- Author: Saoimanu Sope
A new avocado, one that complements the widely known ‘Hass,' will hit the world market soon. The ‘Luna UCR' variety (trademarked and patent pending) has several characteristics that should be of interest to both growers and consumers, said Mary Lu Arpaia, University of California Cooperative Extension subtropical horticulture specialist based at UC Riverside.
From the grower perspective, the tree is about half the size of the leading variety while producing approximately the same yield per tree as ‘Hass,' meaning that growers could plant more trees per acre, therefore increasing yield. It also makes harvesting easier and safer.
Another advantage is the flowering behavior of the tree. Avocado trees are categorized into either Type A or Type B flower types. It is generally accepted that you need both flower types in a planting to maximize productivity. The ‘Hass' is an “A” flower type and ‘Luna UCR' is a Type “B.”
This is a potential boost for growers since the current varieties that are “B” flower types ripen green and generally receive lower prices for the grower. Similar to ‘Hass,' however, the ‘Luna UCR' colors as it ripens.
“Hopefully, it will receive similar returns to the ‘Hass' once it is an established variety,” Arpaia added.
Fruit breeding is a long-term process that she has navigated by building upon the work of her predecessors. Of course, Arpaia has had strong support from colleagues as well, including Eric Focht, a UC Riverside staff researcher and co-inventor of ‘Luna UCR.'
“We had been looking at ‘Luna UCR' for some time and it was always a very good eating fruit,” Focht said. “After the 2003 release of ‘GEM' (registered and patented as ‘3-29-5', 2003) and ‘Harvest' (patented as ‘N4(-)5', 2003) varieties, ‘Luna UCR' was always the top contender for a next release due to the small, narrow growth habit, “B” flower type and the fruit quality.”
“It's a very nice-looking fruit as well and seemed to be a pretty consistent bearer from year to year.”
A glimpse at how it all started
In spring 1996, Arpaia took over the UC Avocado Breeding Program following Guy Witney who led the program from 1992 to 1995, and Bob Bergh whose initial efforts in the 1950s were foundational in the inception of ‘Luna UCR.'
Arpaia recalls the first trials in the early 2000s of ‘Luna UCR,' which were tested alongside other promising selections from the Bergh program. “There were a lot of varieties that didn't perform well, some of which had poor storage life, an important trait that we need if we are going to get the fruit to consumers across the country,” said Arpaia.
The original seed and selection were planted at the Bob Lamb Ranch in Camarillo, and originally advanced trials of the ‘Luna UCR' variety were planted in four locations: UC Lindcove Research and Extension Center in Tulare County, UC South Coast Research and Extension Center in Orange County, a privately owned farm in San Diego County and another one in Ventura County.
The RECs are among the nine hubs operated by UC Agriculture and Natural Resources to support research and educate the public on regional agricultural and natural resource challenges.
ANR Research and Extension Centers become vital
Unfortunately, the 2017 Thomas Fire burned the avocado trees in Ventura, said Arpaia. After a change in management, the trial located in San Diego County was also terminated, leaving the two trials at Lindcove and South Coast REC.
“South Coast REC has a long history of supporting research and extension activities of high value crops important to California, including avocados,” said Darren Haver, director of the South Coast REC, which was often used to show growers the new varieties that were being developed.
“Many of the REC staff have worked with the avocado-breeding program researchers for more than two decades and continue to work closely with them to ensure the success of new avocado varieties, including ‘Luna UCR',” he added.
In addition to the support provided by South Coast and Lindcove RECs, Arpaia said that UC Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Fresno County – another UC ANR facility – made it possible for her team to conduct critical postharvest and sensory research, and consumer testing of the fruit, which included up to six-week trials of fruit ratings for storage life and taste.
“UC ANR has played an important role in our ability to not only identify ‘Luna UCR', but in preparing it for the world market, too,” she said.
Preparing to share with the world
Since 2015, Focht had been collecting data for the patent application. Now that he and Arpaia have successfully patented and trademarked ‘Luna UCR,' they are preparing to expand production by engaging interested growers with the commercial partner, Green Motion who is based in Spain.
“Green Motion contracted for 1,000 trees to be generated by Brokaw Nursery and those trees are currently being distributed, with earliest field plantings likely taking place in fall,” explained Focht.
