- Author: Myriam Grajales-Hall
Light is probably the most important factor for indoor plant growth. In most houses, it’s probably the most limiting factor as well. To add to the problem, light levels begin to dwindle in fall as the days become shorter. This means you may need to make some adjustments in the arrangement of your indoor plants during fall and winter.
In a recent article Ross Penhallegon, Horticulturist for Oregon State University, writes that when thinking about light levels for indoor plants, consider light intensity, duration and quality. Light intensity influences the manufacture of plant food, stem length, leaf color and flowering. For example, a plant grown in low light tends to be spindly with light green leaves. A similar plant grown in bright light would generally be shorter, better branched and have longer, darker green leaves.
The distance the plant is from the light source and the direction the windows in a home face determine the light intensity a houseplant receives. Southern exposures have the most intense light. Western and eastern exposures receive about 60 percent of the intensity of southern exposures, while northern exposures get only 20 percent of the light of southern exposures. Light intensity is also affected by the presence and type of curtains, the weather, shade from buildings or trees, the cleanliness of the windows and the reflectiveness of the surroundings.
Penhallegon suggests that you can compensate for low light intensity by increasing the time a plant is exposed to light. Increased hours of lighting allow the plant to make sufficient food to survive and grow. Additional light can be supplied from either incandescent or fluorescent lights or special horticultural fluorescent lights. Any type of light that burns a metal element, including the common household light bulb, is incandescent. Incandescent lights produce a great deal of heat (red spectrum) and are not very efficient users of electricity. Fluorescent lights are cool or blue light. By supplying a combination of incandescent and fluorescent lighting, most of the needed light spectrum is provided.
According to Penhallegon, using only cool white fluorescent tubes provides the best light for the money. Special plant growing fluorescent tubes make plant foliage and flowers appear more attractive, but they are more expensive than the cool white tubes, and in general, plant growth may be no better. Fluorescent fixtures can be suspended about 24 inches above the pots for short plants and progressively higher for taller plants. This will supply good lighting without the danger of heat injury.
Day length or duration of light is also of some importance to only those plants that are sensitive to day length, including poinsettia, kalanchoe and Christmas cactus. Most flowering plants are indifferent to day length. But, writes Penhallegon, all indoor plants need some period of darkness and should be illuminated for no more than 16 hours. When a plant gets too much direct light, the leaves become pale, sometimes sunburn, turn brown and die. During the summer, houseplants need to be protected from too much direct sunlight.
Ivy plants, philodendrons, foliage begonias and peperomias - grown mainly for their foliage - do well in indirect bright light. Tender plants, such as African violets and gloxinias, also should receive indirect light during the summer when the sun’s rays are extremely intense.
On the other hand, most flowering plants require higher light levels for the development of good flowers, explained Penhallegon. These plants grow best where they receive direct sunshine for at least half a day. Placing them near windows with an eastern exposure usually suits them best. Cacti and succulents, grown for their unique forms, require a sunny location. Coleus and crotons must be grown at high light intensities to maintain their decorative foliage colors.
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- Author: Myriam Grajales-Hall
(DAVIS. 9/3/03.) The week of September 21-27,2003,
has been designated National Farm Safety and Health Week. The California
AgrAbility Project encourage safe work practices of agricultural producers and
workers. “This week is a time
to increase our efforts to keep everyone safe and free from injuries, on farms
and ranches,” says Jim Meyers, Director of CalAgrAbility at UC Davis. During this week, we can also
recognize the thousands of men and women who labor throughout the year to
produce food, feed, and fiber for Americans and for nations around the
world.
In 2001 fifty-four agricultural
workers were killed in California and another 26,000 suffered disabling
injuries. CalAgrAbility addresses these injuries and provides assistance to
farmers and farm workers who are disabled or have chronic health
conditions. National Farm Safety
and Health Week is an opportunity to recognize common risks and consider some
simple things that can reduce such farm injuries.
● Vehicles are involved in the
largest number of agricultural fatalities.
Require drivers and passengers to wear seatbelts on and off the
road. Transport workers in
appropriate vehicles. Those who
travel in rural areas should be familiar with the Slow Moving Vehicle Symbol.
Always use caution when driving in rural areas, especially now in the busy
harvest season.
