Posts Tagged: Chuck Ingels
The New Backyard Orchard Workshop: Grow Your Own Fruits and Nuts
Identify a location for fruit trees where they will receive full sun 6 or more hours per day during the growing season, too much shade will affect the quantity and quality of fruit produced. If you don't have loose, well-drained soil you may want to amend the soil and add compost, or fertilizers.
- Proper tree selection
Selecting a quality tree and caring for it increases the chances for success. This begins with selecting a tree from a quality nursery. At the nursery this winter, select bareroot trees that appear strong, healthy, and do not show signs of disease. - Good planting techniques
Planting of bareroot trees should take place in winter, between December and March. Dig a planting hole just bigger than the depth and width of the roots, it is best to leave a “pedestal” or to leave the soil below the root system undisturbed to help prevent the tree from settling. Fruit trees should be planted high to help avoid crown rot disease.
The UC Master Gardeners of El Dorado County have gathered an excellent team of experts to teach about tree factors and show you how to take advantage of pruning techniques that allow your trees to obtain better sun exposure, better airflow, and better structure for easier netting and pest prevention.
Join the UC Master Gardeners of El Dorado County, on Nov. 2 for a new workshop titled The New Backyard Orchard, at the Cameron Park Community Center. The New Backyard Orchard workshop will help you choose the right tree varieties for your region, plant trees correctly, and shape trees to make them attractive, as well as high-bearing. You'll receive a thorough, scientifically correct understanding of how trees generate fruit, to help you understand how to manage your orchard.
When:
Nov. 2, 2017
10:30 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Where:
Cameron Park Community Center
2502 Country Club Drive
Cameron Park, CA 95682
Speakers:
- Phil Pursel, Specialist, Dave Wilson Nursery
- Ted DeJong, Professor Emeritus, Pomology, UC Davis
- Chuck Ingels, Farm Advisor, UC Cooperative Extension
Cost:
$40 registration, light lunch included
Whether you have just a tree or two, or hope to expand your food supply through intensive backyard orchard development, this workshop is for you!
UC Master Gardeners who attend will earn four hours of Continuing Education credit. To learn more and to pre-register, please visit our website at http://ucanr.edu/mgedc-workshop or register at http://ucanr.edu/mgedc-workshop-reg. If you have questions, please call (530) 621-5528.
References:
Ingels, C.A., Geisel, P.M. & Norton, M.V. (2007) The Home Orchard: Growing Your Own Deciduous Fruit and Nut Trees UC Agriculture & Natural Resources, Publication 3485
The California Backyard Orchard, homeorchard.ucanr.edu
Summer heat is suppressing brown marmorated stink bug
The sweltering summer of 2017 has a silver lining. When the temperature rises above 104, brown marmorated stink bug population growth is significantly slowed, reported Debbie Arrington in the Sacramento Bee.
An invasive pest from Asia, brown marmorated stink bugs showed up in midtown Sacramento in 2013. Their spread to commercial crops has been a concern. The stink bugs feed on dozens of California crops, including apples, pears, cherries, peaches, melons, corn, tomatoes, berries and grapes, said Chuck Ingels, UC Cooperative Extension advisor in Sacramento County. Feeding on fruit creates pock marks and distortions that make the fruit unmarketable. In grapes, berries collapse and rot increases.
In 2014 and 2015, the bugs' numbers continued to rise. In early 2016, Ingels feared a population explosion, but a heat wave in July, with seven days at 100 degrees or higher, plus two days at 104, wiped them out.
“This year, BMSB started off at historic lows (since 2013),” Ingels said. “Then, the June heat wave hit and the population that was there plummeted. Most of our trap counts for the last few weeks have been at or near zero, whereas there's usually a peak in June. So, it seems to be proof that temperatures over 100 for extended periods reduces the population – probably especially eggs and nymphs."
Ingels and UC Davis entomologists are studying the connection between high heat and stink bugs in the lab, where the pest is exposed to extreme temperatures. One hour at 113 degrees killed all the bugs, but mortality was also high over 104 degrees.
Direct-marketing farms have double the regional impact
Sacramento-area farmers and ranchers who sell their products directly to consumers generate twice as much regional economic impact per dollar of output as do area food producers who don't engage in direct marketing, reports a UC Davis agricultural economist and a team of UC Cooperative Extension researchers.
The newly released study of the four Sacramento region counties of El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento and Yolo found that direct-marketing food producers had a regional output multiplier of 1.86 compared to just 1.42 for producers not involved in direct marketing.
Direct-marketing channels include farmers markets, roadside farm stands and community-supported agriculture programs that provide consumers with regular deliveries of farm products.
“The direct marketers make up a relatively small part of the Sacramento region's agricultural sector, but this study demonstrates that these food producers generate both economic and qualitative benefits for the region,” said study leader Shermain Hardesty, a UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the UC Davis Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
“It's important that the economic contributions of direct-marketing farmers and ranchers be taken into consideration so that regional policies can be enhanced to support and nurture the growth of these food producers,” Hardesty said.
The regional economic impacts identified in the study are threefold: revenue received directly by the agricultural producer; a ripple effect when the food producer purchases inputs in the region; and a secondary ripple when the producer and the suppliers of goods and services to the producer, in turn, spend more money in the region on household goods and services.
The report, along with separate economic impact reports specifically for El Dorado, Placer and Yolo counties, is available online.
