- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The Geographic Information Systems (GIS) team at the Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center is growing this year. The program will add two positions in the coming months with new grant funding as more scientists recognize the value of employing spatial mapping in their agricultural research, said Kris Lynn-Patterson, the GIS Academic Coordinator at Kearney.
In one of the new projects, the Kearney GIS team will work with Beth Grafton-Cardwell, a UC Riverside citrus entomology specialist and director of the UC Lindcove Research and Extension Center, to provide the spatial information necessary to better manage Asian citrus psyllid (ACP) and the possible future occurrence of Huanglongbing, a devastating citrus disease that the psyllid can spread. ACP was introduced into California in 2008; large populations are now established in urban areas of San Diego, Imperial, Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside counties. Huanglongbing has not been detected in California to date. The California Department of Food and Agriculture and citrus growers are treating urban and agricultural areas of infestation to prevent ACP spread and Huanglongbing introduction.
GIS will be used to document the locations of ACP infestations and the disease, and analyze the risk and rate of spread from the urban areas into commercial citrus. The research is funded by a five-year grant from UC Agriculture and Natural Resources to conduct risk assessment, economic analysis and extension education for Asian citrus psyllid and Huanglongbing disease management in California.
Kearney GIS also secured a contract with the Citrus Research Board to map all commercial citrus orchard locations and boundaries in California.
“This will go hand in hand with the Asian citrus psyllid research,” Lynn-Patterson said. “Currently a seamless GIS map layer of this type doesn’t exist, but is badly needed to facilitate the effective use of GIS in an area-wide pest management program.”
Another source of funding for the GIS program has been Cotton Incorporated and the California Cotton Alliance for continuing work with Kearney-based UC integrated pest management advisor Pete Goodell. GIS is critical to understanding the movement of lygus bugs through the San Joaquin Valley’s diverse cropping landscapes and the relationship between crops that act as sources (places from which lygus originate) or sinks (crops into which lygus move). Throughout the year, lygus feed on various crops and weeds, and when these become unsuitable, they move into cotton, where lygus costs farmers nearly $19 million in yield loss each year.
The GIS team will build on the existing Lygus Community Mapping Program by incorporating lygus monitoring data, and delivering the program through smart mobile devices, such as 3G- and 4G-compatible cell phones and tablets.
See Kearney’s Web-based GIS website for more information on the program.
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
A newly redesigned website, the UC Fruit Report, was launched at the beginning of 2012 with comprehensive information for Central Valley tree fruit producers. The website contains research and photos that three UC Cooperative Extension advisors and specialists developed and collected over the past 30 years.
Website visitors will find useful horticultural information about establishing and managing fresh market peach, plum and nectarine orchards. UC pomology specialist Scott Johnson, who is based at the Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center, devoted half of his year-long sabbatical in 2011 to aggregating the information online.
“The website has a lot of information that will help farmers,” Johnson said. “If they’re seeing symptoms on their leaves that they think is a nutrient deficiency, they can go into the site and look at pictures and compare. If they’re planning future orchards, they can go through 35 different rootstocks, from dwarfing rootstocks to those that are resistant to certain diseases.”
The basic information on the website is concise and easy to read. The entries include links to detailed research reports for those who wish to explore the topics further.
The site is maintained by Johnson, Tulare County UCCE farm advisor Kevin Day and UC Davis-based pomology specialist Ted De Jong. They will periodically update the website to reflect the newest research findings and post timely news.
“For example, if we’re seeing a problem with mites,” Johnson said. “We can put that up on the web, where farmers can find solutions to the problem.”
Separate sections in the website are devoted to:
- Orchard establishment
- Rootstocks
- Varieties
- Pruning and training
- Pollination
- Thinning
- Girdling
- Nutrition and fertilization
- Irrigation
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Richard "Dick" Rice passed away on Dec. 24, 2011, at the age of 74. Dr. Rice was a UC Davis entomologist who worked at the Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center for 33 years.
Dr. Rice was raised and spent much of his career in the Central Valley. He attended Sultana Grammar School, Dinuba High School and a semester at Reedley Jr. College before going on to UC Davis in 1956. There he earned his bachelor's degree in 1960 and master's degree in 1961 before serving two years in the U.S. Army as a medical entomologist. He earned his Ph.D. in insect ecology and agricultural entomology at UC Davis in 1967.
Dr. Rice's specialty became pest management in tree fruit and nut crops. He worked closely with the tree fruit and nut industries in the Central Valley on a number of significant insect and mite pests over his career, becoming especially noted for his research on trapping and monitoring systems for San Jose scale, peach twig borer, navel orangeworm, oriental fruit moth, codling moth, omnivorous leafroller, and a number of Hemipterans attacking pistachios and almonds.
UC Davis entomology professor Frank Zalom said Dr. Rice's research helped make the producers of California fruit and nut crops dominant in world markets today.
"His contributions cannot be overstated," Zalom said. "He was an early innovator in using management approaches to regulatory and quarantine entomology, focusing on developing acceptable programs for exporting California's fruit to other countries through cultural management and monitoring while minimizing the use of disruptive and environmentally harsh interventions."
Dr. Rice was an active member of the Entomological Society of America. He served as President of the Pacific Branch and Secretary-Treasurer for three years.
