Wolfskill Experimental Orchards

What Do Vinegar Flies Eat?

October 12, 2026
By Mark P Bolda, Dylan J Beal
Mark was out with an accomplished entomologist the other day when we asked each other the question of what do vinegar fly adults eat? Oddly enough, given our lengthy combined experience with these, neither of us knew.Mark’s mental model of the complete metamorphosis that a vinegar fly, to which spotted wing…
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Links from our September 11 Cold Conditioning in Strawberry Meeting

September 30, 2026
By Mark P Bolda
Find linked below the Powerpoint presentations from our Cold Conditioning of Strawberry UCCE Meeting which took place this past September 11.  I think for the people who attended it was a valuable lesson on an increasingly important topic.  My two presentations are a summary of what we, and I do…
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Lessons from the soil applied to the human gut microbiome

September 22, 2026
By Mark P Bolda
The idea in soil science is that the greater the diversity of the microbiome of a soil the higher the degree of health it has; and this in fact is more important than the specific constituents themselves of that microbiome.The article from the August 15, 2026 issue of The Economist that I am quoting here, of…
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Announcing September 11 UCCE Meet Up about Cold Conditioning of Strawberry

August 12, 2026
By Mark P Bolda
The matter of cold conditioning in strawberry is one of great importance to growers, farm managers and pest control advisors, and one for which patterns of management are established but nevertheless should be understood more to adapt to the changes in varieties and production patterns.In turn, over the last…
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Phytophthora citricola in raspberries

July 22, 2026
By Yu-Chen Wang, Mark P Bolda
Phytophthora root rot is a common soilborne disease of raspberry. At least nine Phytophthora species have been reported as root pathogens of raspberry.  P. fragariae var. rubi, which is now known as P. rubi, is the species that many industry professionals thought was the most common. In mid-May 2026, a…
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Phytophthora citricola in raspberry

June 15, 2026
By Yu-Chen Wang, Mark P Bolda
Phytophthora wilt is a not at all uncommon soil disease of raspberry, and is pretty easy to find subsequently.  It is caused by several species of the pathogen Phytophthora, the most common of which was formerly referred to as P. fragariae , but which is now known simply as P. rubi.  This disease…
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Manganese Deficiency in Raspberry

June 15, 2026
By Mark P Bolda
The Problem: I first addressed this issue and evaluated a yellowing of the leaves at the tips of fruiting laterals in an organic raspberry field in 2015, and have now once again been called on to evaluate the same thing in that is widespread in two new raspberry varieties.  With the generosity of…
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Effects of Shading on Raspberry Leaves

May 14, 2026
By Mark P Bolda
As those of you who read this space at least sometimes know there are a lot of reasons that plant leaves turn yellow and that this can be beyond just the most obvious like nutrient deficiency or sickness, and sometimes includes things that we don't think about at the beginning.In this vein, consider the…
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AgAlert - Nice Overview of the Start of the CA Strawberry Season

May 7, 2026
By Mark P Bolda
I've been included in a very nice article written by Robert McCarthy of AgAlert, who includes my, along with a who's who of the industry, comments describing the unusually early start to our strawberry year, not only in the Watsonville-Salinas axis, but also Oxnard and Santa Maria. Volume is way up, but the…
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April showers bring...ruined berries and heartbreak

April 14, 2026
By Mark P Bolda
The Salinas Watsonville growing region was beset by significant amounts of rain this past weekend, so it was time to go out and have a look.  It's tough to see this, since while the crews are out picking as they have been for about a month, the fruit is being thrown away rather than put into clamshells…
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3rd Annual Strawberry Commission Production Research Meeting - April 24

April 6, 2026
By Mark P Bolda
All are welcome to attend the Third Annual Strawberry Commission Production Research to take place this coming April 24 at the Santa Maria Inn in Santa Maria. I'll be presenting there with a large number of my colleagues, lots and lots of information to be shown and discussed.Flier, in English and Spanish,…
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Downy mildew in blackberry

April 1, 2026
By Mark P Bolda, Yu-Chen Wang
Blackberry growers should note that the moderate rains taking place in ambient temperatures of 65 to 75 degrees F as is common in February and March on the Central Coast are excellent conditions for outbreaks of downy mildew. Downy mildew is caused by the fungal pathogen Peronospora sparsa. …
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Raspberry Sawfly

March 15, 2026
By Mark P Bolda
This was published back in 2008, but even though I haven't had a call on this for a while, it's still good to have posted here: Raspberry sawfly, Monophadnoides geniculatus, is an uncommon pest in raspberries on the Central Coast of California. I recently had a question concerning this pest,…
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Poor Pollination in Raspberries

March 10, 2026
By Mark P Bolda
3/9/2026 - this is a blog post I wrote back in early 2010, but when we switched over to the new blog presentation system last year it was unfortunately removed from the thread.  Still, it's good information to have out in the public domain, so I post it back up again.  MarkThere are many causes of…
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Slop: Word of the Year from The Economist

January 9, 2026
By Mark P Bolda
The Economist, a leading British news and current affairs magazine, wrote recently that “slop” is the word of the year 2025, “representative, if not of the whole year, at least of much of the feeling of living in it.” It seems that this word “slop” was first officially described in the 15th century and…
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Strawberries and Caneberries: Article

Now You See It, Now You Don't. A Note about Fruit Ripening in Blackberry

August 14, 2025
By Mark P Bolda
A persistent question this time of year is why sometimes blackberry fruit are not ripening. They go through flower, green fruit and then to red, but once at that stage some (or many, I have even witnessed cases of all, really sad) stay red and simply refuse to ripen.As many readers of this blog know this is…
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Welcome

"The Wolfskill Experimental Orchards are a research treasure," says Professor Ted DeJong, a University of California pomologist and the Orchard's director. "Work here has resulted in the development and release of 55 new varieties - 29 strawberry, 8 processing peach, 7 cherry, 5 almond, 3 prune and 3 pistachio, as well as 2 almond-peach rootstocks."

 

 
 

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