● Tractor rollovers continue to
cause fatalities. If a tractor has no rollover protective structure (ROPS), get
one retrofitted! All five of the major tractor manufacturers (Case, Deere,
Kubota, Agco, and New Holland) offer retrofit ROPS for tractors. Install and use ROPS and seatbelts. They
do save lives.
● Protect children. Children are the
future of agriculture. Treat them with the respect and caution they deserve.
Keep them safe and out of harm’s way.
● Most injuries in California
agriculture are from overexertion. Get help lifting heavy, awkward, or bulky
objects. Know your capabilities and work within them. No task is worth an
injury. Take the time to do things safely and well the first
time.
Safety should be part of every farm
and ranch task. Even the smallest daily job should reflect an attitude
that communicates the importance of
safety. Everyday, CalAgrAbility
Project staff across the state provide information that echoes this message.
“Our clients have already sustained injuries and need to take extra precautions
to stay safe. We help our disabled
clients find ways to modify their operations, equipment, and homes so that they
can continue to live and work safely,” says Martha Stiles, CalAgrAbility State
Coordinator.
Farmers, ranchers, and workers with
any type of physical, cognitive, or sensory condition (e.g., amputation,
traumatic brain injury, hearing impairment) that limits their ability to do farm
work or daily living activities are eligible for AgrAbility services. To date,
dozens of farmers and workers have received assistance from the California AgrAbility Project. To find out more about it call
Martha Stiles at (530-752-2606) or visit the project’s website at
http://calagrability.ucdavis.edu/
USDA Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service funds a National AgrAbility Project and 24 State Projects. The California AgrAbility Project is a joint effort between the University of California and Easter Seals Superior Sacramento.
- Author: Myriam Grajales-Hall
Communicating pesticide safety
information to California's more than 800,000 agricultural workers is a daunting
task. California production agriculture applied an average of 176 million pounds
of pesticide active ingredient each year from 1992–2001, over a vast geographic
area and on hundreds of different crops, livestock and nursery
products.
"We use a greater variety of
pesticides in California, and a greater array of application methods and timing,
than regions such as the Midwest, where growers produce a few major crops within
well-defined seasons," says Patrick O'Connor-Marer, pesticide safety training
coordinator for the UC Statewide IPM Program.
Furthermore, the state's
agricultural workers are drawn from a large and constantly changing pool,
primarily of migrant and seasonal workers from Mexico, as well as Southeast
Asian and Punjabi immigrants and other non-English-speaking
people.
Since 1988, the UC IPM Program has
been responsible for mandated training of California's pesticide applicators.
With a staff of just three educators, one event coordinator, one writer, and one support position, its
Pesticide Safety Education Program (PSEP) has devised innovative methods for
managing a Herculean task.
Hands-on workshops. The program's
initial efforts involved conducting 8-hour seminars for as many as 400
participants. These large seminars were not particularly engaging for
participants nor were they effective in influencing pesticide-handling behavior,
O'Connor-Marer says.
Learning from this experience, PSEP
developed hands-on workshops. Conducted outside in facilities such as
fairgrounds or large parks, the workshops accommodate as many as 420
participants divided into small groups of 15 people or less. The groups rotate
through seven stations, covering topics such as personal protective equipment,
mixing and loading, application equipment, leaks and spills, environmental
protection, first aid, and cleanup and disposal methods. Some sessions are
conducted in Spanish, Punjabi or other languages.
"People feel more comfortable asking
questions in small groups," says Rupali Das of the California Occupational
Health Surveillance and Evaluation Program, who has participated in several UC
workshops. "It's more of a discussion."
Lacking the resources to conduct
these workshops themselves, PSEP staff have offered 197 train-the-trainer
workshops in the last 10 years, with 4,990 individuals receiving certification.
In turn, these individuals have trained more than 820,000 pesticide handlers and
agricultural fieldworkers. In addition, some PSEP workshops have targeted health
care workers, to improve reporting of pesticide illnesses and injuries. PSEP’s
most recent train-the-trainer project is a collaboration with the California
Minor Crops Council in a community-based outreach to trainers of pesticide
applicators at mid-sized farming operations in the Central Coast and northern
Sacramento Valley areas.
