- Author: Ben Faber
So an avocado is not an almond. But it they are both trees that are manipulated for production. And many of the principles can be transferred. Some can't. But this is a great opportunity to learn some basic ideas about how to grow tree crops. And enjoy the great Valley winter weather!!!!!!
“Registration for the 2018 UC Davis Extension Course: Principles of Fruit and Nut Tree Growth, Cropping and Management is now open.
The University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) and University of California, Davis (UCD) Plant Sciences department are offering the annual two-week course from February 25th through March 7st, 2019 at UC Davis, CA.
Understanding the fundamentals of tree biology is essential to making sound orchard management and business decisions in the tree fruit and nut industry. However, access to educational courses on basic fruit and nut tree biology, and how it relates to horticultural practices, is limited. This course incorporates lecture, lab exercises, and field demonstrations to provide information on all aspects of basic plant biology and the relationship between plant biology and orchard management.
During the first week of the course (February 25 - March 1), leaders in tree crop research from the University of California will provide lectures on tree growth, development and pruning, dormancy and chilling, flowering, pollination and fruit set as well as many other topics critical to a solid understanding of fruit and nut orchard management. There will also be field excursions for hands-on field exercises and demonstrations.
The optional second week (March 4 – March 7) is a four day field tour throughout tree fruit and nut growing regions in Northern and Central California. The field tour includes visits to current UC experiments, processing facilities, and orchards in a wide range of tree fruit and nut crops.
This course is designed specifically for current tree fruit and nut growers and professionals and also for those with small acreage farms or new to the fruit and nut business. Attendees will receive a certificate after completing the course.
The fee is $2,850 for the entire course (plus the lodging cost for the field trips), or $1,850 for the first week only.
Please visit http://fruitandnuteducation.ucdavis.edu/education/principles/ for more information on the program and our instructors, and to register. Please contact the Fruit and Nut Research Center at fruitsandnuts@ucdavis.edu or 530-752-4279 or if you have any questions.”
Fruit and Nut Research and Information Center
Department of Plant Sciences
One Shields Avenue
Davis, CA 95616 USA
Office: 530 752 4279
E-mail: fruitsandnuts@ucdavis.edu
Web: http://fruitsandnuts.ucdavis.edu
Twitter: @FruitandNut_UCD
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ucfnric/
- Author: Ben Faber
The following is a compendium of blogs for growers that arose out of the recent fire damage in the Santa Barbara/Ventura area:
https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=26670
https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=28711
https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=26510
https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=26353
https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=26095
https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=25899
https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=25885
https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=24639
For tree growers who have further questions about how to treat fire-affected trees, please don't hesitate to contact your local Cooperative Extension office.
- Author: Ben Faber
Tree and Vine Loss Calculators
Spread sheets to help you calculate loss
Calculate Cost of Fire Damage to Avocado and Citrus Trees
Information from Ben Faber, Soils and Water, Avocado and Minor Subtropicals Advisor
Information on how to care for fire damaged trees from Ben Faber, Soils and Water, Avocado and Minor Subtropicals Advisor
Information on fire ecology and fire safe landscaping for homeowners, developed by Sabrina Drill, Natural Resources Advisor
UC Center for Fire Research and Outreach
Information on fire science from UC experts. Includes information on how to make homes and other structures more fire re
Publications Available From University of California ANR Catalog
You can find the publications listed below at the University of California DANR Catalog site (In the ANR Search type fire) and order more than one publication at a time or you may click on one of the links below. if you purchase a priced publication enter the promotion code PRVEN56 at check-out. You'll receive a 10% discount on your order, and a portion of the sales will benefit local programs.
A Property Owner's Guide to Reducing Wildfire Threat - describes ways homeowners can reduce the threat of fire to their property. Cost $1.50
Home Landscaping for Fire - Incorporating fire safe concepts into your landscape is one of the most important ways you can help your home survive a wildfire. FREE
Landscaping Tips to Help Defend Your Home from Wildfire - You can have both a beautiful landscape and a defensible fire-safe zone. FREE
Recovering from Wildfire - discusses issues that family forest landowners should consider following a wildfire. Cost $5.00
WildFire: How Can We Live With It? (DVD) - This program contains general information about wildland fire in California. Cost $20.00
Companion Set: How Can We Live with Wildland Fire? (Publication and DVD) - What role does fire play in the natural cycle and what choices can we make about coping with wildland fire? Cost $27.50
How Can We Live with Wildland Fire? - What role does fire play in the natural cycle and what choices can we make about coping with wildland fire? Cost $10.00
sistant, developed by Steve Quarles, Statewide Wood Performance and Durability Advisor
- Author: Ben Faber
Thanks for the rains that leach the soils of accumulated salts and bring on new fresh growth. Or maybe not. When we apply irrigation water with salts which with few exceptions we do in irrigated agriculture, salts accumulate in the soil. They accumulate in a certain pattern depending on the type of irrigation and soil type. There's a strong tendency for drip and microsprinklers to form a pattern of salt accumulation near the margins of the wetted patterns. This pattern is stronger with drip because the source point is always pushing a front outward from the emission point. This pattern occurs with microsprinklers, as well, although not as strongly. These patterns continue to form and accumulate as long as there is no rainfall to evenly push the salt down below the root zone. The longer the period of no rain, the larger the salt concentration at the margin.
