- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
For more than a quarter century, Johnson conducted experiments with peach trees growing in the lysimeter, which allowed him to calculate precisely how much water evaporates from the soil and transpires from the tree on an hour-by-hour basis. Results of this research helped growers properly manage their irrigation strategies to improve fruit quality and yield.
A native of Utah, Johnson earned a bachelor’s degree in biology at the University of Utah. He earned a Ph.D. at Cornell in 1982 and that year moved his family to the San Joaquin Valley to begin a 31-year stint as UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the Department of Pomology at UC Davis, based at the Kearney facility in Parlier, Calif.
Using the lysimeter, Johnson discovered that some common fruit tree irrigation strategies being used in the San Joaquin Valley were significantly impacting fruit quality and yield.
“We found that growers should not cut back on water after harvest, if they can help it,” Johnson said. “Anytime we cut back on water applications, we developed some sort of problem – diseases, sunburn, mites and fruit disorders in the subsequent crops, like doubling and deep sutures.”
Despite the importance of the irrigation research, Johnson had perhaps his greatest impact on growers’ practices from his research on nitrogen fertilization. Many growers, he said, were over fertilizing their stone fruit orchards.
“We did a survey and found the average rate of nitrogen fertilization was 150 pounds per acre,” Johnson said.
However, much of that fertilizer stimulated vegetative growth, which shaded the fruit and prevented the desired reddening; and required more pruning in the winter, labor that added to the expense of growing fruit. In addition, the high fertilizer rates caused more problems with fruit quality, insect pests and diseases.
“I started working on this right at the beginning and harped on this same thing my whole career,” Johnson said. “Today, farmers are using about a half or a third of the fertilizer they did decades ago.”
Johnson also worked on understanding fruit trees’ need for other nutrients, such as zinc and calcium.
“It was pretty common for growers to apply zinc every year,” Johnson said. “From research we conducted at Kearney, we learned that orchards don’t need zinc every year. We also compared materials and found the cheapest zinc products work just as well as expensive ones. We’ve saved growers a lot of money with these results.”
Calcium research also helped farmers’ bottom line.
“Save your money,” Johnson said. “Peach trees don’t need calcium. It doesn’t help anything.”
Over the years, Johnson contributed to 70 peer-reviewed journal articles. He was an active contributor to the International Horticulture Society’s meeting proceedings, titled Acta Horticulturae, having authored or co-authored 30 articles.
Johnson worked closely with his colleagues Ted DeJong, UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis, and Kevin Day, UCCE farm advisor in Tulare County, on these and many other orchard research topics, including rootstocks, pruning, training systems, thinning, girdling, irrigation and fertilization. In 2011, Johnson took a sabbatical leave to organize and aggregate all the research findings on a comprehensive website called The Fruit Report.
“Everything is there on the website for growers establishing and managing fresh market peach, plum and nectarine orchards,” Johnson said.
Johnson has already sold his home in California and plans to move immediately back to Utah, where two of his children have settled with their families. The Johnsons will volunteer, travel, garden and, in a year, embark on a humanitarian mission with their church. Johnson has been honored with emeritus status and, though will be living out of the area, has plans to continue work on orchard fertilization management.
“There’s a great deal of interest today in reducing the potential for nitrogen to percolate down to the groundwater,” Johnson said. “You can get some nitrogen into a peach tree by spraying it on the leaves. It doesn’t get to the soil so there is less of a possibility of groundwater contamination. There may be some interest in this idea in the future, particularly in areas where the soil is very sandy or the orchard is near a stream.”
Though Johnson said he had some misgivings about working off campus when he first took the job with the University of California, he leaves with no regrets.
“I loved working at Kearney,” Johnson said. “To me, it turned out to be the ideal job.”
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
“I started and just kept going,” said Charlie Summers, a research entomologist who was first affiliated with UC Berkeley and later affiliated with UC Davis. Summers ends a 42-year stretch at Kearney when he retires June 30.
Summers grew up on a family farm in Utah and always knew he wanted a career in agriculture. He said he decided at age 12 to go to college, “when I was at the wrong end of a short-handled hoe.”
Summers earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in zoology and entomology respectively at Utah State University in Logan, Utah, and a doctorate degree in entomology at Cornell in 1970, the same year he started at Kearney.
“The job at Kearney was an absolutely perfect fit for me,” Summers said. “It was a dream job. I look forward to coming to work every morning and would sometimes shake my fist at the sun going down at night. I’ve loved every minute I’ve been here.”
Summers studied a wide range of pest problems in field and vegetable crops. He developed economic thresholds for more than a dozen pests and management strategies for equally as many crops. Among the most challenging pests was the alfalfa weevil, he said. It has been particularly unresponsive to biological control and host plant resistance.
“It is one of the insects that has defied everything we’ve thrown at it except pesticides,” Summers said.
