- Author: Jeffrey P. Mitchell
February 6, 2022
Expert weed ecologist, Dr. Anil Shrestha, of Fresno State's Department of Viticulture and Enology, has begun two exhaustive investigations of weed prevalence and diversity at the organic farm of USDA NRCS CIG Project farmer member, Phil Foster. The study involves four cover crop treatments that include Merced rye, Pacheco triticale, Phil's 'go to' mix of Phacelia, millet and faba bean, and the SJV morning glory suppression mix of Cary Crum that other CIG farmers are also trying at their farms. Each cover crop is laid out in fifteen-foot wide strips that are replicated throughout the field three times. Shrestha took his first set of data on February 3rd at the Santa Ana ranch study site and plans to return in two weeks for additional observations there as well as at Phil's San Juan ranch location where a similar replicated study is underway. Suffice it to say that ample very interesting data will stem from these monitoring efforts and that even in the initial sampling there seemed to be rather striking differences between the cover crops in terms of weed counts. A plot plan of the study that Phil prepared and a short video clip of the sampling methodology used by Dr. Shrestha are provided below. A link to a You Tube link of the video of Dr. Shrestha's sampling technique is provided here as well.
- Author: Jeffrey P. Mitchell
January 20, 2022
Undergraduate student, Jennifer Valdez-Herrera, took home the first prize award in this year's student poster competition of the California Weed Science Society that was held January 19th - 21st at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Sacramento, CA. Her poster titled, Potential of roller-crimper technology for weed suppression in annual crops, reported on the first four years of a study that has been conducted on the Fresno State campus under a center pivot irrigation system. The rolled cover crops are followed by strip-tillage planted silage corn. Five mixes, rye, an ultra high diversity mix from Green Cover Seed in Bladen, NE, a multiplex mix from Lockwood Seed and Grain in Chowchilla, CA, a faba bean and Phacelia combination, and a three-way mix of rye, peas, and purple vetch are replicated three times in about 300 foot strips throughout the field. A copy of Valdez-Herrera's poster is provided below and a short 56-second video showing the current stage of growth of the 2021 - 2022 cover crops may be seen at
- Author: Jeffrey P. Mitchell
January 20, 2022
Year 5 of a major cover crop roller crimper study is underway on the Fresno State campus in the school's center pivot field under the monitoring supervision of Dr. Anil Shrestha and his undergraduate student research assistant, Jennifer Valdez-Herrera and graduate student, Robert Wilmott. The project repeats five cover crop mix treatments (rye, an ultra high diversity mix provided by Green Cover Seed of Bladen, NE, a Multiplex mix of Lockwood Seed and Grain in Chowchilla, CA, a two-species mix of faba bean and Phacelia, and a three-way mix of rye, peas, and purple vetch. A short, 49-second video showing Valdez-Herrera and Wilmott and the stage of growth of the cover crops on January 20, 2022 can be viewed at the You Tube link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_E42GAg5Fzs
- Author: Jeffrey P. Mitchell
January 19, 2022
On a foggy morning at the Santa Ana Ranch of Phil Foster's Pinnacle Organically Grown Produce farm nearHollister, CA, he along with fellowCIG Project farmer, Tom Willey, met with JohnPetrosso, the Sales Engineer forMazzei Injector Company to plan a study aimed at evaluating the effectiveness ofMazzei's air injection equipment as a possible means for increasing oxygen availability for soilmicrorganisms and thereby get higher vegetable crop yields. The air injection technique has had positive results in a variety of earlier studies with vegetables, but has not taken off as a mainstream practice of vegetable farmers to date. Foster and Willey are particularly keen to see if air injection might overcome some of the yield declines that they've been seeing in recent years as Phil's farm has tried to rely on less and less soil disturbance with tillage implements. The project has been in the planning stages for several months and is now shaping up in terms of more detailed field implementation. The study crop in 2022 at Foster's farm will be peppers. Three articles describing previous work on the air injection technique as well as a short video with Petrosso's predictions for what will be seen in the 2022 pepper crop are available below and at th You Tube link
2001 Using Air in SDI to Increase Yields in Bell Peppers International Irrigation Show
2001-Vegetables West Adding Air Adds Yield
2005-02-17 Two-phase Flow of Water & Air During Aerated Subsurface Drip Irrigation SU & MIDMORE JOH
- Author: Jeffrey P. Mitchell
CASI's Mitchell helps with KVPR interview on climate change
January 16, 2022
CASI's very own Jeff Mitchell, along with UC ANR colleagues Mae Culumber, George Zhuang, Karl Lund, and Bob Hutmacher, helped with information on their research that is related to climate change in an interview with KVPR reporter, Kerry Klein, at the UC West Side field station on January 14th 2022. The segment was part of the Valley Report on KVPR and was titled, “Climate change resilience begins with water say these UC ag researchers.” An audio recording and a copy of the report written by Klein are available at https://www.kvpr.org/environment/2022-01-14/climate-change-resilience-begins-with-water-say-these-uc-ag-researchers
