- Author: Lauren Biron, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
- Author: Pamela S Kan-Rice
UC ANR to help create database, support technology for sustainable bioproducts and biofuels
In California's Northern San Joaquin Valley, crop leftovers such as almond shells, fruit peels and orchard trimmings can potentially be converted into sustainable bioproducts and biofuels – with the right technology. The philanthropy Schmidt Sciences' Virtual Institute on Feedstocks of the Future, which supports replacing fossil feedstocks with renewable biomass sources, has awarded new funding to a group investigating how to make better use of the diverse agricultural waste in the region.
“This is an important project for California as it quantifies the diverse ‘ingredients' in the North San Joaquin Valley available to fuel the emerging biomanufacturing industry in the state,” said Gabe Youtsey, chief innovation officer for the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources. “This foundational work will kickstart a completely new innovation bioeconomy in the Central Valley that will create new high-paying jobs for our communities and support a resilient food and agriculture industry through circular biomanufacturing.”
Circular biomanufacturing is a process that uses waste streams as raw materials to create new products.
“Circular means taking waste streams from agriculture such as almond shells or grape pomace, forest waste or food processing waste and using that material as the ‘feedstock' in a fermentation tank to create new bioproducts,” Youtsey explained.
The group, “Building the Circular Bioeconomy in the North San Joaquin Valley” or BioCircular Valley, is co-led by the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), UC Berkeley, and BEAM Circular, with partners at UC Merced, UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, the Almond Board of California and USDA Agricultural Research Station in Albany.
“California has this incredible diversity of materials, but they aren't well understood – and this makes it difficult to know how to extract the most value out of them,” said Corinne Scown, a senior scientist at Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley and one of the project leads. “We want to characterize them and make that information available so companies can more easily figure out which feedstock is a good match for them, and then use that agricultural residue to make everything from bio-based polymers and chemicals to sustainable materials and aviation fuels.”
One of the group's goals is to build a publicly accessible database and user-friendly map full of information about different feedstocks, the raw plant materials and biomass that can be broken down and used to make bioproducts. That includes where feedstocks are located, when they are available, how they are currently disposed of, how they perform in different bioreactors, how much sugar or lignin they contain, whether they can be processed with other feedstocks, their greenhouse gas footprint, the potential cost, and much more.
UC ANR's role is to collect data on available feedstocks from forest, agricultural and food processing byproducts, as well as municipal waste streams through sampling and observation.
“We will do this through the extensive knowledge and relationships we have with the California agriculture industry in the North San Joaquin Valley,” Youtsey said. “UC ANR will also support industry outreach as new ‘conversion' technologies are developed, to pilot them with California growers and processors.”
The project will also test ways to improve the flexibility of the conversion process, which breaks down feedstocks to prepare them to make bioproducts. Researchers will apply artificial intelligence to their lab-generated data to improve predictions of how feedstocks can be processed most efficiently or blended together. Being able to use the same technique on different (or mixed) kinds of plant matter would open up ways for companies to make bioproducts more easily.
“Our region has a fantastic combination of diverse and large-scale agricultural activities alongside manufacturing expertise, making this a great place to scale up bioeconomy innovation,” said Karen Warner, CEO of BEAM Circular. “This project will allow us to reduce barriers to using our region's abundant waste streams in more sustainable and valuable ways, so that we can create the products that people need with renewable inputs that are better for the planet.”
The project builds on ongoing efforts to establish biomanufacturing capabilities in the northern San Joaquin Valley, which includes San Joaquin, Stanislaus and Merced counties. Providing better data on how to convert the valley's millions of tons of agricultural waste into valuable products may spur biomanufacturing companies to build facilities nearby, minimizing how far the raw materials have to be moved and generating new jobs.
“This project is designed to benefit a region that has massive potential, but so far has been economically left behind, and to develop a new industry that can provide improvements in air quality, water quality and greenhouse gas emissions as well as significant opportunities in economic equity and the creation of new jobs,” said Blake Simmons, director of Berkeley Lab's Biological Systems and Engineering Division and the BioCircular Valley project lead.
“This kind of research started as basic science, and now we're bringing information and solutions to people who can use them. And the knowledge generated through this project will advance not only the ability of the NSJV to make use of its own regionally available future feedstocks, but will also accelerate the understanding of feedstocks relevant across California and across the U.S.”
The new funds for the project come from the Virtual Institute on Feedstocks of the Future, a partnership between Schmidt Sciences and the Foundation for Food & Agriculture that supports collaboration on research to transform biomass into alternative feedstocks for biomanufacturing. The award is one of five announced today, which total $47.3 million over five years. It is expected that the five teams will collaborate to share best practices and knowledge to boost the bioeconomy at the national level.
“We are grateful for Schmidt's generous support that will help deploy advanced technologies on the ground,” said Alicia Chang, interim president of Berkeley Lab Foundation. “The foundational research and expertise developed through work for the Department of Energy sets the stage for this team to apply their capabilities to bring jobs and lift the community and the economy in the Northern San Joaquin Valley.”
/h3>- Author: Michelle Krespi
I've seen Chinese Ground Orchids in my garden before but this year they're extra glorious which inspired me to blog about them. Honesty, before I moved into my house which I bought from an Asian gardener I had never seen nor heard of a “ground orchid.” With these last few years of extraordinary rainfall it seems like they have exploded in my garden, much to my delight!
