All Issues

Not available – first paragraph follows: Prune brownline, a recently-recognized disease of prune trees, is widespread in northern California, causing considerable losses in Solano, Yolo, and El Dorado counties. The disease has also been found in Sutter, Tehama, Yuba, and Placer County orchards, but the extent of its occurrence in other California prune-growing areas has not been determined.

Not available – first paragraph follows: Over 2.5 million acres of California farmland have some form of water penetration problem during the irrigation season, according to a recent survey by Cooperative Extension farm advisors. In some cases, simply increasing the length or frequency of irrigation may alleviate the problem and provide sufficient water to the crop. In other cases, the problem is more serious: crop yields are reduced and health and vigor of trees and vines are adversely affected, even with careful water management.

Not available – first paragraph follows: During the past three years, we have investigated the use of pesticide-resistant strains of spider mite predator released into almond orchards as components of an integrated management program. This predatory mite, Metaseiulus occidentalis (Nesbitt) provides effective biological control of the Pacific and two-spotted spider mites, Tetranychus pacificus McGregor and T. urticae Koch, respectively, as well as the European red mite, Panonychus ulmi (Koch).

Not available – first paragraph follows: For several years, California asparagus growers have noticed purple spots that develop near the base of the spears before harvest. The condition is worse following cool, wet weather and was more severe during 1982 and 1983 than in previous years, resulting in higher rejection rates during cutting and packing.