- Posted by: Gale Perez
Have you listened to a Growing the Valley podcast? Here are a couple you might want to check out.
Old and New Perennial Weeds with Dr. Brad Hanson
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...
/h4>- Author: Oleg Daugovish
- Posted by: Gale Perez
Over the years of Kerb use in lettuce (more like decades) there has been a lot of work on application methods. Our transplanted lettuce in southern California is usually grown on drip and when possible, we like to apply all things through it. Our fields are surrounded by four cities and folks there just don't seem to enjoy sprayer rigs that much.
At the UC Hansen Research & Extension Center (clay loam soil) we applied Kerb at 2.5 and 5 pints/A rate either via drip or bed spray. The herbicide was applied with second irrigation after transplanting of ‘Inferno' romaine (great name for green lettuce). The irrigation continued after Kerb application to assure moisture movement from drip tape past the plant...
- Author: Caio Brunharo
- Author: Brad Hanson
- Posted by: Gale Perez
Summer grass weed species are becoming more troublesome in orchards in the Central Valley of California. Feather fingergrass, junglerice, sprangletop and threespike goosegrass, to name a few, are summer grass weed species that germinate (or in some cases, resume growing) when the soil temperatures start to rise in the spring, develop during the summer and complete their life cycle in the fall. With such a life cycle, summer grass weed species reach their maximum biomass accumulation late summer/early fall – coincidently when harvest operations are taking place – if previous weed management approaches were inefficient. To make matters worse, some of the mentioned weed species have some degree of glyphosate...
- Author: Lynn M. Sosnoskie
Weeds compete with crops for light, water, and nutrients, which can result in yield reductions. Weeds can also interfere with crop production by serving as alternate hosts for pests and pathogens, providing habitat for rodents, and impeding harvest operations, among other impacts. Natural areas can also be impacted by weed species when they reduce aesthetics and disrupt ecosystem services. As a consequence, growers and land managers employ a variety of control strategies, including the application of herbicides, to manage unwanted vegetation.
Although herbicides can be effective tools for controlling undesirable plants, failures can and do occur. Weeds may escape chemical treatments for several reasons including: the selection...
- Author: Scott Stoddard
- Posted by: Gale Perez
The cantaloupe industry in California is in the middle of a huge paradigm shift, transitioning from classic western shipper varieties that require multiple harvests, to new Harper varieties, also known as LSL (Long Shelf Life) melons. Purported benefits include less labor at harvest and prolonged superior quality at the grocery store. Examples of Harper-type melons are the Infinite Gold, Fiji, Caribbean King and Caribbean Gold. Due to grower and buyer interest, seed companies are rapidly expanding the number of varieties with this trait.
However, LSL varieties are expensive hybrids relative to older, open pollinated cultivars, and seed costs can become a significant portion of the total cost of production, with some estimates...