Posts Tagged: lemons
UC ANR study outlines costs and returns of producing lemons in Southern California
A new study on the costs and returns of establishing and producing lemons in Ventura County has been released by UC Cooperative Extension in Southern California and UC Agricultural Issues Center, both part of UC Agriculture and Natural Resources.
“Coastal agriculture is always in transition and as strawberries and vegetables become less profitable due to markets and labor availability, lemons have returned as a potentially profitable alternative to those crops,” saidBen Faber, UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor for Ventura County and coauthor of the study.
California lemon acreage was at roughly 47,000 acres in 2018-19, of which Ventura County accounts for 31%, according to the 2019 Ventura County Crop Report. Ventura County was growing lemons on 14,407 acres in 2019.
“The profitability of lemon production depends on the price of land,” said Etaferahu Takele, UC Cooperative Extension farm management advisor for Southern California, another coauthor of the study. “If the price of land continues in its current trend, it could be prohibitive for new entrants to make a profit and limit further expansion of lemon production in the county.”
Their cost analysis describes production operations for Eureka lemons on macrophylla rootstock, which are planted at 155 trees per acre with an expected life span of 40 years.
The study includes a detailed summary of costs and returns and a profitability analysis of gross margin, economic profit and a break-even ranging analysis table, which shows profits over a range of prices and yields.
Input and reviews were provided by Ventura County farm advisor and grower cooperators. The authors describe the assumptions used to identify current costs for lemon establishment and production, material inputs, cash and non-cash overhead.
The new study, “2020 - Sample Costs to Establish and Produce Eureka Lemons in Ventura County,” can be downloaded for free from the UC Davis Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics website at http://coststudies.ucdavis.edu and the UCCE Riverside County Farm Management website at https://ucanr.edu/sites/Farm_Management/files/338947.pdf. Sample cost of production studies for many other commodities are also available on the websites.
For additional information or an explanation of the calculations used in the studies, refer to the section of the report titled “Assumptions” or contact Takele at (951) 683-6491 Ext. 243 ettakele@ucanr.edu or Donald Stewart at the UC Agricultural Issues Center at (530) 752-4651, destewart@ucdavis.edu.
For information about production of lemons in Ventura County, contact Faber at bafaber@ucanr.edu.
Why is Lemon Sour?
Now we know
A team of researchers, including two from the University of California, Riverside, has identified the genes responsible for the hallmark sour taste of many citrus fruits. Published Tuesday, Feb. 25 in Nature Communications, the research could help plant breeders develop new, sweeter varieties.
Modern citrus varieties have been bred over thousands of years to generate a broad palette of sour and sweet-tasting fruits. Analyses of their pulp reveals that a single chemical element--hydrogen--is largely responsible for the difference between sour and sweet-tasting varieties, which usually have similar sugar content. The pulp from sour fruits contains more hydrogen ions, giving it a lower pH and a tangy taste that is recognized by acid-sensitive cells in our taste buds. Conversely, pulp from sweeter varieties contains fewer hydrogen ions and tastes less acidic.
Ronald Koes and colleagues at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands set out to untangle how some citrus varieties wind up with more acidic juice than others, a process that until now has remained a mystery. Their interest stemmed from a previous study showing that higher acidity in purple petunia flowers resulted in more petal pigmentation.
Intrigued by the Faris variety of lemon tree, which produces branches bearing both sweet and sour fruits, and white and purple-tinged flowers, Koes' team turned to UCR plant scientists Mikeal Roose and Claire Federici. Using the university's vast Citrus Variety Collection, which preserves over 1,000 living citrus and related fruit varieties, Roose and Federici selected the Faris lemon and 20 other citrus fruits ranging from wincingly sour to sugary sweet for Koes' team to analyze.
By studying the expression of genes related to those controlling acidity in petunias, Koes' team identified two citrus genes, CitPH1 and CitPH5, that are highly expressed in sour varieties and weakly expressed in sweet-tasting varieties. The CitPH1 and CitPH5 genes encode transporter proteins that pump hydrogen ions into the vacuole, a large storage compartment inside juice cells, thus increasing their overall acidity.
Next, the team turned its attention to genes that control the levels of CitPH1 and CitPH5 in juice cells. While down-regulation of CitPH1 and CitPH5 in sweeter tasting varieties arose multiple times independently in different varieties, the researchers found that mutations in genes for a handful of transcription factors (proteins that help turn specific genes on and off) were responsible for reduced expression of CitPH1 and CitPH5, and therefore a sweeter taste.
Roose, a professor of genetics in UCR's College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, said the findings could help breeders develop better-tasting citrus fruits. However, he said breeding varieties with severe mutations in the transcription factors such as those studied in the "acidless" citrus would be "overkill," producing sugary citrus fruits with none of their popular acidic kick. Instead, plant scientists should look to target mutations that have a less dramatic effect on the production and activity of transporter proteins.