Focht also said that Mission Produce, based in Oxnard, CA has contracted to graft over a small number of “B” flower type pollinizer trees to the new ‘Luna UCR' variety, possibly making way for a small number of avocados to be available the following year.
Once planted, the avocado trees will come into “full” production in about five years.
- Author: Saoimanu Sope
Besides starting fires for the sake of research, Luca Carmignani, UC Cooperative Extension fire advisor for San Diego, Orange, Los Angeles, and Riverside counties, has started leveraging his connection to local UC campuses by providing opportunities for hands-on learning.
Early one morning in May, students and staff from UC Irvine and UC Riverside gathered at the South Coast Research and Extension Center to collect data for their own research projects. South Coast REC, located in Irvine, is part of a statewide network of research and education facilities operated by UC Agriculture and Natural Resources.
In one area of the field, graduate students picked leaves and twigs from dried shrubs, carefully placing them in a device that measures moisture content. In another area, a postdoctoral scholar set up a device that records levels of particulate matter, carbon dioxide and other air pollutants emitted by a fire.
Tirtha Banerjee, professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UC Irvine, coordinated the field day with Carmignani. The two first connected as members of iFireNet, an international network of networks that connect people to fire research, when Carmignani was a postdoctoral researcher at UC Berkeley.
Now, the two are collaborating to help environmental science and engineering students realize the potential of their research interests.
Jacquelynn Nguyen, a Ph.D. student in the Civil and Environmental Engineering department at UC Irvine, is interested in understanding how ash from wildfires and prescribed burns can be used as a treatment for per- and polyfluorinated substances. PFAS are a group of “forever chemicals” that can be found in heat-resistant materials – including fire extinguisher foam – and are extremely difficult to eliminate.
Before Nguyen could collect her ash samples, Carmignani needed to cautiously set the dried shrubs on fire, providing a realistic situation for data collection purposes.
“We're trying to figure out if the ashes from these fires can be used as activated carbon, which could be used as a treatment for PFAS,” said Nguyen. “We want to see if this treatment can basically absorb PFAS and prevent it from traveling into soil and groundwater.”
While Nguyen is concerned about the impact that wildfires have on the land, Soroush Neyestani, a postdoctoral scholar in the Environmental Sciences department at UC Riverside, is interested in its impact on the air quality.
During a fire, it's difficult to determine how much emissions are a result of flames versus smoldering, the process of burning slowly with smoke but no flames, and current air quality models do not provide accurate guidance on this matter. Using an air quality sensor, Neyestani wants to quantify the difference in emission levels during the two phases.
“There are assumptions that 50% of emissions come from smoldering, but every fire is different. Our main objective is to improve the accuracy of air-quality forecasting,” Neyestani said, noting his concern that these assumptions might not be realistic.
Although the field day was created with the students in mind, Carmignani used the opportunity to polish his own research efforts. Since fall 2022, he has been investigating the flammability of low-water use landscape plants based on various irrigation applications.
“Every time we burn, I feel like we get better. We get better data, and we conduct better analysis, and that's really important for us so that we can figure out how we can apply our research and measure its outcome,” said Carmignani.
In addition to welcoming more collaborations with UC campuses and other organizations, Carmignani is hopeful that these combined research efforts will spark an interest in wildfire awareness everywhere.
- Author: Saoimanu Sope
Las rosas son las flores con las que se expresa, con más frecuencia, amor y agradecimiento, pero pueden ser caras. La buena noticia es hay opciones para cultivarlas sin gastar mucho.
“Persiste la idea que las plantas bonitas requieren mucha agua, como las rosas”, mencionó Lorence Oki, asesor en horticultura de la División de Agricultura y Recursos Naturales de la Universidad de Universidad de California UC ANR. “Todos piensan que necesitan mucha agua, pero encontramos algunas que no y siguen viéndose muy bien”.
Oki, quien identificó el tipo de rosas que se mantienen lindas aun con poca agua, es el investigador principal de un proyecto de plantas adaptadas al cambio climático.
El experimento que podría ser el más grande en el oeste del país: Pruebas sobre Riego para Plantas de Paisajes de UC evalúa plantas ornamentales, que se someten a diferentes niveles de riego, para determinar su rendimiento óptimo en regiones que requieren suplemento de agua durante el verano.
