Posts Tagged: grapes
A new plant pathologist joined Kearney October 1, 2014.
Florent Trouillas, UC Assistant Cooperative Extension Specialist in the Department of Plant Pathology at UC Davis and Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center (KARE), specializing in fruit and nut crop pathology, became a welcomed addition to the KARE faculty on October 1, 2014. Trouillas' research program aims to understand current as well as emerging diseases of major fruit and nut crops, and deliver efficient and innovative control strategies. His research includes basic and applied studies on the etiology, biology, epidemiology and control of fruit and nut crop diseases.
Immediately prior to coming to KARE, Trouillas worked as a project scientist coordinating research projects in Viticulture for agricultural cooperatives in France.
Trouillas was a graduate student and a postdoctoral researcher in the laboratory of Extension Plant Pathologist Walter D (Doug) Gubler in the Department of Plant Pathology at UC Davis. Trouillas' research emphasized the characterization and control of canker diseases of grapes, fruit and nut crops.
Florent Trouillas in his plant pathology lab at Kearney.
Kearney’s Grape Day highlights viticulture and enology research.
Over 115 people came to the 2013 Grape Day at KARE on August 13. Attendees visited a wine grape plot where Larry Williams, professor and plant physiologist in the Department of Viticulture and Enology at UC Davis and Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center, demonstrated and discussed the effects of water deficits on water relations and productivity of about 20 different red wine grape cultivars grown in the San Joaquin Valley. The field tour was followed by PowerPoint presentations. Teresa O’Keefe and Jeffrey Palumbo, scientists at USDA-ARS, provided information on the ecology of mycotoxin-producing aspergilli in raisin vineyards. Matthew Fidelibus, associate CE specialist at Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center, provided information on the effects of pre-harvest calcium chloride and chlorine dioxide applications on fruit quality of crimson seedless table grapes. Philippe Rolshausen, assistant CE specialist at UC Riverside, shared information on wood disease management options for grapevines in the San Joaquin Valley. David Haviland, academic advisor, Kern County UC Cooperative Extension, provided information on Movento in table grapes: understanding use patterns and expectations. Andrew Waterhouse, professor in the department of Viticulture and Enology at UC Davis, discussed understanding wine oxidation. More information can be found at the California Ag Today blog.
Grape Day 2013 attendees recieving information from PowerPoint presentations highlighting recent viticulture and enology research.
Table grape testing in the Kearney sensory laboratory
Preparing to conduct sensory testing of table grapes is Zilfina Rubio, a junior specialist in the UC Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center lab of Mary Lu Arpaia, UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the Department of Botany and Plant Sciences at UC Riverside.
At the behest of the Table Grape Commission, members of the public are visiting Kearney's sensory lab facility today to taste and evaluate grape selections from the USDA's table grape breeding program.
UC research will help table grape growers face the rainy season
Fidelibus, who is based at the Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center, installed the covers in September on a Redglobe vineyard near Easton. Some farmers choose to grow late season table grapes – such as Autumn King, Crimson Seedless and Redglobe – to market in the fall when prices are typically highest. However, they run a greater risk of being rained on. Exposure to moisture within six weeks of harvest can cause rots and molds to render the grapes worthless.
Many growers with late-season table grapes cover their vines with sheets of plastic film to protect them from rain. Growers may choose between a relatively transparent green film, or a more opaque white film, but data distinguishing the differences the two films might have on vine physiology or fruit quality at picking, or after storage, are not available. Buying, installing and removing the plastic is very expensive, so Fidelibus is working to provide growers with objective information about the effects of the different films. Growers can track the progress of the trial in real time by following Fidelibus’ Twitter feed, http://twitter.com/grapetweets.
“In some places we found pools of water on the plastic covers,” Fidelibus said. “In fact, the weight of the water displaced the covers, exposing the vines in some places. A few pools apparently grew until reaching a vent hole, releasing a water stream powerful enough to wash soil from roots.”
After the storm, the soil under the covered vines remained dry, but wind and sun quickly dried the grape clusters and soil around uncovered vines.
Data loggers in the grapevine canopies are collecting temperature and humidity readings – measures that Fidelibus will use to help describe the effect of the different covers on the environment within the grapevine canopies. He also installed atmometers, special instruments that help determine the canopy’s “evaporative potential.” Research has already shown that the greater the evaporative potential, the lower the incidence of bunch rot.