Posts Tagged: tunnels
Berry Meeting for Coastal Subtropical Growers
You are invited to the
North American Raspberry & Blackberry Conference
February 21-24, 2018 • Ventura, California
A MAJOR CANEBERRY MEETING in A LEADING PRODUCTION AREA
Schedule
Wednesday, February 21: Opening Reception
Thursday February 22: Full-day Bus Tour of Farms and Research
Friday, February 23 and Saturday, February 24: Educational Sessions, Posters, and Trade Show.
Session topics include
SWD management • Mite control • Raspberry pollination
Organic/biological pest & disease management options
Frost tolerance of blackberry buds • White drupelet disorder
Temperature management in tunnels • Spray application in high tunnels
Primocane blackberry pruning • Water and nutrient management
Calcium nutrition in raspberries • Tissue testing to optimize fertilizer programs
Caneberries in Mexico • Berry promotion • Consumer and industry trends
Night harvesting of blackberries • Post-harvest & packaging • Food safety for caneberry growers
Berry breeders & nurseries panel • Pest control advisors panel • Growers labor issues panel
English–Spanish translation will be provided
Location: Ventura Beach Marriott
Only a block from the beach. Special conference rate is $149/night. Call 805-643-6000 and mention "Raspberry & Blackberry Conference" or make reservations online at www.raspberryblackberry.com. Cutoff date is February 1.
For more information and registration
Or contact the North American & Raspberry Blackberry Association at
info@raspberryblackberry.com or 919-542-4037
Exhibitor inquiries welcome.
This conference is being held by the North American Raspberry & Blackberry Association in cooperation with UCCE
blackberry 2
Voles in your Landscape - Control Suggestions
Help for the Home Gardener from the Help Desk of the
UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County
Help Desk Response: Thank you for contacting the UC Master Gardener Program Help Desk with your request for advice and tips on eliminating voles in your garden landscape.
Voles, also known as meadow mice, can be quite prevalent in home gardens. They have above-ground tunnels or pathways through vegetation, as well as underground tunnels. Entrances to their tunnels are small (1 1/2 to 2 inches) and are left open, not plugged. There may be many open tunnels within a small area. Voles are active both day and night, and emerge from their holes to forage for food.
Voles can cause damage to plants in your yard, as you've already experienced. They eat grasses and many landscape and vegetable plants, and can also damage trees by eating the bark. If trees lose their bark all the way around the trunk, it can kill the trees. So it is worthwhile to begin eliminating the voles now, before they do too much damage.
It is important to modify the habitat in your yard so that the voles do not have places to hide from predators. Keep your lawn mowed short to prevent them from forming above ground tunnels in the grass. If possible, mow or remove other nearby ground covers such as ivy. Voles don't like to be exposed on open ground where predators can attack them.
When the vole population is concentrated in a small area, trapping can be effective. For a small garden, consider using using at least 12 traps. You can use a simple, wooden mouse trap baited with a peanut butter-oatmeal mixture or apple slices. Place the traps near the tunnel entrances with the trigger end and bait near the opening. Check the traps daily and keep setting new traps until you no longer find them triggered. Use gloves when removing the voles from the traps, and either bury them or bag them and discard in the trash.
Once the voles are gone, destroy their tunnels by digging. This will discourage others from repopulating the tunnels from outside your yard. Additional specific information about managing voles can be found at this University of California website:
http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7439.html
If you have fruit trees or other prized trees, you can protect their trunks with plastic cylinder barriers as shown and described in the link above, or with metal roof flashing. Voles are not skilled at climbing, so the barrier does not need to be higher than 12 inches.
We hope that this information will help you to control your vole population. Please let us know if you need additional information.
Help Desk of the UC 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/).
/span>Water Demand in Plastic Tunnels used for High Value Crops
There is an increasing use of high stature plastic tunnels (macro-tunnels) to grow high value crops, such as raspberries, blueberries, vegetables and flowers. This is even in relatively frost free environment, such as coastal California. More commonly tunnels are used in colder climates to produce early season crops. But along the California coast there is increasing use because of other benefits, such as improved production and reduced disease. There is estimated to be about 11,000 acres in tunnels in Santa Barbara County and even more in Ventura.
A recent, unpublished study by Mike Cahn et al with UCCE in Monterey County evaluated water use by raspberries in tunnels. They found that pan evaporation was reduced by 18% in the tunnels over the season compared to open-field grown raspberries. Also, less water was applied for the inside trial than the adjacent outside trial. Even with the reduction in applied water the soil moisture remained higher inside the tunnels than outside. The canopy was larger earlier inside the tunnel than outside even though there evapotranspiration was lower inside the tunnels. The main components of transpiration are altered in tunnels. There is less radiation because of the interference of the plastic, less wind, higher humidity, despite the warmer temperatures.
macro-tunnel raspberry
A New Way to Manage Weeds in the Anchor Rows of Tunnels
A cover crop can be a useful way to prevent weeds in anchor rows.
Cover crops in anchor rows can suppress weed growth and additionally help to minimize soil erosion and nutrient and sediment loss when it rains. Densely planted cover crops can outcompete weed seedlings germinating from the soil and prevent wind-dispersed seeds from reaching the wet soil surface. Have a look at the newly revised weed section in the Caneberries Pest Management Guidelines on the UC IPM web site.
As readers know, tunnels used for caneberry cultivation have the advantage that even when it rains caneberries remain dry which helps with fruit quality and yield. However, during rains, the water drains from the plastic cover of the tunnel and down into rows that contain the anchoring posts of the tunnel structure. The accelerated runoff in these post rows can cause soil erosion, sediment and nutrient loss. As such, the persistent soil moisture in post rows also promotes weed growth. These weeds, while maybe not competing directly with canes, can reproduce and quickly spread into neighboring cane rows.
Cover crops in the anchor rows are especially helpful when managing weeds that are difficult to control with fumigation because of their hard impermeable seed coats (mallows and filaree), or that have developed resistance to herbicides such as glyphosate and paraquat (hairy fleabane and horseweed).
Cover crops can be managed with mowing or herbicides to avoid seed production.
Weeds growing in anchor row in caneberry tunnel production. Photo courtesy Oleg Daugovish, UCCE.
Cover crop growing in the anchor row in caneberry tunnel production. Photo Oleg Daugovish, UCCE.