Bletilla striata is a species of flowering plant in the orchid family Orchidaceae. It is native to Korea, Japan, Myanmar, Tibet and China. It is quite often found growing in clumps along grassy slopes with sandy soil.[1] It is a terrestrial orchid (meaning one that grows in the ground) as opposed to epiphytic orchids that live in tree branches and lithophytic orchids that live in the cracks of rocks.[2] To the right is the clump of orchids that emerged in my garden in this early spring.[3]
This easy to care for, hardy orchid was awarded the prestigious Award of Garden Merit by the Royal Horticultural Society. It grows in clumps reaching 12” to 18” in height and 6” to 12” in width, spreading by creeping rhizomes.[4] It's ideal growing conditions include organically rich, medium moisture, loamy well-drained soil in part shade and part sun, (morning sun and afternoon shade.) This particular orchid is considered the hardiest and was the first one cultivated. Amend the soil with well-composted material prior to planting. After that you can limit fertilization to a less potent, balanced fertilizer, applied once a month. Stop fertilizing and watering when the orchid goes dormant. You can resume when you start seeing new growth in the spring. It is also important to deadhead the spent blooms so the energy can be redirected to the roots for the following years flowers.[5]
If you want to transplant this orchid it is best to wait until it's through flowering but before it enters dormancy. During this period the orchid will have leaves but no flowers. If you try transplanting during it's flowering season the flowers will fall off early! It will also need routine pruning every year especially when the leaves die down to the ground. This will make way for new growth in the spring. In my garden they sprung up this month in greater numbers which was my reward for taking care of them during the year.
In summation this hardy orchid is a garden must. They grow in the soil, can remain outdoors year round (as long as the temperature doesn't drop below freezing), have few pest problems, are relatively low maintenance and are beautiful when in bloom! Try it, you'll like it!!
[1] Wikipedia- Bletilla striata
[2] www.sciencedirect.com- Physiological diversity of orchids
[3] All photos were taken by the author from her garden
[4] Definition of a rhizome- a rootlike, often thickened and usually horizontal underground plant stem that produces shoots above and roots below. Rhizomes store food for the plant and transport water and nutrient to other parts of the plant. Also called a creeping root stalk.
[5] Gardening Know How- Hardy Orchid Plants: Growing Hardy Orchids in the Garden
- Author: Michael Hsu
Detection of fungus causing red leaf blotch spurs call for grower vigilance
Symptoms of red leaf blotch (RLB), a plant disease caused by the fungus Polystigma amygdalinum, have been observed for the first time in California across the Northern San Joaquin Valley.
Molecular DNA testing by the laboratory of Florent Trouillas, University of California Cooperative Extension fruit and nut crop pathology specialist, has confirmed the detection of P. amygdalinum. Formal pest confirmation by the California Department of Food and Agriculture is pending.
The disease, named for the characteristic orange-to-dark red blotches that appear on infected leaves, is typically nonlethal for trees but has been a long-standing problem for almond-growing regions across the Mediterranean. Causing trees to lose their leaves prematurely, the fungal pathogen can significantly diminish crop yields in the current year and the next.
“It is one of the most severe diseases of almonds for Spain and the Middle East,” said Trouillas, who co-authored an explanatory article on the UCCE San Joaquin Valley Trees and Vines blog.
With symptomatic trees seen in multiple orchards across Madera, Merced, San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties, Trouillas said RLB is already “somewhat widespread.”
“From the first observations so far, it seems like it affects some of the most-planted cultivars, like Nonpareil and Monterey,” he added. “We've observed it in a diversity of cultivars already.”
UC Cooperative Extension specialist urges taking preventive measures
According to Trouillas, RLB caused by P. amygdalinum is “highly specific” to almond trees, and generally only affects their leaves. Infection typically happens at petal fall, when small leaflets are first emerging and most susceptible to disease. After the pathogen's latent period of about 35 to 40 days, the first symptoms appear – small, pale-yellow spots on both sides of the leaves.
Those blotches become yellow-orange and then reddish-brown in the advanced stages of the disease during June and July. Now, with RLB symptoms becoming more prominent, Trouillas and UC Cooperative Extension advisors across the Central Valley have seen an uptick in calls.
“PCAs [pest control advisers] have been confused because they've never seen anything like this,” said Trouillas, noting that the yellow-orange-red blotches are symptoms unique to RLB and cannot be confused with other known almond diseases.
Applying fungicides after RLB symptoms appear is ineffective, Trouillas said. The best thing growers can do at this point is to report symptomatic trees to researchers so they can track the prevalence and distribution of the disease.
Growers who see signs of this new disease in their orchard should contact their local UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor.
Preventive measures are the best way to manage RLB, Trouillas said. He urges concerned growers to think ahead to next winter/spring and plan for fungicide applications at petal fall and – if rains persist – also at two weeks and five weeks after petal fall. Fortunately, those are the same three key timings for managing other diseases, like shot hole and almond anthracnose.
“Because RLB is something that is introduced and potentially aggressive, it will be important for growers to keep that in mind next year and be on schedule for next year's spraying program,” Trouillas said.
Additional information on RLB can be found at https://www.sjvtandv.com/blog/first-detection-of-red-leaf-blotch-a-new-disease-of-almond-in-california.
/h3>/h3>- Author: Stephen Dampier
Several years back, I found an ad on Craigslist for Peruvian Hot Peppers for sale. So I trotted on over to Concord and bought some Rocoto and Aji Amarillo pepper plants. The Rocoto pepper plants have thrived, and are around five years old at this point. Most of my peppers are grown in buckets. My current favorite bucket is a 7 gallon nursery pot. They are often available for free or for cheap.
Blah blah blah, more to come.
- Author: Stephen Dampier
I grow Hot Hot Hot peppers including:
- Carolina Reapers
- Red Ghost Peppers aka Bhut Jolokia
- Habanero
- Rocoto
- Serrano
I have other peppers I grow but they vary depending on my mood.
Sweating is good. Hot peppers are fantastic for sweating. Therefore I Love Hot Hot Hot Peppers.