tea.
“We know we can grow good tea here and we can grow high tonnage,” Dahlberg said. “We want to determine if we can do that on a consistent basis and whether we can improve tea quality through irrigation management.”
In retirement, Dahlberg plans to relocate to Lake Ann, Mich., to be close to family. UC Cooperative Extension irrigation specialist Khaled Bali will serve as interim director of the UC Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center. — By Jeannette Warnert, UCANR
Growers considering producing avocados in San Diego County with high-density plantings now have help to determine the economic feasibility. A new study on the costs and returns of establishing and producing avocados in San Diego County has been released by UC Agriculture and Natural Resources’ Cooperative Extension, UC Agricultural Issues Center and the UC Davis Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
Avocado has been one of the prominent crops produced in Southern California since the early 1950s. California avocado production peaked in 1987-88 with about 76,300 acres. San Diego had been the leading producer accounting for about 60% of the acreage.
“Beginning in the early 1980s, there has been a continuous decline of acreage and production of avocados in San Diego County, said Etaferahu Takele, UC Cooperative Extension farm management advisor for Southern California and co-author of the study. “This is mainly because of the expansion of urban development that has increased the cost of producing the crop and especially the cost of water, reaching to up to $2,000 per acre feet in 2020.”
High-density planting increases profitability of avocado production given there is suitable land for high-density orchard development.
Although the cost of water accounts for 44% of the total production cost in the high-density planting, the water cost is proportionally less than in the conventional planting of 145 trees per acre when distributed over a higher yield per acre, the authors write.
Their cost analysis describes production operations for avocados planted at 430 trees per acre, with an expected life span of 40 years. The study includes a detailed summary of costs and returns and a profitability analysis of gross margin, economic profit and a break-even ranging analysis table, which shows profits over a range of prices and yields. Growers can identify their gross margin and returns to management based on their yield and prices received.
Input and reviews were provided by a UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor and grower cooperators in San Diego County. The authors describe the assumptions used to identify current costs for avocado establishment and production, material inputs, cash and non-cash overhead.
The new study, “Avocado Establishment and Production Costs and Profitability Analysis in High Density Planting, San Diego County-2020,” can be downloaded for free from the UC Davis Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics website at http://coststudies.ucdavis.edu and UCCE Riverside County Farm Management website at https://ucanr.edu/sites/Farm_Management/Costs_and_Returns. Sample cost of production studies for many other commodities are also available on the websites.
For additional information or an explanation of the calculations used in the studies, refer to the “Assumptions” section of the report or contact Takele at (951) 683-6491 Ext. 243 or ettakele@ucanr.edu or Donald Stewart at the UC Agricultural Issues Center at destewart@ucdavis.edu. — By Pamela Kan-Rice, UCANR
One of the many wonderful things about California’s climate is that in many regions of the state you’ll find orchards of walnut, almond, pecan, pistachio or chestnut trees. You may be growing or planning to grow one or more of these trees in your yard so you can enjoy consuming the nuts. But do you know how to safely store, and preserve these fresh nuts?
There are just a few simple steps to follow. First, be sure to promptly remove the hull (the fibrous outer covering) that may still be remaining on some of the nuts. (If you have hulled walnuts before you will know they’ll stain your hands brown, so you should wear gloves to hull walnuts.)
During this time of COVID-19, you may be tempted to wash your fresh nuts, but don’t. Washing the nuts in their shell could increase their moisture and provide the environment for mold or bacteria to grow. Although not required to safely store the nuts, to decrease the likelihood of walnuts, almonds, pecans and pistachios developing mold, you may want to dry them. For walnuts and almonds, spread them out preferably single layer on a flat screen or tray that allows good air circulation. To prevent birds and other critters from making off with them while they are drying, cover them with another screen or plastic netting. Stir and move the nuts around daily.
It will take several days for them to dry. To determine when they are sufficiently dry, remove the shell from several nuts. Break apart the almond kernels, or walnut meat. If they are rubbery, they’re not dried sufficiently. If they are crisp or brittle when broken, then they are dried adequately.
For pecans, they should be dried slowly in air temperatures 75–85 degrees Fahrenheit to prevent the shells from cracking. A fan blowing on the nuts will speed up the drying process, which can take up to 10 days. The pecans are dry when they’re brittle and the membrane between the kernel halves separate easily from the kernels.
Pistachios can be dried in the sun on a plastic tarp, or they can be dried in the oven at 140–160 degrees Fahrenheit for 10–14 hours. They are dried when the kernels are crisp, but not brittle.
Before consuming or storing at room temperature, fresh home-grown walnuts, almonds, pecans, pistachios or chestnuts, or those bought at farm stands, pasteurize them to kill any insects or insect eggs. To pasteurize, simply place them in the freezer for 48 hours. (Make sure your freezer is set at 0 degrees Fahrenheit or lower.)
To store your walnuts, almond, pecans or pistachios, place them in clean moisture free, odor tight packaging, such as glass or plastic jars or other containers. The nuts can be stored shelled or unshelled. They can be stored up to a year in your refrigerator set at 40 degrees Fahrenheit or lower. Almonds can be stored in your freezer (set at 0 degrees Fahrenheit or lower) for a year or more, walnuts and pecans for two years plus, and pistachios for three years. 
Chestnuts are different from the other nuts because they’re more like potatoes than tree nuts. They usually develop mold within two weeks if stored at room temperature. Unshelled chestnuts can only be stored for two to three months in the refrigerator, but shelled chestnuts can be stored for a year in the refrigerator. Both shelled and unshelled chestnuts can be stored in the freezer for one year or more. Enjoy your stored nuts throughout the year! — By Kathy Low, UC Master Food Preserver of Solano & Yolo Counties
For more information about the UC Master Food Preserver Program, including the Food Preservation Video Library, visit mfp.ucanr.edu.
For most of us, 2020 can’t be over soon enough. Yet, in the digester development world, each day from today through 2024 is precious time to identify facilities, procure funding, and install digesters. Why? To capture methane and use it as valuable renewable compressed natural gas (RCNG) and meet ambitious manure methane reduction targets.
How is the California digester portfolio doing? Since 2015, 119 dairies have installed, or are installing, digesters to capture and utilize manure methane. The number of dairy projects receiving funding by year and developer are shown in Table 1. The 2015 projects used methane for electricity. Only two digesters since then use methane for electricity. Almost all facilities use biogas for renewable compressed natural gas. Digesters are being developed in six counties within the San Joaquin Valley. The success of these projects and others yet to come will help California dairies meet the ambitious goal of 40 percent reduction in manure methane from 2013 levels by 2030.
For more information on funding, see the CDFA website. — By Deanne Meyer – UC Davis Department of Animal Science & UCANR