All Issues

Stevia, a Paraguayan plant that produces compounds 250 times as sweet as table sugar, is being studied for possible commercial production here.

Dry conditions intensified harmful effects of compaction to sensitive desert annual plants.

Although narrow rows yielded more and reduced production costs, strippers caused more harvesting and ginning problems than spindle-picked cotton in normal rows. Cover photo shows cotton stripper with experimental brush-type stripper head for harvesting narrow-row cotton.

Spraying ethephon for three years thinned fruit and increased size without apparent harm to trees.

Greatest benefit is in orchard's first five years. Grower may then want to convert to sprinklers.

Lower insecticide usage in the first half of the season did not reduce marketable fall-crop celery in this test.Reducing insecticide applications in the first half of the growing season did not reduce marketable fall-crop celery in southern California tests.

Ice plant scales, now widespread in freeway plantings, are being held in check by imported natural enemies.

New studies on the link to verticillium may help find the cause and ultimate control of the problem.

Each year California farms mobilize workers to fill half a million seasonal jobs.

A task force of scientists is searching for effective whitefly controls.

New parasitic wasp species and strains may improve biological control of flies at poultry and dairy sites.

During a year of adverse weather conditions, ethephon hastened boll opening and increased yields by up to 211 pounds of lint per acre.

A possible market exists in Japan for California nectarines, but prospects are dim for plums.