- Author: Trina Kleist, UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences
Crisosto and team publish handbook for growing peaches and maintaining quality for canning
In an experimental orchard a few miles west of the UC Davis campus, Thomas Gradziel plucked a nearly ripe nectarine from one of the trees. He whipped out a pocketknife and sliced off juicy chunks for Carlos Crisosto to taste. Both are orchard crops experts in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences, and both love peaches.
The two made appreciative sounds as they pulled the fruit's flavor across their palates, discussed how this nectarine variety compared to other varieties, and quickly turned to details of production and orchard management.
Peach gives growers basic information that can reduce their production risks, boost profits and help them face issues such as climate change and a shifting world market, CABI writes in the book's description.
“This will still be the definitive text for probably the next 20 years,” said Carlos Crisosto, who is one of the book's editors and authors. He is both a distinguished professor in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences and UC Cooperative Extension specialist in consumer quality and postharvest technology in UC Agriculture and Natural Resources.
Chapters also cover rootstock, cultivars, water management, fertilization, fruit growth and thinning, testing for maturity, and supply chain management after harvest. Several more chapters cover pests and diseases, maintaining fruit quality, nutritional aspects and canning.
“This book was a pleasure to contribute to, as it includes information from expert colleagues plus exciting new ideas and applications from our recent researchers,” said Gradziel, a UC Davis professor and plant breeder.
In California, farmers cultivated 36,800 acres of peaches, producing 505,000 tons of fruit worth more than $378 million in 2021. While the crop ranks 23rd in the state, based on cash receipts, California is the No. 1 producer of peaches for the entire United States, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture.
Crisosto teamed up with colleagues George Manganaris in Cyprus and Guglielmo Costa in Italy to edit this volume, which takes an international look at a growing industry.
Fun fact mentioned in Peach: Nectarines are a peach without the fuzz, a genetic variation. “Most people don't know that!” Crisosto said with a laugh.
Peach contains more fun facts: Peaches are a member of the rose family, China is the world's largest producer of the fruit (growing 60% of the global crop), and industry leaders yearn for trees with a flat canopy so the fruit would ripen all at about the same time and could be harvested easily by machine, reducing the pressure of finding people to pick the fruit by hand.
Peach is available as an e-book and in paperback. Both cost $80 each.
To preview and order the e-book chapters, visit bit.ly/PeachBook. Get a 20% discount with the code CCAB20 during online checkout. The 424-page paperback can be ordered at https://bit.ly/PeachPaperback.
The publisher's sales staff for North America and South America are based in Herndon, Virginia, and can be reached at StylusMail@PressWarehouse.com, (703) 661-1581 or (800) 232-0223.
This Peach book complements our previous publication, “Manual on postharvest handling of Mediterranean tree fruits and nuts,” Crisosto said. “These two publications contain state-of-the-art production and postharvest information that support our research and information centers, UC ANR mission and our academic teaching.”
/h3>- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Well, they're huddled inside their colonies as California storms erupt with a vengeance reserved for politics.
The bees venture out...one here...one there...on sun breaks, but never is the nectarine tree a'buzzing as it did last year.
"So far things could be worse," UC Davis butterfly guru Art Shapiro distinguished professor of evolution and ecology, wrote in a group email (his "posse") on March 13. "Unfortunately, there appears to be no break through the end of the month, with never more than two consecutive dry days in the entire stretch and temperatures remaining well below normal. I don't think it's an 1861-62 scenario...yet...glub.."
Shapiro, who has monitored the butterfly populations of central California for 50 years and maintains a research website, Art's Butterfly World, tracks both butterflies AND temperatures--past, present and future.
On a scale not seen since 1861-62? That references the Great Flood of 1862, "the largest flood in the recorded history of Oregon, Nevada, and California, occurring from December 1861 to January 1862," according to Wikipedia.
Wikipedia says "it was preceded by weeks of continuous rains and snows in the very high elevations that began in Oregon in November 1861 and continued into January 1862. This was followed by a record amount of rain from January 9–12, and contributed to a flood that extended from the Columbia River southward in western Oregon, and through California to San Diego, and extended as far inland as Idaho in the Washington Territory, Nevada and Utah in the Utah Territory, and Arizona in the western New Mexico Territory. The event dumped an equivalent of 10 feet (3.0 m) of water in California, in the form of rain and snow, over a period of 43 days. Immense snowfalls in the mountains of far western North America caused more flooding in Idaho, Arizona, New Mexico, as well as in Baja California and Sonora, Mexico the following spring and summer, as the snow melted."
Indeed, Shaprio could hold a second job as a meteorologist, but he says this: "As you know, I adhere to the 'weatherman's philosophy,' i.e. predict the worst because if it doesn't happen people will feel relieved, whereas if you didn't predict it and it happens people will want to kill you. May it not happen--any of it."
Meanwhile, we welcomed another sun break yesterday. So did the nectarine tree and the honey bees.
