Our last newsletter may have prompted you to have more questions about citrus. The good news is, the topic for January Classes at Stanislaus County Libraries is (you guessed it) Growing Citrus Trees! We hope to see you at one of these free classes.
You can also see a list of our classes on our calendar by visiting our website at https://ucanr.edu/sites/stancountymg/Calendar/
p.s. February's topic is Spring Vegetable Gardening, stay tuned for more information!
- Author: Belinda Messenger-Sikes
The invasive pest spotlight focuses on emerging or potential invasive pests in California. In this issue we are covering the Oriental fruit fly.
Oriental Fruit Fly Facts
The Oriental fruit fly (OFF) is an invasive pest that attacks over 230 crops including citrus and other fruits, nuts, vegetables, and berries. The short life cycle of the OFF allows rapid development of serious outbreaks, which can cause severe economic losses. Heavy infestations can cause complete losses of crops. Fruit that has been attacked may be unfit to eat as larvae tunnel through the flesh as they feed. Fungi and bacteria enter, leaving the interior of the fruit a rotten mass. Infested fruit does not always look damaged from the outside but may take on a brown, mottled appearance as the maggots feed.
The adult OFF is slightly larger than a housefly, around 1/3 inch (8mm) in length. The body color is often bright yellow with a dark "T" shaped marking on the abdomen. The wings are clear. The female has a pointed slender ovipositor to deposit eggs under the skin of host fruit. A single female can lay more than 1,000 eggs in her lifetime. The fly can infest new areas very quickly because it is a strong flyer and can travel 30 miles in search of food and sites to lay eggs.
What Can You Do?
The Oriental fruit fly is a major pest of agriculture in Hawaii and efforts to prevent its establishment into California are ongoing. Areas where OFF have been detected are under quarantine. If you are in a quarantine area, you can help by controlling the movement of your homegrown fruit off your property and by disposing of infected fruit in the garbage, not in green waste or compost. If you suspect you've found OFF, notify your County Agricultural Commissioner's office or call the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) Pest Hotline at 1-800-491-1899.
/h2>/h2>Seven invasive fruit fly quarantines are in place throughout California. If you live within one of these quarantine zones, fruits and vegetables should not be moved off the property they were grown on. Quarantines are in place for the Mediterranean fruit fly, Oriental fruit fly, tau fruit fly, and Queensland fruit fly. Smuggled, illegally imported fruit is the most common pathway of fruit fly entry into California.
These fruit flies lay their eggs under the skin of many crops, making their detection difficult. Females of some species can lay 1,000 eggs in their lifetime. Once eggs hatch, larvae (maggots) feed on the inside of the fruit. Infested fruit drops to the ground where larvae leave the fruit to burrow into the soil to pupate. Numerous generations can occur each year.
Invasive fruit flies pose a major threat to California agriculture as they make fruit unfit for human consumption and damage a wide variety of crops from fruits to vegetables. In addition, they pose an economic burden to commercial growers in quarantine zones as they must treat all host fruit with an approved pesticide before sale or movement within or outside of the quarantine area. You can help prevent the spread of these invasive pests and reduce the risks they pose to commercial fruit and vegetable producers by not moving homegrown produce and cleaning up and disposing of dropped fruit.
Quarantine zones include:
Mediterranean fruit fly
- Los Angeles County, Leimert Park Area
Oriental fruit fly
- San Bernardino and Riverside Counties, Redlands, Yucaipa, Highland, San Bernardino, and Riverside Areas
- Sacramento County, Rancho Cordova Area
- Contra Costa County, Brentwood Area
- Santa Clara County, Santa Clara Area
Tau fly
- Los Angeles County, Stevenson Ranch, Valencia, Santa Clarita Areas
Queensland fruit fly
- Ventura and Los Angeles Counties, Thousand Oaks Area
Quarantine zones updated December 5, 2023. To view the most up-to-date quarantine maps, visit the CDFA webpage at https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/plant/pe/InteriorExclusion/quarantine.html.
If you live in a fruit fly quarantine zone:
- Do not take fresh fruits and vegetables off your property. Don't share with neighbors or ship to friends and family in other counties or states.
