All Issues

In the Chico area, almond orchards need frost protection—on the average—six nights a year, two years out of three, with one or two of those nights needing 2F or 3F of protection. Late frosts—in April—generally occur only once in eight years. This year there were about one third more frosty nights than usual, and several of those nights occurred in April. This made it possible to conduct a good series of wind machine tests both when the trees were relatively bare and when they had considerable foliage.

The California almond industry is faced with the problem of supplying relatively large quantities of small sized almonds for candy bar manufacture. Present varieties do not consistently produce sufficient amounts of the required sizes—and the supply fluctuates from year to year.

Two insect parasites, Apanteles harrisinue Mues.—previously called sp. “A”—and Sturmia harrisinae Coq., together with an unnamed granulosis virus, have attained major importance—on the basis of field performance—as natural enemies of the grape leaf skeletonizer in San Diego County.

Four parasites of the California red scale—Aphytis chrysomphali (Mercet); Aphytis lingnanensis Compere, formerly known as Aphytis “A”; Prospaltella perniciosi Tower, Oriental Strain; and Comperiella bifasciata Comp., Chinese strain—are established in certain citrus areas in southern California.

Ability to distinguish between types of avocado foliage injury caused by different insects and injury from other causes is essential in making evaluations of insecticide treatments.

Cultural practices necessary for strawberry production cause salt accumulation—with resulting injury to the plants—in some areas where the irrigation water is generally considered of good quality for most crops.

Color—of the flesh and of the skin—is perhaps the most reliable single index of maturity in French prunes grown in the interior valleys of California.

Rose clover seeded on ranges in Stanislaus County during the past two years increased forage production 82% and crude protein production 234% on an acre basis.