"By understanding the mechanism acidification of fruit cells, we can now look for related genes that might reduce the expression of CitPH1 and CitPH5 just enough to engineer or select for new, sweeter varieties," Roose said.
Hyperacidification of Citrus fruits by a vacuolar
proton-pumping P-ATPase complex
Nature Communicationsvolume 10, Article number: 744 (2019)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-08516-3
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lemons with some nipples
World Citrus News
There's so much gloom about the fate of citrus in Florida and California, but in spite of that talk, world citrus production is increasing.
Global orange production for 2018/19 is forecast to expand 4.2 million tons from the previous year to 51.8 million as favorable weather leads to larger crops in Brazil and the United States. Consequently, fruit for both fresh and processing uses is expected to be greater. Fresh exports are forecast 4 percent higher to 5.1 million tons.
Brazil's production is forecast to rise 13 percent to 17.8 million tons as favorable weather is expected to result in good bloom and fruit set. Fresh orange consumption and exports are flat while oranges for processing are up 2.0 million tons to 12.8 million.
China's production is projected down slightly to 7.2 million on unfavorable weather, resulting in a smaller crop in Jiangxi province. Along with only a small increase in imports, consumption is
lower on overall reduced supplies. South Africa and Egypt are the top two suppliers, accounting for 60 percent of imports.
U.S. production is forecast to recover, jumping 41 percent to 5.0 million tons due to favorable weather. Orange production in Florida has been declining for years due to citrus greening, which has decimated groves and increased costs for crop maintenance.
However, last year, the industry also suffered from damages caused by Hurricane Irma. This year's higher forecast shows a recovery to recent-year levels. Exports, consumption, and fruit for processing are all higher with the larger crop.
Read more about the world citrus industry and get individual country reports generated by the USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service
https://agfstorage.blob.core.windows.net/misc/FP_com/2019/03/04/Florr.pdf
FAS Reports from Overseas Offices The Citrus: World Markets and Trade circular is based on reports from FAS Overseas Posts since December 2018 and on available secondary information. Individual country reports can be obtained on FAS Online at: http://gain.fas.usda.gov/Pages/Default.aspx .
citrus cornucopia
Support Biocontrol Program
Harry S. Smith, was born in 1883 to a poor farming family in Nebraska. He was trained in Biological Control in the northeast U.S.A. where he worked on the biological control of gypsy moth with the USDA. Upon his appointment to Sacramento in 1913 to work on biological control issues important to California, Smith brought recognized entomological training in biological control to California for the first time.
The phrase “Biological Control” was first used by Smith in August 1919 at the meeting of Pacific Slope Branch of the American Association of Economic Entomologists at the Mission Inn in downtown Riverside.
Based on his experiences on biological control of forest and pasture pests, Smith brought caution and tempered exaggeration about biological control in California as he worked with citrus growers and other commodity groups.
In 1923, Smith and four colleagues moved from Sacramento to the University of California Riverside Campus which had evolved from the Citrus Experiment Station (est. 1915) and he formed the Division of Beneficial Insect Investigations which was a unit distinct from the Division of Entomology. Prof. Harry, as he was
affectionately known, is fondly remembered by his students as a patient and generous supervisor who encouraged research and work on applied and
practical aspects of biological control.
Smith went on to create the Department of Biological Control which offered the only graduate training in Biological Control in the world. The Department of Biological Control became the Division of Biological Control in 1969 which then merged into Department of Entomology at UC Riverside in 1988. Prof. Harry had two sons, both trained to be entomologists. Instead of pursuing biological control they went into the pesticide industry and Sam Smith died accidentally from pesticide poisoning. Prof. Harry passed away in 1957 and left UC Riverside $15,000 to develop a scholarship fund to support training and education in biological control. This fund has grown to approximately $45,000 today, but is insufficient to provide meaningful support to students wanting to be trained in biological control.
Our goal is to build the Harry S. Smith Scholarship fund to a significant level where the corpus of the fund will be able to generate enough revenue to provide substantial support to students wanting to be trained in biological control. This can only be achieved by actively soliciting donations from individuals, industries, and organizations that have benefited over the years from biological control projects that have that have been run by UC scientists, in particular entomologists at UC Riverside. If biological control is to continue to prosper in southern California we need to continue recruiting and training high quality students. To do this, we need to be able to provide substantial financial support, and the Harry S. Smith Scholarship is one way to attract excellent students to UC Riverside.
Learn more about the program and how you can push the fund over the top at:
http://biocontrol.ucr.edu/hoddle/harrysmithfund.html
parasitic wasp laying
Meyer Lemon Problems
Help for the Home Gardener from the Help Desk of the
UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County
Situation: Client visited the Ask A Master Gardener (AAMG) Help Desk at a recent Wednesday morning program at MGCC's “Our Garden” asking for advice on the black spots on the fruit of his mature Meyer Lemon fruit tree. MGs on duty that morning couldn't give him a definitive answer at the time, but asked him to make some further observations about the tree and posed several questions about the health of the tree for him to answer and to send an email with his findings to the MGCC Help Desk.
