- Author: Chris M. Webb
On the morning of Tuesday, April 3 Oleg Daugovish will hold a fumigant alternatives and soil-borne pathogens field day. This event will be simultaneously translated into Spanish.
Scheduled topics include:
- Regulatory update on soil fumigation
- Alternative fumigants research update
- Soil borne pathogens Macrophomina and Fusarium: biology and management in strawberry
- Advances in steam application technology for soil disinfestation
- Update on Anaerobic Soil Disinfestation studies
- Research update from the California Strawberry Commission
- In-progress results from experiment on display
- View the plots with fumigant alternative treatments
Continuing education credits have been approved from DPR (Department of Pesticide Regulation).
Lunch and refreshments will be provided. Additional details can be found on the agenda.
To insure your participation, or if you have questions, please contact Oleg Daugovish at (805) 645-1454 or odaugovish@ucdavis.edu.
- Author: Chris M. Webb
Designed to deliver alerts to residents quickly, VC Alert has the ability to share threats to the health and safety of entire communities seamlessly and efficiently. Alerts can be received by one or more of the following: home phone, cell phone, work phone, email, text message, fax, or instant messaging.
In addition to emergency information users can choose to receive any of these additional categories: crime alerts, road closures, public meetings, and community events.
Perhaps the best part of this system is the ability to define the locations and types of notices you are interested to receive. For instance, you may request alerts near: your home, workplace, children’s school, or areas in which other family or friends reside.
It is easy to sign up for this service. You may sign up using the internet , by phone 805.648.9293, or by mail. The address to mail a request is Ventura County Sheriff’s OES; 800 South Victoria Avenue #3450; Ventura, CA 93009. Residents are able to sign up in English, or in Spanish.
- Author: Chris M. Webb
Environmental Health Perspective (EHP), a peer-reviewed open access journal published by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences has a wonderful collection of science education materials designed for youth.
From their site:
“The Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP) Science Education Program promotes environmental health literacy, using the scientific literature to teach students the principles of environmental health science.
EHP resources enable teachers to provide students with current and credible environmental health information. The lessons published through the EHP Science Education Program encourage students to learn about their health and their environment through cooperative hands-on and critical thinking activities and real-world examples. Students also learn their behavior can have significant effects on the environment.”
All lessons can be downloaded free of charge. Many are available in Spanish.
Current topics include:
- Air – topics related to air quality monitoring, air pollution and impact of air pollution on human health.
- Water – issues of water resources, pollution, routes of exposure, sources of pollution, health effects and policy.
- Land – land use hazards, built environments, perils of impervious surfaces.
- Climate – energy issues, environmental and human impacts of climate change, alternative fuels, disaster and emergency preparedness.
- Food – includes topics such as genetically modified and organic foods, presence of pesticides and additives in foods, obesity and food deserts.
- Health – genetic basis of disease, disease risk factors, environmental toxicants and their effects on human health.
Previous lesson topics can be found on the lesson archive page. To learn more, please visit their website.
- Author: Chris M. Webb
The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics “encourages all Americans to take time during National Nutrition Month to look at their eating patterns…” Nutrition can greatly affect our health. Even small improvements in nutrition can lead to significant health benefits.
Consider taking sometime this month to learn more about the foods you put in your body.
- Empty calories can be okay in small amounts.
- Grains include wheat, rice, oats, cornmeal, and barley.
- Dairy foods include all fluid milk products and many foods made from milk.
- Vegetables can be consumed, raw, cooked, fresh, frozen, canned, dried, whole, cut-up, or mashed.
- Fruit can be enjoyed fresh, canned, frozen, dried, whole, cut-up, or pureed.
- Protein foods include meats, poultry, eggs, beans and peas, processed soy products, seafood, and nuts and seeds
USDA’s ChooseMyPlate.gov website is well designed, easy to navigate, and full of information and tips to help you improve your nutrition.
ChooseMyPlate.gov is also available in Spanish.
- Author: Chris M. Webb
UCCE Farm Advisor, Oleg Daugovish recently participated in a trip sponsored by the Partners of Americas Farmer to Farmer Program. This program is designed to improve economic opportunities of people living in rural areas of Latin America and the Carribbean.
Over nine days, Oleg helped participants in the Dominican Republic (DR ) learn how to increase food production and distribution, suggested improvements for farm operations and conserving natural resources. Most producers in this area of the world have small acreage and part of the production takes place in greenhouses or under tunnels. Most operations use drip irrigation. Greenhouses are equipped with double screen doors. Diagnostic facilities are not readily available.
Much like in Ventura County, many of the farmers Oleg worked with in DR grew strawberries and peppers. Growers in both places face many of the same challenges, but with different climates and infrastructures. While in the Dominican Republic Oleg covered many miles, visited multiple farms per day, and educated a lot of people at several meetings.
Topics covered included:
- Weed management
- Anaerobic Soil Disinfestation (ASD)
- Substrates
- Fumigation
- Quality of planting material
- Crop rotation
- Slight adjustments in production to increase yield
- Propagation
In addition to the help he provided in person, Oleg shared the following UC ANR online resources with DR farmers.
- University of California post-harvest management for fruits and vegetables (en Espanol) -- the produce facts sheets are available in several languages
- University of California IPM guidelines, available for most crops, including strawberry (en Espanol). This site has a crop –specific pest and weed management treatment table for each pest/weed/pathogen and is updated frequently
- Phytophthora spp. seem to be prevalent among soil-borne pathogens in the DR. Aside from fumigation and ASD, phosphorus acid materials can be used such as Fosfite, Alliete or others containing the same active ingredient. Details are at this page of the University of California IPM website.
- Section of web-page for Strawberry production at the UCCE-Ventura County website. The menu on the left contains presentations on various subjects and links to UC weed susceptibility chart for herbicides available in California and cost and return studies for crops
- Foundation plant Services at U. California – strawberry. The site provides info about obtaining the UC varieties of strawberries.