So the way water moves is generally down. It moves in a wetting front drawn by gravity. It moves laterally too, because of the attraction water has for the soil particles. It will move laterally more in a clay soil than in a sandy soil because there are more particles in a clay soil than a sand (actually more surfaces that hold water). It also carries salt with it. Wherever the water moves, the salt moves. The more rain, the more salt is moved down. The more rain, the deeper the salt is pushed.
The problem with rain, is that if there is not enough, the salt tends to move laterally. In this wet soil solution, the salt is moving from where it is concentrated, to where there is a lower one. And if there isn't enough rain to move that salt down, it just moves back along the salt gradient, back to where the water first came from…….towards the roots. And that salt may be at such a high concentration that it can cause plant damage.
We talk about effective rainfall. This is usually about a quarter of an inch of rain. This is the amount of water to do more than just wet the dust, it's the amount to move water into the root zone. It is also moving salts into the root zone which can be a real problem. A good rain will do more than wet the dust, it will also move the salts out of harm's way in the root zone. The amount of rain necessary to do this is going to depend on the salt accumulated and the soil texture. The more salt, the more rain needed. The finer the texture, the more rain.
So there is no good cookbook, other than you need enough. And the first rains of the year, watch out. This is often when there is the highest salt accumulation and in the fall when we have the most irregular rains. Small rain amounts that can move salt into the root zone. A rule of thumb is a minimum of a good one inch rain event or combined rain events of two inches in a short period is needed to dissolve and move the salts out of the avocado root zone's top 18 inches. The more the better.
If there is not enough rain……………The solution !!!!!!!! Run the irrigation system to make sure there is enough to move that salt down.
Get ready to irrigate with the first rains if they are insufficient for adequate leaching.
Also get ready for the first smell of rain - petrichor.
Petrichor (/ˈpɛtrɪkɔːr/) is the earthy scent produced when rain falls on dry soil. The word is constructed from Greek petra (πέτρα), meaning "stone", and īchōr (ἰχώρ), the fluid that flows in the veins of the gods in Greek mythology.
The term was coined in 1964 by two Australian CSIRO researchers, Isabel Joy Bear and Richard G. Thomas, for an article in the journal Nature.[1][2] In the article, the authors describe how the smell derives from an oil exuded by certain plants during dry periods, whereupon it is absorbed by clay-based soils and rocks. During rain, the oil is released into the air along with another compound, geosmin, a metabolic by-product of certain actinobacteria, which is emitted by wet soil, producing the distinctive scent; ozone may also be present if there is lightning.[3] In a follow-up paper, Bear and Thomas (1965) showed that the oil retards seed germination and early plant growth.[4]
In 2015, scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) used high-speed cameras to record how the scent moves into the air.[5] The tests involved approximately 600 experiments on 28 different surfaces, including engineered materials and soil samples.[6] When a raindrop lands on a porous surface, air from the pores forms small bubbles, which float to the surface and release aerosols.[5] Such aerosols carry the scent, as well as bacteria and viruses from the soil.[5] Raindrops that move at a slower rate tend to produce more aerosols; this serves as an explanation for why the petrichor is more common after light rains.[5]
The human nose is extremely sensitive to geosmin and is able to detect it at concentrations as low as 5 parts per trillion.[7] Some scientists believe that humans appreciate the rain scent because ancestors may have relied on rainy weather for survival.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrichor
- Author: Ben Faber
TOPICS IN THIS ISSUE
- California Citrus Network: an online forum to facilitate communication and information exchange regarding California citrus
- High Density Planting for Avocado Production: A Chilean Perspective
- Avocado Brainstorming 2018
- Meet our new subtropical crops specialist at UC Riverside
AUTHORS IN THIS ISSUE:
- Dr. Greg Douhan, UCCE Area Citrus Advisor, Tulare County
- Dr. Philippe E. Rolshausen, UCCE Specialist, University of California, Riverside
- Dr. Mary Lu Arpaia, UCCE Specialist, University of California, Riverside
- Dr. Ben Faber, UCCE Advisor, Ventura County
- Dr. Tim Spann, Ph.D., Research Program Director, California Avocado Commission
FARM ADVISORS AND SPECIALISTS
Greg Douhan – Area Citrus Advisor, Tulare, Fresno, Madera
Phone: 559-684-3312
Email: gdouhan@ucanr.edu
Website: http://cetulare.ucanr.edu
Ben Faber – Subtropical Horticulture, Ventura/Santa Barbara
Phone: (805) 645-1462
Email: bafaber@ucdavis.edu
Website: http://ceventura.ucdavis.edu
Craig Kallsen – Subtropical Horticulture & Pistachio, Kern
Phone: (661) 868-6221
Email: cekallsen@ucdavis.edu
Website: http://cekern.ucdavis.edu
Sonia Rios – Subtropical Horticulture, Riverside/San Diego
Phone: (951) 683-8718
Email: sirios@ucanr.edu
Website: http://cesandiego.ucanr.edu
Monique Rivera – Assistant Specialist in Cooperative Extension, Department of Entomology, Chapman Hall 10B
Phone: (951) 827-9274
Email: Monique.rivera@ucr.edu
Philippe Rolshausen – Extension Specialist Subtropical
Crops, UCR
Phone: (951) 827-6988
Email: philippe.rolshausen@ucr.edu
Website: http://ucanr.edu/sites/Rolshausen/
Eta Takele – Area Ag Economics Advisor
Phone: (951) 683-6491 ext 243
Email: ettakele@ucdavis.edu
Website: http://ceriverside.ucdavis.edu
And Read it Here:
http://ceventura.ucanr.edu/news/Topics_in_Subtropics/