Calag Archive

The San Joaquin Valley has vast areas of extremely productive soil which are difficult to work into seed beds free of objectionable clods. Several thousand acres of cotton, sugar beets, and vegetables have to be replanted each year, or suffer reduced stands, partly because of cloddy or crusty seed beds. Both the very large as well as the very small, frequently ignored clods can be troublesome. The method described here, called “aggresizing,” has been developed to completely eliminate objectionable aggregates of both kinds, and at the same time form excellent seed beds resistant to crusting.

The plant growth regulator, succinic acid 2,2-dimethylthydrazide (SADH) is registered for use on certain crop plants under the name Alar and for ornamental plants under the name B-Nine. B-Nine is used to reduce stem elongation of chrysanthemums, hydrangeas and bedding petunias, marigolds and zinnias. This chemical is effective in reducing the growth of oleander, but the cost of the required concentration is generally prohibitive for field plantings.

California markets fresh oranges every week of the year, and yet grows only two varieties. This is made possible by (1) holding the fruit on the tree after it reaches legal maturity, (2) storing the fruit after picking, and (3) taking advantage of the different maturity dates in different climatic zones. The range and types of variations in fruit maturity and quality due to climatic differences in California have not yet been carefully studied and extensively reported.

Yellow oxalis (Oxalis corniculata) is frequently a serious pest in greenhouse rose production. When steam fumigation precedes planting, the oxalis seedlings and plants are killed. However, due to the three to five year interval between steam treatments, when the roses are producing, reinfestation occurs by seed from adjacent beds. The seed is ejected from the seed pod with sufficient force to carry for several feet into previously clean beds. The seeds cling to clothing and often to animals, enabling them to be spread throughout the greenhouse and even to be introduced from the outside.

The root development of cotton (tap root system) and corn (fibrous root system) in field studies was greatly restricted on a high-strength Hanford sandy loam, compared with that on a low-strength Panoche clay loam. The high strength of the Hanford soil prevented significant root development below two feet, with the result that as much as 80% of extraction of soil water was from the surface foot of soil only.

High levels of rice straw can be utilized by wintering cattle provided that the straw is fortified with appropriate protein, mineral and vitamin supplements. The rations should preferably be cubed to prevent the animals from sorting out the ingredients—and a binder is needed to prepare a good quality cube.