En 2021, Oki identificó, durante las pruebas, dos tipos de las plantas que requieren menos agua, estas son, por su nombre científico, Lomandra confertifolia ssp. pallida "Pom Pom" Shorty y el rosal "Sprogreatpink" Brick House® Pink (rosa foribunda). Ambas ganaron el reconocimiento Blue Ribbon. “Son plantas que lucen bien y consumen poca agua”, manifestó Natalie Levy, del Centro de Investigación y Extensión de South Coast de UC ANR.
Qué plantas pueden ganar el listón azul
Cada año, los expertos, ejecutan experimentos, para determinar qué plantas se conservan mejor bajo ciertas condiciones a pleno sol o en un 50 por ciento de sombra.
El suministro de agua se basa en la tasa de evaporación y transpiración de las plantas (evapotranspiración) medidos a través de una estación meteorológica local del Sistema de Información de Gestión del Riego de California (CIMIS) que proporciona una tasa de evapotranspiración de referencia (ETo).
A las plantas se les proporcionan tres niveles de riego iguales a un 20, 50 y 80 por ciento de ETo. El volumen de agua que se aplica es el mismo en cada riego en función de las características del suelo, pero el intervalo entre las aplicaciones varía en función del clima y tratamiento. Bajo este método, el tratamiento de riego de un 20 por ciento es menos frecuente que el tratamiento del 80 por ciento.
“En el tratamiento del 20 por ciento durante las pruebas del 2022, se regó en promedio una vez al mes, mientras que el 80 por ciento del tratamiento se regó semanalmente”, explicó Levy.
Durante las pruebas de déficit de riego, se midió, mensualmente, lo alto y ancho de la planta para determinar el índice de crecimiento. Mientras que el aspecto cualitativo o estético se determinó, mensualmente, en escala del 1 al 5, por sus características del follaje, abundancia de flores, tolerancia a las plagas, resistencia a las enfermedades, el vigor y la apariencia en general.
Una segunda ronda de medición, sobre la apariencia general, también se llevó a cabo para capturar más sobre el periodo de floración. Por ejemplo, el UCLPIT identificó en las pruebas del 2020 en el REC de South Coast que la rosa “Apricot Drift" tenía 3.5 puntos en su aspecto general en una escala de 5, lo que se considera “aceptable o muy bonita” y es una planta con riego reducido dentro de la Clasificación de Especies de Plantas Según su Uso de Agua o la guía de WUCOLS.
Mientras asistía a la UC Davis como estudiante de maestría, Karrie Reid, asesora en horticultura del medioambiente retirada de UCCE para el condado de San Joaquín, apoyó a Oki con la investigación sobre la conservación de agua en los paisajes.
El proyecto UCLPIT, para evaluar el riego de plantas ornamentales o de paisaje, inició en UC Davis, hace casi 20 años, a partir de un proyecto de tesis para la maestría entre 2005 al 2007 y un subsidio de CDFA permitió que se duplicaran estos campos en el REC de South Coast en el 2017.
“(WUCOLS solo cuenta con 3,500 plantas, pero se calcula, pero hay cerca de diez mil cultivares en paisajes urbanos en California, si no es que más”, dijo Oki. “WUCOLS tampoco contaba con clasificaciones numéricas. Antes se clasificaban con etiquetas como ‘uso reducido de agua' o ‘uso elevado de agua'”.
El Proyecto UCLPIT no solo ha creado recomendaciones numéricas para el riego, además ha agregado nuevas plantas de paisaje que cumplen con el reglamento de California's Model Water Efficient Landscape. De hecho, la información de UCLPIT es una de las pocas fuentes que pueden usarse para suplementar a WUCOLS.
La diversidad geográfica de las pruebas amplían el conocimiento
Además de UC Davis y el REC de South Coast REC en Irvine, este tipo de pruebas se han ampliado más allá de California como el Proyecto de Plantas de Paisaje Adaptadas al Clima (Climate-Ready Landscape Plants Project) que se ejecuta en otras universidades fuera del estado, gracias al subsidio otorgado por USDA/CDFA en el 2020.
Lloyd Nackley, es el investigador principal en Oregon State University de las pruebas que se ejecutan en el área metropolitana de Portland, las cuales están iniciando su tercer año.
