Nut, Olive and Prune Programmatic News

Crown gall is one of the most common diseases observed in commercial walnut orchards in California. The disease, caused by a plant pathogenic bacterium, is easy to identify based on symptomology alone.

Over 80% of the almond crop is borne on short, compact vegetative shoots called spurs. Each season, however, only a portion of the spur population on a given tree supports fruit production.

The first step in assessing the cause of canopy chlorosis and decline in an orchard is mapping the distribution of the symptoms. If a pattern of chlorosis is similar across irrigation lines, then the cause of the problem may be related to over- or under-watering.

Over the past decade, combined nut acreage in Tulare and Kings Counties has more than doubled, resulting in an expansion of the labor force needed to harvest the >250,000 acres of nuts locally.

It is not often that we observe cankers caused by Phytophthora on pistachio in CA; however, the unique situation observed on a recent farm call is worth recounting.