- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Zheng Wang, vegetable crops advisor with UC Cooperative Extension in Stanislaus County, visited an ag class at Stanislaus State to discuss a state-of-the-art vegetable production practice that involves grafting, reported Alivah Stoeckl in Stan State News.
Grafting plants onto specially bred rootstocks is a practice that is common in tree crops. Grafting confers resistance to soil-borne diseases and pests, requiring less inputs and leading to sustainable crop productivity. It is now...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
UC CalFresh educators took part in a field trip for fourth-graders in Fresno where the children tasted a wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, reported Dale Yurong on ABC 30 Action News.
"We encourage them to try it and then they try it and wind up liking it," said UC CalFresh nutrition educator Kristi Sharp. "That's a saying that we say - you can't judge it unless you try it."
Fresno Unified School District is the state's largest recipient of funds from the fruit and vegetable program, Yurong reported. In addition to including fruits and vegetables at meals, the district is...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Rising demand for Asian vegetables in urban areas of California is creating an improved market for produce grown by the San Joaquin Valley's Asian farmers, reported Yu Wei in the San Francisco-based China Daily.
Richard Molinar, UC Cooperative Extension advisor in Fresno County, told the reporter that demand is driving increased cultivation of Asian vegetables in Fresno County.
"We have around 50 to 75 Chinese farmers here in Fresno County and over 2,000 acres of Chinese crops selling locally as well as nationwide," Molinar said.
The article noted that UC Cooperative Extension offers advice...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Last week's rain storms are pushing up prices of vegetables typically grown this time of year in California and Arizona's southern deserts, according to a story in Western Farm Press. Writer Cary Blake's article blames El Niño.
Last Friday through Sunday, “We exceeded our annual rainfall in about 12 hours,” the story quoted Kurt Nolte, director of the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension in Yuma County. “We had a massive rainstorm between noon and 6 p.m. Thursday.”
Over the weekend iceberg lettuce prices increased to about $12 per 40-pound carton, up from about $8 last Wednesday. Iceberg prices Monday were about $15, almost double since...