Silverleaf whitefly also posed a tremendous challenge during his career. Silverleaf whitefly was first found in the United States in Florida poinsettia crops during the mid-1980s. Eventually it made its way to a wide range of crops in California, resulting in severe economic losses to growers. Heavy applications of traditional chemicals needed to control the pest caused growers’ costs to increase. The production of some crops ceased altogether because of the extent of silverleaf whitefly damage.
In time, Summers and his colleagues developed a protocol for monitoring and managing the silverleaf whitefly. Light populations are controlled by native and introduced parasites and predators. More severe infestations must still be treated with pesticides.
Another major challenge was the corn leafhopper. The pest first made its way to California in the early 1940s, but didn’t become a serious problem until the end of the 1990s, when it was found to transmit corn stunt disease.
“Corn stunt disease caused plants to form few or no ears of corn. Some farmers’ yields were cut in half,” Summers said. “We worked out a strategy for scheduling planting to avoid the most serious damage. That’s worked out well for growers.”
Crops grown on silver mulch produced significantly higher yields of marketable fruit than did those grown on bare soil, the researchers concluded. Reflective mulch has been used by organic and conventional farmers up and down the valley and in Southern California to grow vegetables. Home gardeners have also applied these research results to garden beds by using aluminum foil as mulch.
Although Summers did not technically have a Cooperative Extension component to his position – he was among the last scientists hired to devote 100 percent of their time to research – Summers made it a point to work closely with farm advisors and specialists to convey research results to farmers.
“Extension work has been one of the most enjoyable things I’ve done,” he said. “I’ve worked with farm advisors on research projects, farm calls and given hundreds and hundreds of extension talks at their grower meetings.”
Summers has also authored more than 200 articles, book chapters and research papers, most of them peer reviewed.
Over the years, Summers said, the objective of his job – to help farmers develop successful pest management strategies – stayed the same, but technological advances dramatically changed the way he did his work.
“We’ve had the advent of computer technology, the use of mathematical models, work that can now be done at the DNA level. It’s put a whole new face on our ability to do research,” he said.
Nevertheless, he said, nothing can replace what he considers the essence of the Agricultural Experiment Station model: to personally assist growers.
“To me that’s the most important job we performed,” Summers said. “I hope this work continues.”
In retirement, Summers plans to move back to Utah to live near his sister and nephews and spend time pursuing his favorite pastime, fly fishing.
“I’ll be living 15 minutes from the Wasatch Mountains,” Summers said. “There’s a lot of good fishing there.”
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Walter Bentley, UC Cooperative Extension advisor, transferred to Kearney in 1994 after 17 years as a UC Cooperative Extension advisor in Kern County, specializing in entomology. The integrated pest management team – with advisors representing the core pest management disciplines of entomology, nematology, weed science and plant pathology – was formed in response to concern about the effect of pesticides on food safety, the environment and farmworker safety.
Bentley collaborated with IPM and commodity-specific UC Cooperative Extension advisors and specialists and farmers to develop IPM approaches and alternative control strategies that have reduced the use of the highest risk insecticides (carbamates and organophosphates) in California by 80 percent to 90 percent in almonds, grapes and tree fruit since 1995.
Bentley’s career success is demonstrated by the numerous awards he has received in the past year. A group of world IPM leaders presented Bentley with its Lifetime Achievement Award March 27 at the 7th International IPM Symposium in Memphis, Tenn. He also received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the California Association of Applied IPM Ecologists in February. In October 2011, Bentley received the UC Agriculture and Natural Resources Distinguished Service Award for Outstanding Extension.
Bentley grew up in San Joaquin County on his family’s cherry, walnut and peach farm in Linden. He began laboring in the orchards as a young boy, but the hard work didn’t deter him from pursuing a career in agriculture.
“Growing up on a farm is probably the best life a youngster can have,” Bentley said. “But I can’t say that it was easy for my parents. It was a struggle for them to raise a family and depend solely on income from the farm.”
Bentley earned a bachelor’s degree in horticulture and biology in 1969 at Fresno State University, and then spent two years in the U.S. Army working on tracing mosquito movement in the 4th Army area of Texas and Oklahoma and later in Utah. He earned a master’s degree in entomology in 1974 at Colorado State University. Bentley worked in biological pest control for the Colorado Department of Agriculture before returning to his native California for the UC Cooperative Extension position in Bakersfield.
“I had heard many rumors about how tough Bakersfield was in terms of weather and environment. Within two weeks of starting the job, there was a huge dust and wind storm in the area and the first summer we had 30 days in a row with the temperature 100 degrees or higher,” Bentley said. “But I came to enjoy Bakersfield.”
