All Issues

Southern California restaurants are increasing their use of fresh culinary herbs. Opportunities exist for well-placed growers to take advantage of the restauranteurs' desire to deal directly with farmers.

The Russian wheat aphid is spreading rapidly through California. The pest injects a powerful, growth-inhibiting toxin into grain plants. Without insecticide treatment, crop losses can be severe.

Sunblush, sunburn, and sunscald injury of Granny Smith apple fruits is widespread and results in substantial economic loss when this cultivar is gra wn in the interior valleys of California. Topical, in-season applications of a whitening agent did not protect the crop from these heat-related injuries.

Applying less herbicide to a vegetable crop can increase weed populations and decrease yields. Field trials showed that for some crops, one timely hand weeding could augment lo wer-rate applications of pre-emergence herbicides to give crop yields equal to or exceeding those obtained with fullseason hand weeding or full-rate herbicide treatments.

Cotton yield data collected from 32 fields in the Broadview Water District are negatively correlated with several measures of soil salinity, sodicity, and irrigation uniformity. Results suggest that farmers may be able to increase cotton yields by improving irrigation uniformity on surface-irrigated fields.

A 1989 comparison showed the Estonian farmers' market to be superior to that country's state-run food stores in quantity and quality of food service, but that farmers' market items were higher in price. Based on surveys, the authors compare the roles played by farmers' markets in the economies of Estonia and California.

Central Valley grape growers can reduce damage from Pacific mites by inoculating infested vines with the less-damaging Willamette mites. Such “vaccinations” may become a useful technique for pest management.

Wild oat and wheat were synchronized in their development and were shown to be equally competitive in southern California studies. Competition effects of wild oat were most evident in wheat after the stem elongation stage.

Clogging from lime (CaCO₃) precipitation can be prevented by injecting a homopolymer of maleic anhydride into buried drip systems. Investigators prevented drip tubing from clogging in coastal strawberry plots by using this polymer and chlorine for high-bicarbonate waters.

795 consumers interviewed at 53 California markets gave a variety of reasons for buying the way they do. Many had their own ideas about what indicates good quality in produce, but had trouble putting those ideas into words. Consumer ideas about food safety were easier to articulate.

Aphids, and the green peach and melon aphids in particular, have dramatically increased their effect on ornamental crops over the past few years. An aphid-specific fungus may be useful for biological control under the right environmental conditions.

Chemically thinning Granny Smith apples improved fruit size and, perhaps more importantly, increased return bloom the following year. While carbaryl did the best job of chemical thinning, two other registered materials were also effective.