- Author: Chris M. Webb
Ventura County UCCE Farm Advisor, Ben Faber shares his knowledge of avocados. Today’s topic:
There are over 900 named varieties of avocado…how do you pick one? Well, first, the selection at retail nurseries is somewhat limited, compared to what is offered by nurseries that supply commercial avocado growers. But you do have options. In general, avocado trees are big and need room. ‘Hass’ has an umbrella-shaped canopy, but ‘Reed’ is more columnar and needs less room. ‘Holiday’ is a much smaller tree than ‘Hass’ and “Littlecado’ is a somewhat smaller tree. You can also choose on the basis of when you want to pick your fruit. For example, ‘Fuerte’ is a winter fruit and ‘Reed’ is a summer fruit. That means they taste best in those periods, but they will hold on the tree for a much longer period of time. You can also choose on the basis of taste. Of course, this is very subjective, but ‘Zutano’, ‘Bacon’ and ‘Stewart’ have a lower oil content than ‘Hass’, ‘Pinkerton’ and ‘Reed’. Many consider ‘Nabal’ the best tasting fruit. It’s a summer variety and hard to find in retail nurseries, but sometimes you can order them for delivery later.
You can read more about varieties at this website: http://ucavo.ucr.edu/AvocadoVarieties/VarietyFrame.html#Anchor-47857. But remember, most of these are not available at retail nurseries.
- Author: Chris M. Webb
Did you know that California employers are required to take four steps to prevent heat illness? The steps are:
- Training employees and supervisors about heat illness prevention.
- Provide enough fresh water for each employee to drink at least 1 quart per hour, and encourage them to do so.
- Provide access to shade for at least 5 minutes of rest for an employee who believes they need a preventative recovery period.
- Develop and implement written procedures for complying with the Cal/OSHA Heat Illness Prevention Standard.
Further information can be found at the California Department of Industrial Relations Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) at http://www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/HeatIllnessInfo.html. Main topics for further heat related information are:
- Heat illness training – including seminars and PowerPoint training in English and Spanish.
- Heat illness regulation.
- Heat illness prevention publications – many available in English and Spanish.
- Additional heat illness links.
The University of California has heat stress information as well as many other safety tips at http://groups.ucanr.org/ehs/Safety_Notes/.
- Author: Chris M. Webb
The University of California Communication Services Division has created a new website. The website is designed to help people easily and quickly find hundreds of free, online publications written by UC ANR (Agricultural and Natural Resources) authors.
The site has much to offer for everyone. The most popular publications are located in the center of the homepage. On the left hand side, the site is easily browsed using the following subjects:
- Agricultural Production
- Agronomy and Range
- Animal Science
- Biotechnology
- En español
- Food Safety
- Home Gardening/Landscape
- Natural Resources
- Nutrition and Health
- Organic Production
- Pest Advice
- Soil, Water and Irrigation
- Vegetable Crop Production
- Youth, Family/Community
This growing collection of free information can be found at https://ucanr.org/freepubs/.
- Author: Chris M. Webb
The University of California’s Early Detection Monitoring Manual for Quagga and Zebra Mussels publication defines aquatic invasive species (AIS) as ”non-native aquatic organisms that have caused, or likely will cause economic or ecological harm or impacts to human health (pg 1).”
Written by Ventura County UCCE’s Carolynn Culver and Monique Myers and Los Angeles County UCCE’s Sabrina Drill and Valerie Borel, this publication gives great background information while providing clear guidelines and instructions for monitoring small lakes, reservoirs and streams in California and is designed especially for citizen volunteer and monitoring groups. We hope that early detection of these species in California’s waterways will reduce their negative impacts. From the manual:
The sooner a population is detected, the more time there will be to take action and the higher the likelihood of successful eradication. Responding to an infestation at an early stage is also referred to as rapid response. Rapid response plans for AIS in general, and quagga/zebra mussels in particular, are being developed and updated in California (pg 1).”
For more information about these invasive species, check out the California Department of Fish and Game website at http://www.dfg.ca.gov/invasives/quaggamussel/. Anyone interested in monitoring a water body is encouraged to contact your local Fish and Game authorities to coordinate efforts.
The Early Detection Monitoring Manual for Quagga and Zebra Mussels is available for viewing in the Ventura UCCE office (please call first to make sure) and for purchase online at http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/. Use promo code PRVEN56 at checkout to receive a 10% discount. For orders of five or more, please contact our office for bulk discount rates.
- Author: Chris M. Webb
Today, Ventura County UCCE’s Maren Mochizuki explains the routine maintenance required to keep CIMIS weather stations functioning accurately.
Data from CIMIS stations, please see previous post for details, provide accurate weather data to aid growers in irrigation planning and scheduling. To ensure that each individual station measures and records accurately, monthly maintenance is performed at all stations.
For the CIMIS station at the Hansen Agricultural Center in Santa Paula, Staff Research Associate Maren Mochizuki checks the functioning of all the sensors. She also checks the calibration of the relative humidity sensor using a psychrometer. A psychrometer has one thermometer exposed to ambient air and another thermometer attached to a wick that is saturated with distilled water; a battery-powered fan forces air past the wick to evaporate the water and cool the temperature measured by the thermometer.
Using a conversion table, we can estimate the relative humidity based on the difference between the ambient temperature and the wetted temperature. Drier air means more evaporation and a larger temperature difference between the two thermometers. If the difference between the relative humidity calculated by the psychrometer reading and the station sensor is greater than 5%, the station sensor requires re-calibration. The station is an inviting perch for birds so we also hose it down monthly to keep it clean.
inside of CIMIS station
psychrometer