- Consume or process (i.e., juice, freeze, or cook) all fruits and vegetables where they are grown.
- Dispose of homegrown fruits and vegetables by double-bagging and sealing then placing them in the trash–not in your green waste or compost bin.
Suspect you have an invasive fruit fly infestation? Contact the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) Pest Hotline: 1-800-491-1899 or your County Agricultural Commissioner. Allow authorized CDFA workers access to your property to inspect fruit, set traps, or conduct fruit fly eradication activities. Your cooperation helps protect California agriculture!
While the holiday season is a time of giving, we urge you to not share these invasive fruit flies!
[Revised from this California Dept. of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) blog post.]
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Precautions and Harvesting Review
A reminder: before consuming edible flowers, one should always proceed with caution. The flowers should come only from your garden or other trusted sources that have not been sprayed with pesticides. Many flowers share common names, so always look for the scientific name (genus and species) to ensure you have the right flowers, since not all flowers are edible.
Harvest fully opened flowers in the morning right after the dew has dried. Carefully wash them, and as needed remove the stamens, styles, pistils, and sepals (the parts that hold the pollen and the green stems that hold petals together). Use as soon as possible for maximum flavor.
Edible Flowers from Fruits & Vegetables
- Squash flowers are often used in Mexican and Latin American cuisine. Use male flowers that have been removed after pollination. They can be stuffed with a variety of foods, and fried or baked as appetizers and side dishes. In addition to being delicious, they look stunning.
- Pea flowers: Rather than letting some flowers become pea pods, pick a few of these flowers to add a mild pea flavor to a salad.
- Onion/Chive flowers are grown primarily for their bulbs or stems. However, the flowers, along with other parts of the plants from this family have a mild garlic or onion flavor that works well in a range of recipes. Some varieties can remain green all year, thus providing a year-round source of flavor for salads, soups, etc.
- Elderflowers are one of the most common examples of edible flowers and are used in a wide range of drinks such as elderflower cordial or syrups.
- Cherry blossoms are also edible from fruiting cherry trees. They are often an ingredient in Japanese cuisine. They can be pickled in salt and vinegar.
- The blossoms from fruiting plums, peach, citrus, and apple trees, and almond trees are also sometimes eaten, but are generally used as garnish or decoration.
Don't Forget Flowers from “Weeds!”
- Dandelion leaves and green ends of the flowers are bitter, while the petals and stamen have a mildly sweet flavor. Like elderberry, dandelion flowers can be used to make cordials or syrups.
- The daisies you might find all over your lawn have little flowers that can be eaten in salads or sandwiches.
- Clover flowers, both the white and red varieties, are both suitable for eating. The red flowers are the most flavorful and can be used in teas, syrups and a range of desserts.
As the two articles from last week and this week on edible flowers show, there is an incredible array of flowers you can choose from to expand your meals, desserts, and decorate your plates. Your local library is a good source for books for ideas, preparation, and recipes. I'm looking forward to collecting summer squash flowers from our vegetable garden, stuffing them, and grilling them!
Denise Godbout-Avant has been a Stanislaus County Master Gardener since 2020.
/h3>/h3>/h3>- Author: Ed Perry
Fruit color is a poor indication of ripeness, because many fruits have fully colored rinds a long time before they can be eaten.
Don't expect citrus fruits to increase in sweetness or ripen more fully once you've picked them, as do peaches and some other fruits. When picked at any stage of maturity, citrus fruit does not change after picking, except that it may decay or slowly dry out.
When you're picking citrus fruit that you plan to store for awhile, be careful not to bruise or break the skin. Fruits that are cut or scratched during harvesting will rot fairly quickly in storage. Citrus fruits with perfectly sound skin are fairly decay proof, and will last in cool, moist storage for several weeks (38 to 48 degrees F, 85 to 95 percent relative humidity). Under dry conditions at room temperature, fruits develop off flavors and shrivel within a week to 10 days.
Ed Perry is the emeritus Environmental Horticultural Advisor for University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) in Stanislaus County where he worked for over 30 years.