UC Rice Blog

I have heard that there may be a shortage of aqua-ammonia (aqua) fertilizer for the start of this year's rice season. This begs the question as to what are the options. In previous studies, we have compared aqua to urea fertilizer.

While most Californians are staying home to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, California farmers, farmworkers and other agricultural professionals are out in the fields and packing houses working to produce food.

As you know, we have been monitoring armyworm flights with pheromone traps across the valley since 2018. This year, the first set of traps were put out on 4/10 near Princeton, and today we put out a few more. We checked the first traps today, and we got an average of 2 moths per night per trap.

In the past few weeks, we have been getting updates from some irrigation districts that water allocations have been reduced in some areas. We have provided some information in past years that will still be relevant this year. During drought years water deliveries are often restricted.

We have gotten several calls about the use of zinc (Zn) fertilizers to address potential Zn deficiencies. The price of zinc is going up, and it is prompting growers to look more carefully at the use of zinc.