- Author: Mark Lundy
Recently, I had the chance to tour a variety trial site for canola and camelina located north of Maxwell and part of a project headed by Nicholas George, a UC ANR scientist whose specialty is the evaluation and development of new and under-utilized crops, and Steve Kafka, an extension specialist on the UC-Davis campus and the director of the California Biomass Collaborative.
The trial is one of several located across the state. The work is funded by UC ANR and is trying to determine if canola and camelina are economically viable winter crop options for California growers and which varieties of each crop might be best adapted to California conditions. Often the price of canola moves inversely relative to the price of wheat, so...
- Author: Mark Lundy
Wheat is a tough little plant. This is a field that was planted in early November to enough moisture to germinate. After about the 3 leaf stage it got thirsty and spent several weeks withering. By mid-January I was wondering if there would be a crop to harvest (note the plants in the furrows are doing better than those in beds due to the soil moisture difference):
Although we still need more rain (and we're getting some as I write this!), here's what the rains in early February did for the same field:
There is some heterogeneity between the beds and furrows in terms of growth stages, and some moisture-related spatial-variability across the field, but, for the most part, nary a plant is missing. Any...
- Author: Mark Lundy
The smattering of rain is a welcome change, and we can only hope for more. Nevertheless, the drought continues to occupy much of the conversation about the upcoming growing season. With that in mind, I wanted to link to a recent post on the UC Weed Science blog discussing how the drought might influence herbicide efficacy:
http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=12800
In addition, many folks probably saw this in the news, but there was some federal assistance for California farmers most affected by drought announced yesterday. More details here:
- Author: Mark Lundy
With the dry winter continuing, an increase in the use of well water for irrigation seems inevitable in the upcoming season. Since well water typically contains more salts than surface waters, it may be worthwhile to review thresholds for salinity effects on productivity across various crops. There are a couple UC ANR publications that do so concisely here:
http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/pdf/8066.pdf
and
http://vric.ucdavis.edu/pdf/Irrigation/EvaluatingSalinityinIrrigationWater.pdf
Also, this CE publication from Colorado State...
- Author: Mark Lundy
Evidence of the drought conditions are all around us. A few that I've noticed just today: orchards being irrigated in January; a rainfed wheat crop planted in October that still hasn't germinated; another wheat crop that's been at the 2-leaf stage for almost 2 weeks and is starting to show signs of severe moisture stress. It's hard to miss the biological consequences of California's driest year on record at the field level. I was curious to see a quantification at the regional level. Here are a few snapshots that I dug up:
The below image is a satellite-produced NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index--the "greenness" is a proxy for plant growth) image of a portion of the Sacramento Valley on October 15th, 2011. From...