Calag Archive

Fresh market onions traditionally have been harvested by hand throughout the nation. A tractor-drawn horizontal blade severs the root system just below the bulbs; then tops and roots are clipped off with hand shears. The bulbs are stored in the field in burlap bags for a few days to cure. Many attempts have been made to mechanize topping and clipping, but, although some efforts have been moderately successful, none are used in California today. The principal reasons have been either damage to the bulbs or the inability of the equipment to remove tops and roots to market standards as capably as removal by hand.

Blasting of flower is an occasional problem in California pear orchards. Three common causes of blasted blossoms are boron deficiency, lack of winter chilling, and bacterial infection caused by Pseudomonas syringae van Hall. Bacterial blast is the most damaging and can reduce crops so severely they become unprofitable to harvest.

The growth regulator increased yield by 20 pounds per vine, primarily by improving berry set.

With experience, field workers can identify cotton bolls that are at the right stage of development for evaluation of control measures.

Recent curly top isolates from San Joaquin Valley sugar beet fields and the foothills are more virulent than those collected in the 1950s and 1960s. The beet leafhopper (showm below, 48 times life size) carries the disease between crops and weed plants.

Photo above shows healthy periwinkle on left and virescence-affected periwinkle on right; plant on right was exposed to beet leafhopper (Circulifer tenellus) that had previously fed on another virescence-affected periwinkle. Photo below shows periwinkle plant that developed virescence after exposure to infective beet leafhopper; not variation in severity of symphotoms.

Changes in production practices, as well as insecticides, should help control destructive budworm populations that have developed in late-season cotton.

Reported effects of the growth regulator ethephon on fruit maturity in many crops include earlier skin color changes, earlier flesh softening, and occasional increases in soluble solids. In 1975, preharvest ethephon applications on Japanese plum (Prunus salicina) were evaluated for their influence on fruit maturation and postharvest ripening.