Topics in Subtropics

I recently went out to an avocado orchard on sandy soil that had had sudden leaf drop after a Santa Ana condition. The problem is that the orchard had had an ongoing leaf blight problem that had been accentuated by two years of drought and with the Santa Ana more pressure had been put on the trees.

The talk of drought and water restrictions in the State has created a time for serious decisions.

I recently traveled to the Malaga area of Spain where there is quite a bit of new planting going on. The industry celebrated its industry in 2002 with the World Avocado Congress and we saw a considerable expansion of the industry then and more has occurred since then.

The latest (2012) Department of Agriculture reports on county agricultural production can be found at http://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/California/Publications/AgComm/201212cactb00.

In a mandarin orchard today, I saw what appeared to be sun burn damage. The bark was missing on the top, south facing branches. It was old damage and was healing over along the edges. I mentioned it to the grower who told me it was roof rat damage.