Dr. Rice was born in Dinuba on Sept. 5, 1937, to F. Edwin and Eleanor Rice. He served on the USDA/CDFA Medfly Science Advisory Panel, and on science advisory committees for the California avocado, citrus, stone fruit, nut and olive industries. Upon his retirement in 2001, he received the status of entomologist emeritus at UC Davis and remained active professionally as a consultant to several agricultural industry commissions.
Dr. Rice was a long-time member of the First Presbyterian Church of Dinuba, Dinuba Lions Club and the Kings River Golf & Country Club.
Dr. Rice was preceded in death by his parents; and his sisters, Joanne DeWitt and Barbara Rice. Dick is survived by his wife of 20 years, Carol; his son Kevin of Truckee; his daughters, Kim Lindell and husband Chris of Mancos, Co., and Kari Bettencourt of Sonoma; sister, Bette George and husband Steve of Sultana; and step-children, Scott Lewis and wife Renata, and Cari Hager and husband Edward; and grandchildren, Samantha and Cameron Rice and Corey Lewis.
As a tribute to Dr. Rice, donations may be made to the Kingsburg Cancer Volunteers, P.O. Box 26, Kingsburg, CA 93631; Alta District Historical Society, P. O. Box 254, Dinuba, CA 93618 and Nancy Hinds Hospice, 1616 W. Shaw, Ste C-1, Fresno, CA 93711.
(From the family obituary and other reports.)
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
UC Integrated Pest Management Program entomologist Walt Bentley opened the meeting with an overview of the crop's most serious insect pests. Bentley suggested growers focus on omnivorous leaf rollers and cotton aphids. Ash whiteflies had been a pomegranate problem in the 1980s, until UC scientists introduced a natural enemy, encarsia, in 1991.
"This was an amazing biological control success," Bentley said.
Bentley admonished growers to protect the beneficial insects on their farms.
"Ash whitefly will eat you alive if you take encarsia away," he said.
Today, omnivorous leaf rollers are the key pomegranate pests. They move into the crop from weedy areas, feed on leaves, and unlike in grapes and peaches, will also feed inside pomegranate fruit.
"If you're not monitoring for it with pheromone traps you're going to get stung and it will cost you money," Bentley said. He suggested traps be placed in orchards in February.
Another important pest of pomegranates, cotton aphids, reduces crop yields and contaminates the fruit by excreting honeydew. Bentley described crop protection strategies for these pests plus ants, fork-tailed bush katydids, grape mealybug, false chinch bug, leaf-footed plant bug, citrus flat mite, navel orangeworm and filbert worm.
Kearney plant pathologist Themis Michailides presented research results from his lab on black heart disease of pomegranates. Black heart is of particular concern because it causes no external symptoms; consumers who encounter the unappealing blackened fruit inside may be reluctant to try pomegranates again in the future. The research focuses on the identification of the fungus species that cause black heart, understanding the infection process, and developing procedures to manage the disease. Michailides has concluded that the main cause of black heart is Alternaria spp., fungi that are very abundant in nature and cause diseases in many crops. Further research was conducted to determine when infections take place in order to properly time the management application.
"We found that the 'Achilles heel' for infection by Alternaria is the open pomegranate flowers," Michailides said. "Amazingly, infections start at bloom, remain latent in the fruit and develop later in season as the fruit matures."
Among Moersfelder's favorites are Parfianka, a well balanced, sweet-tart pomegranate with excellent grenadine flavor and soft seeds, and Ariana, which has deep red rind and dark red arils. The darkest variety in the Davis collection is Kara-Gul, a cultivar from Azerbaijian. This variety, however, is more susceptible to heart rot. Moersfelder also characterized spice type pomegranates from the Western Himalayas, which are dried and used as condiments in Indian food, and ornamental varieties, many of which produce beautiful flowers but no fruit.
The meeting was organized by UC Cooperative Extension farm advisors Maxwell Norton, Bob Beede, and Richard Molinar.
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
UC subtropical horticulture specialist Mary Lu Arpaia, who is based at the Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center, was one of four UC specialists who traveled to Sarajevo Oct. 24-28 at the request of local officials to present a condensed version of the UC Postharvest Technology Short Course. Nearly 100 participants from 11 countries attended the program, which included lectures and a field tour. Simultaneous translation was offered in Bosnian and Russian.
“To me it was a very interesting experience,” Arpaia said. “The participants were very engaged in the course and asked lots of questions that were spot-on in terms of sharing practical information. They were very keen to get information on the ‘how to’ and solving practical situations."
Mary Reed of the UC Postharvest Technology Center said interest in the short course was remarkable given that the first estimate from planners was for 25 participants.
“Interest just kept growing and growing as word got around,” Reed said. “Given the challenges of traveling in the region, acquiring visas, and obtaining agency permissions, the participants really had to overcome significant obstacles in order to attend.”
Arpaia said the four-days she spent with Eastern European farmers in an area that suffered bitter ethnic conflicts in the 1990s also made a profound personal impression.
“I had been aware of the war in the Balkans but never fully appreciated the impact of that war on people’s lives,” she said. “You can still see the physical scars of the war – mortar shell scars on buildings, burned and abandoned buildings – and, more dramatically, hear the angst of the people when they talked about those times. It is another example to reflect upon in terms of how lucky we are in the U.S. and that we need to forever be vigilant not to allow animosities to fester due to ethnicity, religion etc.”