- Author: Ben Faber
In a recent article in Fresh Plaza, the flood of imported jackfruit is reported. As recently as 2 years ago, I saw jackfruit advertized on Amazon for nearly $10 a pound. These babies regularly weigh in at 10-20 pounds. In their homeland, they regularly clock in at 80 pounds and more. I've recently seen fruit sold locally at Vons, Sprouts and Whole Foods for $4 for 20 pound beasts. That's still a hefty return. I saw the same fruit in the same stores for weeks on end. No body was willing to buy it. It was fruit imported from Mexico. I've seen similar fruit at the local swap meet where it's sold by the piece for $2 a pound. Still a nice price. Jackfruit can be grown in Southern California and until recently, a small grower could make a nice amount of money on the sale of the fruit. But as this article reports, at 28 cents a pound its hard to make money. We can grow it, but someone can always grow it more cheaply it seems
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Influx of jackfruit into US market
https://www.freshplaza.com/article/9113152/influx-of-jackfruit-into-us-market/
There is plenty of jackfruit available in the US right now as peak season continues in the Mexican growing regions. Over the past month, the market has become saturated with fruit leading to a wide range in prices and also quality. The peak of the season occurs in May and June so there is still several weeks to go until the market starts returning to normal.
"There is lots of jackfruit saturating the market right now," said Scott Miller of LA-based Tropic Trading Co. "We source them from Nayarit and are currently in the middle of peak season. There is all kinds of quality out there and prices have been all over the place, anywhere from between 28c per lb to 40c per lb."
Miller added that demand drops as summer progresses due to the presence of other fruit. "Demand usually drops in the peak summer months because there are so many other fruits available," he said. "People do eat jackfruit year-round but especially in California, there are a lot of stone fruit and other summer fruits that vie for consumers' attention."
Photos: Jackfruit interior and a tree growing in Long Beach
/h1>- Author: Ben Faber
Biological control is the management of pests and their damage by the beneficial action of parasites (parasitoids), pathogens, and predators. These beneficial organisms, collectively, are named natural enemies.
Conserving (or protecting) and releasing natural enemies are important components of integrated pest management (IPM). In most situations, employing practices that conserve natural enemies is more effective, and less expensive and time consuming, than purchasing and releasing them.
Learn about the specific situations where purchasing and releasing parasites and predators can increase the effectiveness of biological control. Before purchasing natural enemies, consult the University of California (UC) IPM Pest Management Guidelines for that crop to learn whether UC research has shown that releasing them is effective. Some natural enemies on the market have never been demonstrated to effectively control any agricultural pest in California.
Obtaining Natural Enemies
Natural enemies can be purchased directly from various producers (companies that rear them) and suppliers (companies that purchase from producers and repackage and resell them). Some sources of parasites and predators are members of the Association of Natural Biocontrol Producers (ANBP). All ANBP members formally agree to a code of ethics and standardized methods.
Natural enemies purchased by users are commonly delivered via shipping services. Purchase parasites and predators only from in-state providers. It is illegal to obtain insects and other arthropods outside of California and carry or have them shipped across state lines without a permit from agricultural officials. Some pest control advisers and pest scouts will procure and release natural enemies as a service for growers.
Methods for Releasing Natural Enemies
Two methods for releasing natural enemies are inoculation and inundation:
- Inoculation—relatively few natural enemies are released. The offspring of these natural enemies provide biological control, not the individuals released.
- Inundation—large numbers of natural enemies are released, often several times over a growing season. The natural enemies released, and possibly their offspring, provide biological control.
The mealybug destroyer is an example of a natural enemy that is only released through inoculation—at relatively low numbers once per year early in the growing season. Aphytis melinus and Trichogramma parasites are released by inundation—at regular intervals over the growing season—to control California red scale and eggs of pest moths, respectively. Both inoculation and inundation can be used with predatory mites, depending on the situation.
Releasing Natural Enemies Effectively
Releasing natural enemies is most likely to be effective in situations where: 1) University of California researchers or other pest management experts have previously demonstrated success and 2) some level of pests and their damage can be tolerated in that crop. Desperate situations are not good opportunities for releasing natural enemies. Pests or their damage may already be too widespread for any release of parasites or predators to prevent economic loss of crop quality or quantity.
Increase the likelihood that natural enemy releases will be effective by
- Accurately identifying the pest and its natural enemies.
- Learning about the biology of the pest and its natural enemies.
- Releasing the appropriate natural enemy life stage and species.
- Releasing when the pests' vulnerable life stage(s) are present and at numbers that can be controlled by natural enemy releases.
Natural enemies are unlikely to be effective when released as if you were applying a pesticide. Instead, anticipate pest problems and begin making releases before pests are too abundant or economic damage is imminent.
- Remember that natural enemies are living organisms that require food, shelter, and water. Protect them from extreme conditions. For example, release them at night or early in the day during hot weather.
- Avoid applying broad-spectrum, residual (persistent) insecticides and miticides, and in some situations certain systemic or other pesticides, before or after releasing natural enemies. When needed, use pesticides selectively. For example, spot spray only where pests are abundant but localized.