![A honey bee, cooped up in a hive for weeks due to the rain and cold, heads for a nectarine blossom in Vacaville, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) A honey bee, cooped up in a hive for weeks due to the rain and cold, heads for a nectarine blossom in Vacaville, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/98175.jpg)
![Find the bee! There's one pollinating a nectarine blossom. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) Find the bee! There's one pollinating a nectarine blossom. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/98176.jpg)
![A pollen-packing bee exits a nectarine blossom.(Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) A pollen-packing bee exits a nectarine blossom.(Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/98177.jpg)
The adult beetles are small (1/8 inch), slender, black beetles with dull yellow wing bands. The larvae are white, short-legged grubs. They are especially attracted to overripe, broken, fermenting, and dried fruits, and are common in orchards, drying sheds, and on fruit trays. The adults lay their eggs on ripe and rotting fruits of all types. They may also infest grapes before they have been completely dried and made into raisins. Fig varieties that have large "eyes" (openings at the blossom ends of fruits) are most affected; fig varieties such as 'Mission' and 'Tina' have small eyes, and are less infested by the beetles.
A complete life cycle of the dried fruit beetle may vary from a minimum of 15 days in the summer to several months in the winter. In winter, both adults and larvae survive in decaying cull fruit of any kind. The pupae generally overwinter in the soil.
Sanitation is the best way of controlling dried fruit beetles. Eliminate potential breeding sites by harvesting ripe fruit promptly and picking up fallen fruit as soon as possible. Keep cull fruit in tight garbage cans or garbage bags until disposed of. If you dry fruit, you should thoroughly clean your drying trays after each use.
You may want to try trapping to reduce dried fruit beetle infestations. To do this, place several overripe peaches in a bucket, then coat the insides of the bucket with 90-weight oil, Tanglefoot, or a similar sticky material. Once the buckets are hanging in the tree, the fermenting peaches attract the beetles, and they become trapped in the sticky material. This method will give you partial control only.
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.
- Author: Cari Curtis, Master Food Preserver
- Editor: Shannon Klisch
The end of summer is fast approaching and if you have fruit trees, you might have a load of stone fruit on your hands. What to do with all of that bounty? Cari Curtis, Master Food Preserver with San Luis Obispo County walks us through the process of making delicious honey dipped nectarines in the dehydrator. Recipe source: So Easy to Preserve, University of Georgia Extension, Copyright 2014.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Seen any bumble bees lately?
No? Me, neither.
It's almost the first day of spring, and bumble bees are as scarce as the proverbial hen's teeth. (Hens have no teeth, y'know.)
We've been watching our nectarine tree bloom. It's drawing honey bees, but no bumble bees.
Back on March 18, 2018, we spotted a number of bumble bees, including Bombus melanopygus, also known as the black-tailed bumble bee. This is one of the 27 species of bumble bees in California. We frequently see the yellow-faced bumble bee, Bombus vosnesenskii, and sometimes Bombus californicus, aka the California bumble bee.
Our March 18, 2018 "poster child" on our nectarine tree, Bombus melanopygus, appeared to be nesting nearby, due to her frequent visits.
National Public Radio reported on Feb. 6, 2020 that bumble bees are declining because of the extreme heat: "Extreme temperatures are driving a dramatic decline in bumble bees across North America and Europe, according to a new study, in yet another way climate change is putting ecosystems at risk.
"Researchers looked at half a million records showing where bumble bees have been found since 1901, across 66 different species. They found that in places where bumblebees have lived in North America, you're about half as likely to see one today. The decline is especially pronounced in Mexico, where bumble bees once lived in abundance."
Pesticides and habitat loss are also key factors. Says National Geographic in a Feb. 6, 2020 article titled Bumble Bees Are Going Extinct in a Time of 'Climate Chaos': "Climate change is not the only factor behind the insects' decline. They are also threatened by pesticides like neonicotinoids—which are extremely toxic to all bees—destruction of habitat by development and conversion of wildlands into agriculture, the spread of pathogens, and the release of non-native bees for commercial pollination."
If you're interested in learning more about bumble bees, check out the book, California Bees and Blooms: a Guide for Gardeners and Naturalists, the work of UC Davis and UC Berkeley scientists, including Robbin Thorp (1933-2019), distinguished emeritus professor of entomology at UC Davis, who also co-authored Bumble Bees of North America: an Identification Guide.
And if you see any bumble bees in your backyard in your yard between July 23 and Aug. 1, join the Third Annual Backyard Bumble Bee Count at https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/backyard-bumble-bee-count
As inaturalist.org says on its website: "Each bumble bee record submitted during the Backyard Bumble Bee Count helps researchers learn more about how bumble bees are doing and how to protect them and the environment we share. All observations collected July 23- August 1 will be included. For more information, including instructions, go to: https://backyardbbcount.wixsite.com/bumblebeecount."
![A black-tailed bumble bee, Bombus melanopygus, heading for the Garvey nectarine tree on March 18, 2018 in Vacaville, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) A black-tailed bumble bee, Bombus melanopygus, heading for the Garvey nectarine tree on March 18, 2018 in Vacaville, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/78760.jpg)
![Ahh, sweet nectar! A Bombus melanopygus nectaring on a nectarine blossom on March 18, 2018 in Vacaville, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) Ahh, sweet nectar! A Bombus melanopygus nectaring on a nectarine blossom on March 18, 2018 in Vacaville, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/78761.jpg)
![Wait, just a little more! A Bombus melanopygus nectaring on a nectarine blossom on March 18, 2018 in Vacaville, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) Wait, just a little more! A Bombus melanopygus nectaring on a nectarine blossom on March 18, 2018 in Vacaville, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/78762.jpg)