Client's Response and Request: I appreciate your effort in determining the problems with my Lemon tree,
1. The tree is approximately 25 years old,
2. I bought it as a semi-standard tree. it's 18 feet tall and has a 15' canopy.
3. it's a great -year round producer of fruit.
4. The tree is located about 20' from a building, and it now gets sun all day.
5. I recently cut down a large olive tree that partly shaded the tree and blocked a lot of early morning sun.
6. I don't recall ever seeing spots on the rinds before, I have seen the inside of the fruit that looks darkened and not much juice before. I assumed that it was due to lack of water or fruit being old.
7. I fertilize the tree probably once a year with fertilizer spikes.
8. The bark looks fine.
9. The spotting on the fruit is about 20% of the total, and the leaves look good.
I'll examine the tree closer, but it's been a fantastic tree. I'll send you this now and if you need anything else from me let me know.
MGCC Help Desk Response: Thanks for coming to the UC Master Gardener Program Help Desk at Our Garden with your request for assistance with your Meyer lemon tree and fruit. Quite a few of us have spent time researching your inquiry in the past few weeks; unfortunately, we have been unable to pinpoint a specific disease or cause in order to give you a confident diagnosis.
Here's a list of what we think could be causes for your fruit decline based on our research:
- The change in the sun exposure is likely to have been a culprit, but we don't think that it is the only factor causing damage to the fruit. This problem may be resolved next year after the tree has had some time to adjust to the new light exposure.
- The high continual heat we've experienced this past summer may also have contributed to fruit decline.
- The cold wet winter last year may have caused some of the damage to the fruit.
- Oddly enough, actions you have taken to care for the tree may also have caused problems. See information in the attached link below.
We found an on-line UC article that includes many photos of various types of rind damage on citrus. There is mention in this article of many causes of fruit rind damage including: cold wet weather and frost, copper sprays, fertilizer sprays, wind damage, etc. Please take a look at this article to see if any of these causes may apply to your situation.http://ipm.ucanr.edu/IPMPROJECT/ADS/Fruit_disorders_in_citrus.pdf
We think that the best thing you can do now is to remove all the damaged fruit and give your Meyer lemon the very best cultural care you can and then you'll need to simply wait and see. Citrus are usually very hardy in our area and we think you may see recovery and improvement by next year.
Here are some tips on giving your citrus good cultural care:
- Citrus trees require moisture for growth and fruit production. Apply enough water at each irrigation to wet the soil three feet deep. This requires three to six inches of water depending on the type of soil. Here is a link to information on how to water citrus: http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/GARDEN/FRUIT/CULTURAL/citruswatering.html
- A layer of organic mulch will help retain soil moisture and permits feeder roots to grow close to the surface. Mulch should not be placed close to the trunk of a mature tree.
- Mature citrus trees are given fertilizer to maintain their growth and fruit production. Nitrogen is the chief nutrient required by citrus and should be applied each year. Smaller quantities of phosphorus and potassium are required. These nutrients are held in the soil much longer than nitrogen. Here is a link to information on how to feed/fertilize citrus: http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/GARDEN/FRUIT/CULTURAL/citfertilization.html
- Citrus may occasionally suffer from a deficiency of zinc or iron. When these nutrients are deficient, the tissue between leaf veins turns yellow, but the veins remain green, at least initially. Foliar sprays containing chelated zinc or iron can be used to correct these deficiencies. Iron deficiency can also be caused by excessively wet soil or by very alkaline soil (pH above 7).
- Citrus is ready to harvest when the fruit has colored and is mature. Your 25 year experience should suffice to know when the fruit is ripe... i.e. dark yellow. Fruit should be left on the tree until it attains a satisfactory "sweetness". Mature fruit should be carefully harvested. Any break in the rind will promote decay. Use sharp clippers to cut the stem close to the fruit. Fruit can be stored on the tree several weeks to several months, depending on variety, after it is mature. As you probably have experienced, fruit left on the tree too long will become overripe and can reduce the size of the following year's crop.
We hope you find this information helpful in bringing your lemon tree back to full production. Please let us know if you have any additional questions.
Help Desk of the Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County (SLH)
Note: The UC Master Gardeners Program of Contra Costa's Help Desk is available year-round to answer your gardening questions. Except for a few holidays, we're open every week, Monday through Thursday for walk-ins from 9:00 am to Noon at 75 Santa Barbara Road, 2d Floor, Pleasant Hill, CA 94523. We can also be reached via telephone: (925)646-6586, email: ccmg@ucanr.edu, or on the web at http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/Ask_Us/ MGCC Blogs can be found at http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/HortCoCo/ You can also subscribe to the Blog (//ucanr.edu/blogs/CCMGBlog/).
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