All Issues

Converting to a certified organic strawberry production system takes time. Growers must monitor the long-term consequences of new production factors and evaluate new cultural techniques.

Policies to reduce agricultural drainwater in the San Joaquin Valley are complicated by different existing drainage conditions on farms. Drainwater reduction policies that address such variations will be more efficient in achieving regional drainage goals.

Abstract Not Available – First paragraph follows: Pest management practices in California's food, fiber, and forest production system are in transition. Though dominated by synthetic organic pesticides in the two decades immediately following World War II, pest control programs recommended by University of California researchers in recent years have incorporated a variety of strategies, resulting in more ecologically balanced, “integrated” approaches to managing pests in many of California's major crops. Despite the reductions in pesticide use that have resulted from these integrated systems, there is increased public and governmental concern about the effects of extensive pesticide use on the environment, the health of farmworkers, and the pests' development of pesticide resistance. Further, the public now perceives that pesticides constitute an involuntary and unacceptable threat to food safety. This last factor has led to a number of legislative and public initiatives that call for alternative approaches to pest control in crop and animal production.

Abstract Not Available – First paragraph follows: Increasingly, pesticide registrations are being rescinded by state and federal regulatory actions and by private sector decisions to withdraw pesticide products. Public concern, regulatory complexity, and scientific understanding of the hazards of pesticides are likely to increase in the near future. California faces the potential loss of a large part of the currently employed chemical pest control technology. An understanding of these pesticide losses will help California's agricultural community identify and adopt effective and acceptable alternative pest management techniques and help the University of California make informed decisions on directing its research and extension resources.

Abstract Not Available – First paragraph follows: Late in 1989, the Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources (DANR) initiated an inventory of alternatives to pesticides and specific crop uses that would be lost under FIFRA 1988 and EPA 1990. A committee of University of California pest management specialists and agricultural economists developed a survey asking respondents to provide information on the number and frequency of applications, application method, and target pest for each crop and targeted pesticide for which they felt they had sufficient expertise.

Abstract Not Available – First paragraph follows: The University of California has been a leader in the development of methods to reduce reliance on pesticides. California was the site of the first major successes of biological control for insect pests during the latter part of the 19th century, and the term integrated control (the forerunner of integrated pest management) was coined by UC entomologists in the late 1950s.

Infestations of this introduced pest have spread to at least 17 locations in three California counties. Localized control may be possible by surveying for infestations, inspecting cargo vehicles, applying chemicals, and trapping.

The tenlined June beetle has one generation every two years. Most larvae are in the top 14 inches of soil, and female adults apparently do not fly. Diazinon granules applied to the soil suppress larval populations.

Researchers say tea trees can we grown successfully and with profitable oil yields in California's Central Valley. Based on an analysis of seedlings from one seed source, the yield from a seedling plantation would be about half that of a clonal plantation derived from the best seedlings.

Walnut yield responses to nitrogen applied in spring or fall, or split between spring and fall varied in an experiment on deep alluvial Columbia soil. Leaf and twig nitrogen responded most to recently applied nitrogen. Matching the crop's rate of nitrogen removal with the nitrogen application rate and monitoring plant nutritional status with leaf analysis should contribute to economical, environmentally sound walnut orchard management.