Common reasons for the lack of satisfactory biological control after releases include the
- Application of broad-spectrum, residual insecticides, or in some situations systemic or other pesticides, prior to or after a release.
- Incorrect timing of release.
- Release of the wrong natural enemy for the pest situation.
- Release of a natural enemy species that is known to be ineffective.
For information on the use of biological control, see the UC IPM Pest Management Guidelines for your crop and specific pests. Most crops have a table called “Relative Toxicities of Insecticides and Miticides to Natural Enemies and Honey Bees” in the “General Information” section. Use these resources to guide pesticide selection to conserve natural enemies and improve biological pest control.
More Information
- Association of Natural Biocontrol Producers, Clovis, CA
- Grower Guide: Quality Assurance of Biocontrol Products (pdf), Vineland Research and Innovation Centre, Ontario
- Insectary Plants
- Natural Enemies Gallery
- Natural Enemies Handbook: The Illustrated Guide to Biological Pest Control
- Protecting Natural Enemies and Pollinators
- UC IPM Pest Management Guidelines
this is a repost from:
Photo: Adult Aphytis melinus parasite laying her egg in California red scale, Aonidiella aurantii. Releases are most effective when ants are controlled, dust is minimized, and broad spectrum pesticide applications are avoided. Credit: Jack Kelly Clark, UC IPM Program
/h2>/h2>/h2>/h2>- Author: Ben Faber
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The deadly thousand cankers disease, an emerging insect-fungus complex, is causing profound damage to black walnut trees not only in urban areas of California and other western states, but in Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Virginia, according to a newly published review by UC Davis-affiliated scientists and their colleagues.
The article, “Status and Impact of Walnut Twig Beetle in Urban Forest, Orchard and Native Forest Ecosystems,” published in the Journal of Forestry, updates the spread of the disease, and chronicles the role of the bark beetle, Pityophthorus juglandis, and the canker-producing fungus, Geosmithia morbida, in killing walnut trees, especially black walnuts.
Native to southwestern United States and northern Mexico, the bark beetle, about half the size of a grain of rice, “has invaded urban, orchard and native forest habitats throughout the United States, as well as Italy,” said lead author and forest entomologist Steven Seybold of the Pacific Southwest Research Station, USDA Forest Service, Davis, and a lecturer and researcher with the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
Walnut twig beetles (WTB) tunnel into branches and trunks of walnut (Juglans) where they create galleries for mating and reproduction. They carry spores of the fungus into their galleries, and the resulting fungal infection causes formation of cankers, which coalesce and girdle branches and stems.
Between 2005 and 2016, the disease killed nearly 60 percent of the 210 specimens of southern California black walnut mature trees in the USDA Agricultural Research Service's National Clonal Germplasm Repository Juglans Collection near Winters, Seybold said. “This is only an estimate and the true proportion of the mortality is likely much higher, as only six of the 210 trees were rated as having healthy crowns in August 2016."
“The walnut twig beetle is a significant pest of very large trees because it sequentially attacks the small branches--though ironically not the twigs--all the way down the trunk to the soil line,” said Seybold, a pioneering scientist of the thousand cankers disease (TCD), who first found TCD evidence in Davis in 2008. “Most bark beetle species are not this thorough in using all of the phloem tissue in their plant hosts. In Davis right now, in the courtyard next to Sophia's Thai Restaurant, 129 E St, the tiny beetle is gradually killing the largest northern California black walnut tree in the city. It has taken nearly a decade, but the crown of the massive tree is nearly completed killed.”
Seybold estimated that the E Street tree is about 150 years old, "maybe older." It measures almost 65 inches or just over five feet.
“The walnut twig beetle is also significant because it is the consummate invasive species; it is small enough to travel under the bark of modest-sized pieces of barked wood and it can withstand relatively dry conditions that it might encounter during transit,” Seybold said. “We believe that it has moved from isolated Arizona black walnut trees along creeks and rivers in the desert Southwest to nearly the entire western USA wherever walnut trees of any species have been planted or grew naturally. It has also been transported to Europe and established significant populations in Italy.”
Seybold noted that the disease is “unique because of its multifaceted negative impact on walnut trees involved in landscaping, food production, and forestry. Walnut trees are valuable ecologically and for food and timber, so the walnut twig beetle is a good model in which to study the impact of a bark beetle on forest and agro-ecosystem services.”
The five co-authors of the synthesis articleincludeStacyHishinuma and Andrew Graves,twoUSDA forest entomologists with UC Davis connections.Hishinuma, who works in the Pacific Southwest Region,SanBernardino, and holds a doctorate in entomology from UC Davis, studiedintheSeybold and Mary Lou Flint labs, UC Davis Department ofEntomologyandNematology. Graves, who worksintheSouthwestern Region, Albuquerque, N.M., is a former postdoctoral fellow in the UC Davis Department of Plant Pathology.
Other co-authors are Professor William Klingeman III of the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Tennessee, and forest entomologist Tom Coleman with the USDA Forest Service's Southern Region, Asheville, N.C..