“La gente sabe que hay plantas tolerantes a la sequía, pero son muchas. Así que estamos intentando destacar las variedades menos conocidas o las más nuevas y aunque las pruebas duran tres años, la mayoría de los jardineros esperan que su jardín dure mucho más que eso ", señaló Nackley.
“No fue hasta agosto que vimos a la planta florear y verse como la que vimos en South Coast en abril”, recordó Nackley.
Ursula Schuch, profesora de horticultura e investigadora principal de las pruebas realizadas en la Universidad de Arizona, se sorprendió también ante la gama de resultados obtenidos entre los diferentes tipos de plantas y los efectos del riego, calor y temperatura.
“Esta investigación reafirma a los profesionales del sector verde que pueden estirar su presupuesto y cultivar con éxito más plantas, regándolas en función de sus necesidades en lugar de regar el máximo de agua”, expresó Schuch.
Aun cuando la investigación se realiza por ahora solo en el oeste, la esperanza es que se extienda a otras regiones de los Estados Unidos.
Si sucede así, eso produciría información completa sobre las plantas y su rendimiento en diferentes climas. A medida que persista el clima extremoso en Estados Unidos, lo mismo sucederá con la presión y el riesgo de enfermedades de las plantas. Las pruebas en todo el país aportarían información específica sobre la susceptibilidad de las plantas en cada lugar.
Para conocer más sobre el proyecto de investigación de UCLPIT, visite https://ucanr.edu/sites/UCLPIT/
Traducido al español por Leticia Irigoyen del artículo en inglés
Editado para su publicación por Norma De la Vega
- Author: Saoimanu Sope
Before Brent Flory, 22, started bagging fruits and vegetables at his local Stater Bros. Market, he picked them at the University of California South Coast Research and Extension Center in Irvine.
In partnership with Saddleback Unified School District's Esperanza Education Center, an adult transition program that provides independent living and life skills training for students with disabilities, South Coast REC hosts students on its 200 acres of land and introduces them to careers in agriculture.
Flory recalls picking avocados as one of his favorite moments from the program at South Coast, one of nine RECs across California operated by UC Agriculture and Natural Resources. “I picked a huge avocado and got to bring it home. It was the size of a medium pumpkin,” he shared.
Field work doesn't warrant business attire, but Flory said that working at South Coast REC taught him the importance of dressing appropriately for work. In this case, it meant pants, closed-toe shoes, a shirt with sleeves, and sunscreen or a hat if working in the sun.
While program managers hope that participating students would pursue a career in agriculture, South Coast REC is more concerned about providing opportunities for students to gain real work experience in a unique setting. 
“This is the first time I have had the opportunity for my students to work at a job site in the agricultural field. We never really thought of the agricultural industry as an option for our students,” said Esperanza's education specialist, Michael Seyler.
Esperanza's partnership with South Coast REC began in October 2019. Since then, nine participants have been assigned to work at the research center where they help create seedlings, plant and harvest crops, and learn plant management.
Ray Bueche, Adult Transition Program coordinator and Career Start administrator at Esperanza, is proud of the creative energy it took to develop the program and unite partners, crediting Jason Suppes, South Coast REC's community education specialist. “Working with Jason and UC ANR has inspired me to continue to reach for unique partnerships in this field and elsewhere,” Bueche said.
Dylan Shelden, 19, another past participant, said that the program revealed how important it is for him to choose a career that makes him feel happy and independent. “You are responsible for yourself,” he said. “So, don't quit on the first try.”
Shelden currently works at Party City as a store organizer. Even though he prefers working indoors, Shelden described working with plants and being outdoors as refreshing. “Working in agriculture makes me feel good,” he said.
When asked what advice he would give incoming students, Shelden said: “Be kind, mindful, and thoughtful to others.”
“Things are constantly changing at the farm and follow seasonal patterns. Students get to work with different types of produce depending on the season. So many of my students only thought about jobs in retail or food services industries,” said Seyler. “This has opened their eyes to other possibilities.”
The soft skills learned while working at South Coast REC has helped other students secure paid competitive employment during or following the program. It has also inspired program staff like Bueche and Seyler to consider other unique opportunities for their students to connect the skills they have learned on the farm to other types of jobs.
To learn more about the Adult Transition Program at Esperanza Education Center, visit: https://www.svusd.org/schools/alternative-schools/esperanza/about/why-esperanza
