Growing the Valley

Phoebe and Luke are back with almond, pistachio, walnut, and prune tasks for May. Luke also discusses possible freeze damage that is severely impacting some walnut orchards throughout much of the California growing region.

Evapotranspiration data is a cornerstone of California irrigation management. I sit down with Allan Fulton (UCCE Irrigation Advisor) to discuss how to find and utilize ET data.

Measuring soil moisture by hand with the “feel” method, or with modern senor technology can be a powerful irrigation management tool. I sit down with Allan Fulton (UCCE Irrigation Advisor) to discuss how to measure and interpret orchard soil moisture. Thanks to the Pistachio Board of California and Almond Board of California for their generous financial support. Music by Muriel Gordon.

Phoebe is the interviewee today, and she talks with Luke about the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum, water potential, and water storage in soils.  Thanks to the Pistachio Board of California and Almond Board of California for their generous financial support. Music by Muriel Gordon.

Prune tree fruit set is tricky business! Good fruit set occurs under a relatively narrow band of conditions and then requires thinning if good fruit size will be achieved. Franz Niederholzer (UCCE Colusa & Sutter-Yuba Counties) and I discuss what UC research has learned about bloom conditions and what growers can do to manage fruit set. Thanks to the Pistachio Board of California and Almond Board of California for their generous financial support. Music by Muriel Gordon.

Phoebe and Luke are back with next month’s tasks for almonds, pistachios, prunes, and walnuts. The discussion serves for informational purposes only and is not a pesticide or management recommendation. Find out more at ipm.ucanr.edu. Thank you to the Almond Board of California and the California Pistachio Research Board for their kind donations. Thank you to Muriel Gordon for the music.

Timing and careful material selection are critical in prune bloom disease management. Franz Niederholzer (UCCE Colusa & Sutter-Yuba Counties) discusses strategies for managing prune bloom diseases. 2017 Prune Fungicide & Efficacy Timing Tables (see PDF pages 60-61) http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PDF/PMG/fungicideefficacytiming.pdf Sac Valley Orchards blog on brown rot bloom and twig blight: http://www.sacvalleyorchards.com/prunes/brown-rot-blossom-and-twig-blight/ UC IPM for Prune: http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/selectnewpest.prune.html Mention of a pesticide does not constitute a pesticide recommendation. Always follow the pesticide label. Thanks to the Pistachio Board of California and Almond Board of California for their generous financial support. Music by Muriel Gordon.

In today’s episode, Phoebe talks with Spencer Cooper of the Almond Board of California on how to go from running water through your orchard to precise irrigation timing and management. While Spencer works for the ABC, the basics of irrigation management are the same for every crop, so make sure to listen to this episode to find out why the shovel, soil auger, and water meter are core technologies that every grower should be using to manage their orchard. Music by Muriel Gordon. We would like to thank the Almond Board of California and the California Pistachio Research Board for providing funding for this podcast.

In this premier episode of our irrigation series, David Doll and Luke Milliron dive into why skilled irrigation management is what separates the best almond farmers from the rest of the pack. Thanks to the Pistachio Board of California and Almond Board of California for their generous financial support. Music by Muriel Gordon.

In this episode, Phoebe interviews Elizabeth Fichtner about bloom in table olives. They go over basic botany and physiology, as well as a little bit of the work that Elizabeth has been doing to try to alleviate alternate bearing.

Almond, walnut, prune, and pistachio orchard tasks presented in a rapid fire, head-to-head competition! None of the discussion constitutes a recommendation. You can find more pest and disease information (including bee safety precautions) at ipm.ucanr.edu/ and information on efficacy and timing at ipm.ucanr.edu/PDF/PMG/fungicideefficacytiming.pdf. You can also see a list of March walnut, almond, and prune tasks at sacvalleyorchards.com/blog/almonds-blog/march-orchard-management-considerations/. Thanks to the Pistachio Board of California and Almond Board of California for their generous financial support. Music by Muriel Gordon.

Proper spray application is an easily overlooked and critically important aspect of integrated pest management. Lynn Wunderlich (UCCE Central Sierra) discusses some of the fundamentals of orchard air blast sprayer calibration and spray application.   None of the discussion of spray application constitutes a recommendation. You can find more information on spray application at the Canadian website: https://sprayers101.com/.

There are a lot of tools available in cling peach disease management. Dr. Jim Adaskaveg (UC Riverside) discusses some strategies for the four key timings of disease management for cling peaches.

Almond bloom is upon us! Bloom is a critical time in disease management and David Doll sat down with Luke this past fall to discuss some keyconsiderations.

Sterile insect technology for navel orangeworm is in the early stages of evaluation. Phoebe discusses it with Houston Wilson, one of the UC ANR researchers involved with the program. In it they discuss what sterile insect technology is and what the researchers hope to achieve with it.