As the UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor for Kern County, Bentley worked with his colleagues to develop an IPM program for almonds, addressing primarily problems with spider mites, navel orange worms and ants. Also working with colleagues, he developed an IPM program for potatoes, emphasizing careful monitoring for potato tuber moth and postponing pesticide treatment until the pest reached a level at which economic damage occurs.
Perhaps his greatest accomplishment, however, was the relationship he cultivated with growers and pest control advisers in Kern County. In particular, Bentley worked closely with pioneer Bakersfield apple grower Lewis Sherrill to combat the problem of codling moth in apples. Sherrill started his own farm at age 76 and continued farming until he was nearly 100 years old.
“Apple farmers in Kern County were relying on information from Washington state, where a large part of the U.S. apple industry is located,” Bentley said. “But in Washington, codling moth only produces two generations in the summer. In Kern County, we had four. Lou and I analyzed codling moth flight dynamics, integration of materials and we began experimenting with mating disruption.”
At Kearney, Bentley continued his work on apples and almonds, plus he began to work extensively in grapes. Mealybug management in grapes, he said, became the most important and impactful part of his job. Bentley also played a role in developing a management plan to control katydid damage in peaches and helped farmers use mating disruption against oriental fruit moth in peaches.
“In my generation as an entomologist, a major breakthrough was the development and use of pheromones for ag pest monitoring and management,” Bentley said. “We found ways to use pests’ own biology against them.”
During his 36-year career, Bentley authored 65 chapters or sections in pest management manuals and 75 peer-reviewed articles. In addition, he wrote more than 250 articles for trade journals and newspapers.
"Mr. Bentley's career represents the best UCCE's faculty has to offer, “ said his IPM colleague, Pete Goodell, UC Cooperative Extension advisor based at Kearney. “Unselfish service, loyalty to his peers and clientele, intellectual honesty, dedication to the mission of UCCE and a genuine love for his work.”
Bentley credits the success of his program to the UC Cooperative Extension research and education continuum, which is designed to foster communication and collaboration from campus laboratories to farm fields and back again.
“I think this is one of the best educational programs in the world,” Bentley said. “We take information from UC campuses to the farms. And those of us who work with farmers bring first-hand experiences back to the campus and work with scientists to develop solutions.”
Bentley’s personal interest in insects, which got him into his line of work, will carry through into his retirement. One of his goals, he said, is building a teaching collection of insects, spiders, mites and other arthropods at Kearney. He has already acquired some of the equipment needed to house the collection, and plans to maintain some samples on pinned displays and others in live colonies. The collection will be a learning tool for farmers, pest control advisers, students and interns.
“Knowing what’s out there is an important part of understanding entomological science,” Bentley said.
Insects are also a part of his favorite pastime, fly fishing. Bentley said retirement will give him more time to spend on local rivers catching (and releasing) trout with his hand-tied flies. Bentley speaks passionately about the joy of fly fishing.
“There’s a pulse that runs through you,” Bentley said. “It feels like you’re a child on Christmas every time the fish hits the fly. It’s such a thrill.”
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Since 1977, Lazaneo has been the UC Cooperative Extension advisor for San Diego County urban horticulture, a job aimed at educating the county’s residents about plant selection, pest control and other cultural practices that protect the environment and ensure safe and successful gardens and landscapes.
During childhood, Lazaneo tinkered in his family’s backyard gardens, first planting bean and popcorn seeds from the kitchen pantry.
“Amazingly, they grew and produced an edible crop,” Lazaneo said. “I was hooked.”
Lazaneo has faced physical challenges in his life and career. As a 17-year-old high school student experimenting with fireworks, he shook a jar of chemicals to tragic effect. An explosion took off his right hand at the wrist and most of his left hand. Lazaneo also was born with a degenerative eye disorder that resulted in lifelong deteriorating vision and blindness in 2002. However these disabilities did not bring him down.
After earning a bachelor’s degree in horticulture at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, Lazaneo took a retail nursery sales position in San Jose.
“I discovered that the thing I enjoyed the most was educating customers about plants.” Lazaneo said.
He returned to college, earning a master’s degree in horticulture and a teaching credential in vocational agriculture at UC Davis. While looking for a permanent teaching job, a serendipitous contact led him to a temporary position with UC Cooperative Extension in Sacramento County, where administrators encouraged him to pursue a career with the organization. In 1977, he successfully applied for the urban horticulture position in San Diego County.
Around this time, an idea that took shape in the state of Washington was beginning to garner interest in California: Provide gardening enthusiasts with first-class training in horticultural methods in exchange for their commitment as a Master Gardener to share that information with others in the community. Lazaneo decided to offer the volunteer program in San Diego County, the second-most populous county in the state and a location which boasts a mild climate ideal for gardening year-round.
