This is our second in a series of blog posts on improving nitrogen (N) use efficiency in California small grains. This post focuses on the use of N-rich reference zones to assess in-season N status and make management decisions based on crop need. Our goal is to help growers and consultants learn how to use N-rich zones to improve small grain N fertilizer use efficiency and reduce negative environmental outcomes. To demonstrate what we know about this practice across the small grain growing regions of the state, our team has helped growers establish N-rich zones in their fields across a wide range of soil and climatic conditions. These demonstration sites are in the Sacramento Valley, Delta Region, San Joaquin Valley, and the...

The start of the 2020 pistachio season has been a mixed bag.  Most of the southern San Joaquin Valley had decent chill hours, but heat units for bloom were a mixed bag and then we hit the 2.5” rainstorm from 4/5-9 during early bloom instead of February where it should have been.  Leaf out was uneven and many young orchards, especially, had problems with blanking along last year's shoots.  The cause is still uncertain but see Craig Kallsen's (Kern County Subtropical Advisor) latest newsletter for a good discussion (http://cekern.ucanr.edu/?newsitem=84945).

This is the opening BLOG for our

We previously wrote about what we are seeing in 2020 with our early observations of the leafing failure problem.

Researchers have historically been unable to pin down a cause for leafing failure because it was a rare event, only being reported periodically in the last couple decades. The problem was noted periodically before 2000, but most recent reports were made by farm advisors of leafing failure symptoms in 2000, 2006, 2010, 2017, 2018, and 2020. In each of these years farm advisors and specialists attempted to link the leafing failure back to clues in that...