Sacramento region direct marketers
In the four-county Sacramento region, direct-marketing food producers are a relatively small segment of the total agricultural sector, accounting for 19 percent of the region's farms and only 4 percent of its agricultural production.
The direct-marketing farm operations tend to be smaller and more labor-intensive, and source more of their inputs locally than do nondirect-marketing operations in the area.
The new study was based on economic information gathered from 88 local farmers and ranchers, including 31 vegetable farmers, 48 orchard or vineyard growers and nine livestock producers, each of whom generated at least $1,000 in annual sales from marketing directly to consumers.
After the data were collected, they were incorporated into an economic modeling program to estimate the economic impacts of producers engaged in direct marketing.
Study highlights
Other findings from the report include:
• Sacramento region direct-market producers averaged just $164,631 in one year of sales compared to $568,105 for those not engaged in direct marketing.
• Seventy-three percent of the direct marketers also sold through wholesale channels.
• Overall, the direct-market producers generated 44 percent of their total revenues through direct-marketing channels, 55 percent through wholesale channels and 1 percent through commodity markets.
• For every $1 million of output, the direct-market producers generated a total of 31.8 jobs in the Sacramento region while the nondirect-market producers generated only 10.5 jobs.
• Direct marketers purchased 89 percent of their inputs within the region while the nondirect-market producers purchased 45 percent of their inputs in the region. This local sourcing of inputs was the primary factor responsible for the direct-market producers having a greater economic impact on the region than nondirect-market producers.
Collaborators and funding
Hardesty collaborated on the study with Libby Christensen, Erin McGuire and Gail Feenstra, all of UC Davis; and Chuck Ingels, Jim Muck, Julia Boorinakis-Harper, Cindy Fake and Scott Oneto, all with the UC Cooperative Extension.
Funding for the study was provided by the University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources Competitive Grants Program.
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Brown marmorated stink bugs expected to have a 'banner year'
Chuck Ingels, UC ANR Cooperative Extension advisor in Sacramento County, said BMSB was first spotted in 2013 in Sacramento and each year the numbers have grown. This year, the warm spring gave BMSB a head start, portending significant population growth in August and September 2015.
"We're very concerned about tree crops, tomatoes, peppers, corn, beans and other crops," Ingels said. On a bright note, he said California farms do not have forests surrounding them like farmers back East, where growers have been dealing with BMSB since the the mid-1990s. "BMSB is an arboreal species. They live in trees and then come into the farm. We're not sure how much of a problem it will be on farms here (in California)."
Ruyak asked whether any control solutions can be found in the pest's native territory or from farmers back East.
"Growers are using pesticides back East," Ingels said. "There is a parasitoid from China that is under study in labs to see if they pose a problem for native stink bugs and other bugs."
One possible solution for dealing with the pests in gardens is planting sunflowers. Because BMSB are strongly attracted to sunflowers, they may draw the pests away from other crops and allow gardeners to monitor the BMSB presence. On the other hand, sunflowers may actually attract BMSB to the garden, where they could feed on vegetable crops.
BMSB feeds with a mouthpart called a "proboscis," stinging developing fruit 1/4 to 3/8 inch deep and sucking out its juices. As the fruit ripens, it hardens and deforms, becoming inedible.
Read more about BMSB, how to identify it, and methods to manage it around homes and gardens in the UC IPM Pest Note: Brown Marmorated Stink Bug.
New videos from UC IPM help stone fruit growers and PCAs tackle pest problems
The UC Agriculture and Natural Resources Statewide Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program teamed up with UC ANR farm advisors to develop a series of how-to videos that can help growers and pest control advisers monitor for pests and damage and determine if and when treatment is needed.
In one video, Sacramento Area IPM advisor Emily Symmes gives a brief overview of how to monitor for webspinning spider mites. Spider mites build up in stone fruit trees as the weather warms up. Late spring through summer is the ideal time to monitor for mites and their damage, which includes leaf stippling and webbing. If mites build up too much, leaves can drop, fruit may not fully develop, and branches and fruit can be exposed to sunburn.
Shoot strikes, or dead drooping leaf tips, are often seen on young peach and nectarine trees. In a second video, UC ANR farm advisor Janine Hasey explains how to monitor for shoot strikes and how to distinguish the culprits, Oriental fruit moth and peach twig borer. Although Oriental fruit moth and peach twig borer can bore into both foliage and fruit, they cause the most devastating damage by feeding on fruit. Early season monitoring and treatment can prevent future fruit loss.
In plum and prune orchards, leaf curl aphids and mealy plum aphids cause leaves to curl and become distorted. Aphids produce honeydew, which can lead to the development of sooty mold, causing fruit to crack and blacken. Aphids are often present when leaves start to grow. In his video, Rick Buchner, UC ANR farm advisor for Tehama County, discusses how to monitor for aphids and explains how to decide when treatment is warranted.
In a final video, UC ANR farm advisor Chuck Ingels teaches how to distinguish Phytophthora root and crown rot from bacterial canker. The two diseases are often confused because they both cause bark cankers. Phytophthora root and crown rot is confined to the lower trunk, but when a bacterial canker infection occurs in the tree trunk, the diseases can often be confused. Bacterial canker can be confirmed by cutting away the outer bark and looking for characteristic red flecks on the inner bark. Correct identification of these diseases will help in choosing a management strategy.
You can find all of these how-to videos on the UC IPM video library page. For specific information about managing pests in stone fruits or other crops, see the Pest Management Guidelines.