About 120 gardeners applied for Lazaneo’s first Master Gardener class in 1983, from which he selected 32 well-qualified individuals. The volunteers underwent 16 weeks of rigorous training with Lazaneo and other UC academics, including experts in integrated pest management, soil and water management, fruit tree, and vegetable culture. All members of the first class passed the final exam. San Diego’s newly certified Master Gardeners helped staff the UC Cooperative Extension booth at the county fair and answered phone inquiries from the public about plants and pests.
The application process has been competitive each time a new class of volunteer Master Gardeners was trained. Today, more than 220 active Master Gardeners staff well over 40 educational exhibits each year, and answer 5,000 phone and email inquiries annually. Another 55 Master Gardeners will complete the training program before Lazaneo retires.
In addition to working with homeowners, the San Diego Master Gardeners have maintained an active outreach program with schools interested in providing garden-based learning to their students. A group of Master Gardeners, with Lazaneo’s oversight and editing, created an elementary school curriculum, “Plant a Seed - Watch it Grow,” and offered to serve as consultants to schools that wished to develop gardens. On May 23 the School Gardens program was awarded a Certificate of Excellence by the San Diego Science Alliance.
“Our volunteers currently consult with more than 200 schools in the county each year,” Lazaneo said.
In the last few years, the Master Gardeners have also turned attention to community gardening. They have conducted workshops on how to start community gardens and worked with other gardening groups to change zoning regulations that will give county residents more community gardens.
Lazaneo also collaborated with the horticulture department at Cuyamaca Community College in El Cajon to study vegetable varieties that are best adapted to local growing conditions, including tomatoes and asparagus. He conducted a study in cooperation with Sunset Magazine evaluating floating row cover cloth for maximizing plant growth and deterring pest damage on vegetables.
“We used the quarter-acre community college plot for 12 years,” Lazaneo said. “When we harvested surplus tomatoes, we donated them to the food bank.”
Throughout his career, Lazaneo has written a gardening column for the San Diego Union-Tribune. He said he will continue writing during his retirement. He also plans to write answers to local residents’ most frequently asked questions to post for the San Diego Master Gardener website.
In addition to these activities, Lazaneo said he looks forward to having time for growing specialty plants in his home garden and for more reading, hiking and fishing.
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The Selma native was raised on a farm, where his family produced fruits and vegetables for sale at Highway 99 fruit stands. McKenry earned his degree in soil science with a biochemistry minor at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, in 1966, where his senior project targeted the microscopic soil-borne true round worms that would shape his career.
“Very few farmers knew much about nematodes at the time,” McKenry said. However, the pest was causing serious damage and yield loss, especially when crops were replanted into previously farmed land.
After serving as a vocational agriculture teacher in Yucaipa, a town east of San Bernardino, and conducting field trials with his students, McKenry was offered the opportunity to study nematodes at UC Riverside. He obtained his Ph.D. in 1972 and was soon appointed by UC Riverside to his nematology research position at Kearney.
McKenry said his research focus changed with the times. The first two decades, he studied the movement of fumigants and other pesticides in soil, and the timing and placement for nematode congregation under trees and vines. Equally important were his activities to develop newer methods to assure that California’s nursery stocks would remain nematode-free.
“As drip systems evolved, we encouraged farmers to pay more attention to the root flush in order to be more efficient with whatever treatments they used,” McKenry said.
Increasingly stringent regulations and bans on the use of certain fumigants began to turn nematologists’ attention to reduced rates using timing and placement as well as botanically derived alternatives to synthetic products. McKenry noted an unreported biological control process under way at Kearney where certain naturally occurring fungi and bacteria were lethal to nematodes.
“We’ve been working on that for 40 years,” McKenry said. “We’re still missing pieces, but the potential and limitations are better understood.”
During this period, McKenry also developed a portable drenching system that reduced off-gassing of soil fumigants and led the way for pre-plant delivery of degradable nematicides deep into soil.
The next 20 years was the period of rootstock exploration. Grape rootstocks that had been released in the 1960s were losing their resistance to nematodes in the 1980s. McKenry and his staff evaluated as many as 1,000 potential grape rootstocks from around the world. This was followed by evaluation of 100 peach and almond rootstocks and then thousands of potential walnut rootstocks.
More recently, McKenry identified the first effective nematode treatment that in very low doses could be sprayed onto leaves of trees and vines. This new chemistry was hidden away as an insecticide. Thousands of soil samples evaluated by McKenry and his research team at UC reported that if farmers followed a few guidelines, their yields could be boosted 10 percent to 20 percent.
In all, McKenry has written more than 250 research papers, half of them in pest management manuals, the other half peer-reviewed conference proceedings, book chapters and research journals.
Even though he will retire this summer, McKenry said he plans to continue with a few special projects.
“There is so much yet to be done,” he said.
He said he also looks forward to having more time to spend at his coastal home in Cayucos while continuing his worldwide travels.