Pesticide
label comprehension. In
2000, PSEP conducted a feasibility study among Hispanic farmers in Monterey
County and Hmong farmers in Fresno County to determine if non-English-speaking
individuals could acquire sufficient English skills to understand pesticide
labels. In consultation with ESL (English as a Second Language) experts, program
staff developed a 60-hour course. In an evaluation, individuals were asked 75
questions about a pesticide label before and after taking the course; afterward,
the number of correct answers increased by an average of 81.7%, O'Connor-Marer
says.
Outreach success. PSEP's
train-the-trainer programs illustrate that it is possible to leverage the
efforts of a few staff in order to reach large numbers of people. In 1999, 247
participants were surveyed to assess the effectiveness of the train-the-trainer
workshops; on average, each instructor trained 219 fieldworkers (SD = 670) and
35 pesticide handlers (SD = 8).
The state's Pesticide Illness
Surveillance Program reports that pesticide handlers and agricultural
fieldworkers may be changing their behaviors. From 1989 through 1998, the state
program, which relies on health care worker reports, found that topical
illnesses definitely or probably caused by pesticide exposure dropped by 61% in
agricultural workers and 57% in nonagricultural workers.
International collaboration. In a new effort to coordinate the U.S. and Mexico’s pesticide safety programs and educational materials and to launch new pesticide safety train-the-trainer programs in Mexico, PSEP has entered an international collaboration with the U.S. EPA, the Texas Department of Agriculture, and health, labor, environment, and agriculture officials in Mexico. In 2002 collaborators conducted four pilot train-the-trainer workshops in Mexico, in the states of Morelos, Sinaloa, Nayarit, and Puebla. The project’s long-term goal is to establish an ongoing national pesticide safety education program in Mexico that can be offered to agricultural workers and rural community members throughout the country.
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Prepared by
UCCE Nutrition, Family and Consumer Science Advisors
Many people are much more susceptible to
food poisoning and don't even know it. Young children, pregnant women, older
adults, and those with compromised immune systems are particularly vulnerable.
You are at increased risk if you suffer from liver disease or alcoholism, if you
have decreased stomach acidity (due to gastric surgery or the use of antacids),
or if you have a compromised immune system due to: steroid use; conditions such
as AIDS, cancer, or diabetes; or treatments such as
chemotherapy.
In addition to taking precautions
against food borne illness at home, you need to be careful when you are away
from home too. Here are four easy steps you can take to protect yourself and
your loved ones when you are selecting foods that are ready to eat at a
restaurant, delicatessen, take-out counter, or grocery
store.
Be Aware of Raw or Undercooked Foods
Foods from animals such as meat,
poultry, fish, shellfish, and eggs when eaten raw or undercooked sometimes
contain harmful viruses and bacteria that can pose a risk of food borne
illness.
To reduce your chances of food borne
illness you should stay away from: * Raw
fish or shellfish -oysters, clams, sushi, sashimi,
ceviche
Meat or seafood
ordered undercooked such as "rare" hamburger, beef, lamb, pork, or fish. Eggs
ordered undercooked and food with uncooked egg ingredients-such as "runny" fried
or poached eggs; dressings or sauces such as hollandaise, homemade mayonnaise,
and Caesar salad dressing; desserts like chocolate mousse, meringue pie, and
tiramisu.
Ask About Preparation
Recipes vary. If you're not sure whether
a ready-to-eat item contains undercooked ingredients, ask how the food is
prepared.
Request that Food be Thoroughly Cooked
If the item you are interested in
selecting contains raw or undercooked meat, fish, shellfish, or eggs, ask if
that ingredient can be eliminated. If the food is prepared to order, ask for it
thoroughly cooked.
Make a Different Choice
With certain foods, such as oysters on
the half shelf or an egg-based mousse, it may be impossible to accommodate your
request for thorough cooking. In that case, simply choose something else. It is
a minor inconvenience compared to the major problems caused by foodborne
illness.
To learn more about foodborne illness
and ways to prevent it, talk to your health care professional or your local
health department, or visit the www.FoodSafety.gov web
site.
Source: U. S.