UC Davis doctoral student Jackson Audley of the Seybold lab, who is researching an ensemble of behavioral chemicals that repel the walnut twig beetle from landing on English walnut trees, contributed photos of dead and dying walnut trees in the Davis area. Audley conducts his research in a commercial orchard near Winters. UC Davis doctoral student Corwin Parker and Hishinuma also provided images of deteriorating walnut trees.
“WTB is one of a few invasive bark beetles in North America where expanding distribution and impact have been pronounced enough to affect other species, communities, and ecosystems to the extent that services provided by urban forests, agroecosystems, and wildland areas have been altered,” the co-authors concluded in their paper. “We envision that ecological impacts of WTB will continue to unfold across a wider geographic area to affect various types of key services, i.e., provisioning (e.g., timber and nontimber products); regulating (e.g., air and water quality/quantity, climate regulation); and cultural (e.g., recreation, aesthetics, shade) services.”
Scientists first collected the beetle in North America in 1896 in New Mexico, 1907 in Arizona, 1959 in California, and 1960 in Mexico, but never considered it a major pest of walnut trees until black walnuts began deteriorating and dying in New Mexico in the early 2000s. Walnut tree mortality that occurred in the early 1990s in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah and in the Willamette Valley of Oregon is now attributed to TCD.
“Currently, good cultural practices and sanitation of infested materials are the primary strategies for disease management within orchards and also for prevention of spread of the disease and vector to regions with low rates of infection,” according to the UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program (UC IPM)>
UC IPM recommends that trees with less than 50 percent live crown be removed to reduce the buildup of walnut twig beetles and inoculum in the trunk and larger scaffold branches. "Chemical control with either fungicides or insecticides is not recommended for management of thousand cankers disease," UC IPM says.
- Author: Ben Faber
“Laurel wilt – A threat to California's avocado industry”
Presented by: California Avocado Society, Inc., California Avocado Commission, University of California Cooperative Extension, and University of Florida's Tropical Research and Education Center. Event is FREE, everyone is welcome!
- Tuesday, July 30, 2019, 9-11 AM.,
Pala Mesa Resort, Fallbrook
- Wednesday, July 31, 2019, 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.,
UC Cooperative Extension Office Auditorium, 669 County Square Dr. Ventura, CA 93003
- Thursday, August 1, 2019, 9-11 AM.,
San Luis Obispo Farm Bureau Office
Agenda
The current status of Laurel Wilt in South Florida
Laurel Wilt epidemiology and management
Laurel Wilt Vectors and Management
Vascular physiology, anatomy and susceptibility of different avocado cultivars
Economic impact of control strategies
- Author: Ben Faber
UC IPM online courses:
New Fuller rose beetle course and early-bird pricing
—Cheryl Reynolds, UC Statewide IPM Program
Summer is here, and we're halfway through 2019 already! Why not get jump on finishing up your continuing education units by taking online courses from the UC Statewide IPM Program (UC IPM). If you are a license or certificate holder from the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR), and your last name begins with the letters M through Z, you should be receiving your renewal packet in August.
We're excited to announce some changes.
- In January, we switched all of our online courses to a new learning system located at https://campus.extension.org/. This new system has extensive technical support, is easier to navigate, and is more stable than the old one. Note that the extension platform offers courses from all across the country, including several providers from California. Look for the UC IPM logo to be sure you are taking one of our courses.
- We are pleased to announce that a brand-new online course on the Fuller rose beetle was added to our citrus integrated pest management IPM series. Dr. Beth Grafton-Cardwell, a citrus IPM specialist and research entomologist, and Dr. Joseph Morse, emeritus professor of entomology, developed the course. The course describes the life cycle, natural enemies, and management of Fuller rose beetle and explains why it is important for countries that export citrus. Fuller Rose Beetle has been approved by (DPR) for 1 hour of credit in the Other category and by Certified Crop Advisor (CCA) for 0.5 hour of IPM credit.
- Many of our courses are now credited not only by DPR for continuing education hours, but also by the California Structural Pest Control Board (SPCB), Certified Crop Advisor (CCA), Western Chapter of the International Society of Arboriculture (WCISA), and also by Arizona Department of Agriculture.
DPR encourages license and certificate holders to avoid the end-of-the-year rush and submit renewal applications by November 1 to ensure license renewal by January 1, 2020. Submitting your renewal early avoids late fees and gives you time to address any issues that may arise such as not having enough hours to successfully renew.
Another incentive to get a jump on completing your needed continuing education units (CEUs) with UC IPM's online courses is that we are offering an early-bird price for four of our most wanted courses until November 1st.
- Proper Pesticide Use to Avoid Illegal Residues (2 hours Laws and Regulations; early bird price $40, full price $80)
- Proper Selection, Use, and Removal of Personal Protective Equipment (1.5 hours Laws and Regulations; early bird price $30, full price $60)
- Pesticide Resistance (2 hours Other; early bird price $20, full price $40)
- Pesticide Application Equipment and Calibration (1.5 hours Other; early bird price $15, full price $30)
You can find all of our twenty-one courses listed on the UC IPM website at http://ipm.ucanr.edu/training/.