- 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...
- Author: Richard Smith
- Posted by: Gale Perez
Richard Smith is a University of California Cooperative Extension Farm Advisor in Monterey County.
Leeks are in the onion family and are increasingly important crop in Monterey County. In 2017, there were 475 acres produced worth $8.6 million. They are mostly established by transplanting and days to maturity is generally 120+ days, but varies widely depending on the time of year and market demand. Given the long crop cycle and the lack of a dense crop canopy, leeks are susceptible to successive waves of weed emergence. Growers complain that leeks “blow up” weed populations by allowing a significant number of weeds to mature and set seeds.
The preemergent herbicides DCPA and...
- Author: Travis M Bean
- Re-posted by: Gale Perez
From the Topics in Subtropics blog (Oct. 15, 2018)
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Although the main objective of herbicide use in avocado orchards (and all crops) is to manage weed populations, sometimes unintentional injury of the crop itself can occur when herbicides are incorrectly applied. Herbicide injury in avocado can reduce yield, decrease fruit, reduce plant vigor, increase susceptibility to diseases and pests, and sometimes result in plant death. Common situations resulting in injury include spray drift, tank contamination, application of the...
- Author: Ben Faber
- Re-posted by: Gale Perez
From the Topics in Subtropics blog
A garden can be a competitive environment. Plants and unseen microorganisms in the soil all need precious space to grow. And to gain that space, a microbe might produce and use chemicals that kill its plant competitors. But the microbe also needs immunity from its own poisons.
By looking for that protective shield in microorganisms, specifically the genes that can make it, a team of UCLA engineers and scientists discovered a new and potentially highly effective type of weed killer. This finding could lead to the first new class of commercial herbicides in more than 30 years, an important...
- Author: Marie Jasieniuk
- Posted by: Gale Perez
Herbicides are the main means of controlling weeds. Recently, there has been increasing concern over the potential impacts of climate change, specifically, increasing temperatures and elevated carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations, on the sensitivity of weeds to herbicides. A postdoctoral fellow in my lab, Maor Matzrafi, investigated the response of horseweed and lambsquarters to treatment with glyphosate under the higher temperatures and CO2 levels that are predicted to exist in northern California around 2050. Maor showed that the sensitivity of both weeds to glyphosate was reduced in response to increased temperature, elevated CO2 level, and the combination of both factors. He also found that...