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Irrigation water infiltration tests were conducted on two typical, slowly permeable vineyard soils on the east side of Fresno County. Furrow water intake was increased by soil applications of gypsum and sulfur and by adding dissolved gypsum in the irrigation water. These soil treatments were only of temporary benefit and gave no improvement in late summer. However, a grass culture or sod treatment, once well established, improved water intake during midsummer and late-summer irrigations.

Six to seven thousand acres of direct-seeded celery are grown each year in the central coastal districts of California. Thinning celery requires approximately 50 man-hours per acre—roughly 40% of the labor necessary to produce a crop. Increasing labor costs and uncertainties concerning quality and supply of labor have prompted growers to look for methods to reduce the time required for thinning. Coated seed appears to possess many attributes which warrant evaluation in mechanized celery production.

Modifications in the present “loose-pack” method of packing cherries show promise of improving the arrival condition of the fruit. Use of the recently developed “tight-fill pack” resulted in a reduction in fruit deterioration in both laboratory and transit tests. Cherries showed less transit injury when shipped in corrugated containers than in wooden containers; however, the use of corrugated containers for rail transit would require the development of new methods of temperature management. Results of container-design studies suggest that sweet cherries could be packed to a depth of six inches without damaging the fruit.

The wide variability in plant characteristics within any given variety of asparagus has long been recognized. Many of the characteristics are sex-linked, which adds to the variability factor since asparagus are dioecious plants. In field plantings it is not uncommon to obtain two-fold differences in spear size and production between adjacent crowns.

A commercial soil sterilization unit for either bin or potting bench, with centrifugal blower for diluting the steam. The mixture is injected into the plenum chamber, under the soil being treated.

Scotch broom, Cytisus scoparius (L.) Link, is an introduced perennial noxious weed infesting over 75,000 acres throughout 18 northern counties in California. It is an unpalatable invader of range and timber lands, and a deterrent to seedlings of some coniferous tree species. It also burns with such intense heat that many forest trees may be killed by a Scotch broom fire.

Chemical growth retardants placed on the market within the past few years have made it possible for bedding plant growers to reduce or eliminate excessive stem elongation, thereby producing a more compact and sturdier plant requiring less frequent pruning. The chemical 1, 1 dimethylamino succinamic acid (B-Nine, Alar) is one of the most promising and useful of the new growth retardants because it can be applied to the foliage of most species without causing injury. Some of the chemicals also appear to initiate precocious flowering, suggesting a treatment that may be of value in slow-maturing species where flowering and fruiting are prized. Many plants treated with the growth retardants also appear to be better able to resist stress The such as drought, salinity, frost or chilling, and air pollution.

Preharvest irrigation experiments for three years with cherries in Son Joaquin County (using Bing and Royal Ann varieties) showed an increase of 0.5 mm in fruit diameter for irrigated as compared with nonirrigated plots.

Certified seed of a new dark red kidney bean selection will be available for growers to replace the older California Dark Red Kidney bean within two years. The new selection, tested far the past four years, has shown less splitting, comparable canning quality, and yields as good or better than either the California or Michigan variety of dark red kidney bean.

Moisture stress applied when 36% of the cotton bolls were normally set resulted in yield production of 1.47 bales per acre, as compared with 2.37 bales with normal irrigation. Subjecting cotton plants to moderate moisture stress during the peak of the fruiting period (even though followed by normal irrigations) resulted in a shift of boll set to later in the season—a delay causing many bolls at the top of the plants to be unopened at harvest time.