Food and Drug Administration Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition
November,2000
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- Author: Myriam Grajales-Hall
TIME TO TUNE UP YOUR LAWN IRRIGATION
SYSTEM
Ed Perry
Farm
advisor
UC, Cooperative
Extension
Stanislaus
County
There is no doubt that water
management is the most important cultural practice in maintaining a lawn. Now that hot weather is here to stay for
a while, it’s a good idea to review some basic lawn watering practices. Remember, you’re doing the best job of
watering your lawn when the amount of water you apply replaces the water used by
the grass with none lost to surface runoff or penetration below the roots.
Lawns
need complete water coverage to maintain their vigor and a healthy
appearance. Brown spots in a lawn
are often due to uneven coverage.
Make sure your sprinkler system provides uniform coverage. Too much water is not only wasteful but
can cause turf to grow faster, which requires more frequent mowing. Saturated soil can cause poor soil
aeration and, as a result, weaken the turf making it vulnerable to diseases and
invasions of weeds. Not enough
water can cause turf to dry out, also making it more susceptible to diseases and
weed invasion.
You can determine when your lawn
needs watering by observing its appearance, and by examining the soil. When your lawn changes from bright green
to dull gray-green, it needs water immediately. Also, when stressed for water, your lawn
will show footprints and will not spring back from normal foot traffic. If you don’t apply water at this time,
the gray-green hue will deteriorate to a tan color which indicates severe water
stress and dead grass.
Light
sprinkling should only be used for newly planted turf when the roots are
developing in the very top portion of the soil. As the lawn becomes established, roots
extend deeper into the soil. Light
sprinkling will encourage shallow root development and stunt deeper root
growth. Shallow root systems
require frequent watering to keep the surface wet, creating an ideal environment
for weeds and diseases. Although
some grasses have less extensive root systems than others, deep, infrequent
watering that allows water to penetrate the top 6 to 8 inches of soil will
promote healthy root growth. It
also maximizes water-use efficiency and turfgrass quality. Allow the soil to partially dry out
between waterings. Water when the
top two inches of soil have dried out.
Use an object such as a screwdriver to probe your soil and measure the
depth of the moisture.
The
frequency of watering depends on your grass species, the weather and your soil
type. Warm-season grasses such as
burmudagrass and St. Augustine grass have extensive root systems that penetrate
deep into the soil and require deep and infrequent watering. Water as few times a week as necessary
to wet the soil to the desired depth without causing excessive runoff. For warm-season grasses, usually one or
two times a week is sufficient.
Cool-season grasses such as fescue and ryegrass require more frequent
watering than warm-season grasses because their root systems are not as
extensive. Usually about three
equally-spaced irrigations a week are necessary to maintain these grasses. Fewer applications are necessary during
cooler months.
When
irrigating, don’t apply water more rapidly than the soil can absorb it. Avoid water runoff. To do so you might have to turn off the
sprinklers for 1 to 2 hours to let the water soak in before continuing
irrigation. Repeat this cycle until
the top 6 to 8 inches of soil are wet.
If you
want to determine the maximum amount of time your sprinklers can be left on at
one time, observe a cycle from the beginning to the time when runoff
begins. That is the maximum amount
of time that you let your sprinklers run in any given watering. Space out the applications evenly during
the week.
In order to get water to penetrate
deeply, you may need to correct such problems as thatch accumulation or soil
compaction. Thatch is undecomposed
organic matter that builds up between the leaf blades and the soil surface. Thatch keeps water, air and nutrients
from moving into the root zone. A
thick thatch layer should be removed in spring or fall by vertical mowing or by
hand raking. Heavy foot traffic on
turfgrass can compact the soil surface.
Like thatch, compacted soil restricts water, air and nutrient movement,
and hinders root development. You
should aerify (core) the compacted areas in your lawn.
The best times to water are between
2 and 8 in the morning. At these
times, water use is most efficient, water loss from evaporation is minimal, and
distribution is usually good because of good water pressure and limited
wind. During the afternoon, water
is wasted due to high evaporation rates.
Do not water during the evening or pre-midnight hours because lawns are
more susceptible to diseases if they are wet during the cool night
hours.
In
summary, how often you need to irrigate your lawn depends on its appearance and
how moist the soil is. Avoid daily, light irrigations. Grasses and soils differ, so irrigation
schedules must be tailored to individual lawns. Remember, it is not uncommon to irrigate
for ½ to 1 hour or longer at each irrigation to do a good
job.
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