Growing the Valley University of California, Agriculture and Natural Resources

Houston Wilson, Professor of Cooperative Extension in entomology with UC Riverside, gives us our semi-yearly update on Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) work in Navel Orangeworm, through work completed in 2024. It’s a long (20 year or so) long road, but may provide an additional tool in the IPM toolbox for controlling navel orangeworm. Listen to find out more!
Come to an upcoming extension meeting!
Sacramento Valley
San Joaquin Valley (scroll to the bottom)
Mention of an agrichemical does not constitute a recommendation, merely the sharing of research findings. Always follow the label. The label is law. Find out more at ipm.ucanr.edu.
The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speaker’s own and do not represent the views, thoughts, and opinions of the University of California. The material and information presented here is for general information purposes only. The "University of California" name and all forms and abbreviations are the property of its owner and its use does not imply endorsement of or opposition to any specific organization, product, or service.
Follow us on Twitter! @SacOrchards and @SJVtandv
Thank you to the Almond, Pistachio, Prune, and Walnut Boards of California for their kind donations. Thank you to Muriel Gordon for the music.

Incorporating large amounts of woody biomass into soil, such as in whole orchard recycling (WOR), can promote carbon sequestration, nutrient recycling, and ecosystem health in agricultural fields. Yet uncertainty regarding the effects of WOR on soil carbon and nitrogen dynamics influences management decisions. Recently, Mae Culumber, Ph.D. with UC Cooperative Extension, Suduan Gao, Ph.D. with the USDA Agricultural Research Service, and others performed research to evaluate the effects of woodchip size and interaction with nitrogen fertilization on carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide emissions as well as soil organic carbon change. On this episode of Growing the Valley, they sit down with guest host Cameron Zuber to discuss some of their findings and how this may provide some considerations when implementing WOR.

 

The original article for this research from the Soil Science Society of America Journal can be found here https://acsess.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/saj2.20650 though payment may be needed to access.

 

Thank you to the Almond Board of California, the California Pistachio Research Board, the California Prune Board, and the California Walnut Board for their support of this podcast. Music is by Muriel Gordon.

Soil health is broad term that encompasses a important topic: functional soil that can support human activities, animals, and plants. Measuring soil health can be difficult even for soil scientists, but in today’s episode, Sarah Light shares some tools that growers, PCAs, and CCAs can use to judge soil health in their or their clients’ orchards.

Thank you to the Almond, Pistachio, Prune, and Walnut Boards of California for their kind donations. Thank you to Muriel Gordon for the music.

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speaker’s own and do not represent the views, thoughts, and opinions of the University of California. The material and information presented here is for general information purposes only.  The "University of California" name and all forms and abbreviations are the property of its owner and its use does not imply endorsement of or opposition to any specific organization, product, or service.

In 2023 UCANR advisors and specialists got an unusual number of farm calls on branch cankers in almonds, many of which turned out to be aerial phytophthora. Florent Trouillas with UC Davis goes over the pathogen, its lifecycle, and the conditions in 2023 that led to this outbreak.

Come to an upcoming extension meeting!

Sacramento Valley

San Joaquin Valley (scroll to the bottom)

Mention of an agrichemical does not constitute a recommendation, merely the sharing of research findings. Always follow the label. The label is law. Find out more at ipm.ucanr.edu.

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speaker’s own and do not represent the views, thoughts, and opinions of the University of California. The material and information presented here is for general information purposes only. The "University of California" name and all forms and abbreviations are the property of its owner and its use does not imply endorsement of or opposition to any specific organization, product, or service.

Follow us on Twitter! @SacOrchards and @SJVtandv

Thank you to the Almond, Pistachio, Prune, and Walnut Boards of California for their kind donations. Thank you to Muriel Gordon for the music.

Luke Milliron discusses the growing list of problems with the Monterey almond variety in the northern Sacramento Valley.

This week, we share an episode that was TWO YEARS IN THE MAKING (if you count continually rescheduling episode recording sessions due to various conflicts and then forgetting about it for a year as making an episode). Phoebe interviews Amisha Poret-Peterson with the USDA-ARS on the basics of soil microbiology. We discuss the complexity and role of the soil microbiome, bulk soil vs the rhizosphere, and more! Listen to hear some very amazing things.

Come to an upcoming extension meeting!

Sacramento Valley

San Joaquin Valley (scroll to the bottom)

Mention of an agrichemical does not constitute a recommendation, merely the sharing of research findings. Always follow the label. The label is law. Find out more at ipm.ucanr.edu.

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speaker’s own and do not represent the views, thoughts, and opinions of the University of California. The material and information presented here is for general information purposes only. The "University of California" name and all forms and abbreviations are the property of its owner and its use does not imply endorsement of or opposition to any specific organization, product, or service.

Follow us on Twitter! @SacOrchards and @SJVtandv

Thank you to the Almond, Pistachio, Prune, and Walnut Boards of California for their kind donations. Thank you to Muriel Gordon for the music.