Growing the Valley

Fungal canker diseases are a growing concern for California almond farmers. Flo sits down with Phoebe to discuss the work his lab is doing to understand these fungal diseases and how to help prevent future infections.

Thousand Cankers Disease is a relatively new disease to California walnuts. Elizabeth talks to Phoebe about it, its close relationship with the walnut twig beetle, and the work that she and other USDA researchers have been doing to try to prevent infections in the future.

There is a new root knot nematode that Nemagard and Hansen 536 are not resistant to, that has been found in specific areas of Merced and Kern Counties. Phoebe talks with Mohammad Yaghmour, Kern County orchard advisor, about the little that we know about it. Please contact your county Farm Advisor or Agricultural Commissioner if you suspect that you have this nematode.

In this short episode, Phoebe Gordon chats with Dr. Brad Hanson, Weed Specialist with UC Davis. They talk about perennial weed management, as well as two species that have recently become problematic in orchard crops: alkaliweed and threespike goosegrass. We don’t know a lot about either, but Brad and other UC weed scientists are actively looking into management.

Today’s episode is a bit of a departure from our typical episodes. Instead of Luke or Phoebe interviewing someone, we’re chatting with a fellow researcher about a project we all are working on: the Regional Almond Variety Trial. We’re evaluating 30 different varieties, some very familiar to the industry (Nonpareil) against some that have just been released, or have not yet been released. This is also a bit longer than our regular episodes, so let us know what you think about the length and format.

Luke Milliron was interviewed on early frost risk in walnuts by Fred Hoffman of the KTSE Farm Hour podcast. Fred kindly agreed to share this interview with us. Sac Valley Orchards blog post on preparing for an early freeze in walnuts: http://www.sacvalleyorchards.com/blog/walnuts-blog/preparing-for-an-early-freeze/ To see recent episodes of the KSTE Farm Hour podcast: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/64-kste-farm-hour-28303867/

Luke and Phoebe sit down with Joe Connell, farm advisor emeritus for Butte County. Joe goes over the differences between advection and radiation frosts, ways to protect your orchard from frost protection, and the best irrigation systems for protecting against frosts. While we usually worry about frosts during bloom, early frosts can also damage orchards, particularly in the northern part of the state and in the foothills.

In the final episode of the navel orangeworm (NOW) series, Luke Milliron sits down with Sacramento Valley UCCE IPM advisor Dr. Emily Symmes to discuss sanitation practices for reducing the overwintering population of this devastating pest in nut crops.

The Brown Marmorated Stink Bug is a fairly new pest to California, though it’s been in the US for a while. It has just started to move into agricultural areas in the San Joaquin Valley. In this episode, Jhalendra tells Phoebe about some of this research and observations with this new pest in Stanislaus County.

Almond, walnut, prune, and pistachio orchard tasks presented in a rapid fire, head-to-head competition!

Phoebe interviews Craig Kallsen, the subtropical and pistachio tree crop advisor for Kern County, to talk about what we know and don’t know about dormancy in pistachios. Craig also talks about a paper he published recently looking at the correlation between winter and spring temperatures and current season’s yield. This is an ongoing area for research and there are still more questions than we have answers. This episode is a direct followup to “Chill with Dr. Katherine Jarvis-Shean”, and while you don’t need to listen to Katherine’s episode before you listen to this one, if you aren’t familiar with dormancy and the different chill models, we suggest you listen to that one before this one.

We discuss dormancy and chilling with Katherine Jarvis-Shean, Orchard Systems Advisor in Yolo, Solano, and Sacramento Counties (AKA Yolanomento). She explains what we know about dormancy, how we calculate chill accumulation, and why we seem to be seeing more winters with poor chill accumulation recently.

Phoebe Gordon sits down with farm advisor David Doll (UCCE Merced) to discuss tested strategies to overcome the replant problem, with a focus on almond production.

In part five of the navel orangeworm (NOW) series, Luke Milliron sits down with Sacramento Valley IPM advisor Dr. Emily Symmes to discuss best practices for integrated NOW management in walnut.

In this episode, Phoebe Gordon chats with the new  UCR entomology Specialist Houston Wilson.  We go over the differences in economically damaging flights between almonds and pistachios, the difficulties of sanitation, areas of exploration in mating disruption, as well as parasitoids and predators of NOW, and why they just don't do a good job of controlling the pest. Any mention of a commercial product is only for an example, and not an endorsement.