Backyard Orchard News
Tri-National Meeting on Huanglongbing/Asian Citrus Psyllid in Visalia
Several times a year, researchers from Belize, Mexico and the US meet to discuss research and management progress on huanglongbing (HLB) disease of citrus and its vector Asian citrus psyllid (ACP). This week they met in Visalia. I came away from the meeting with several observations. When HLB appears in a new region it spreads very fast when vectored by psyllids (a few years to move across Mexico to some of their major producing areas). Research in Florida continues to demonstrate that infected-tree removal and psyllid suppression with insecticides slows the spread and severity of the disease. When HLB appears and growers hesitate to act quickly and aggressively spread continues rapidly. This is because HLB can be spread by psyllids for 6 months before it is detected in citrus trees by PCR and even longer before symptoms appear in trees. Therefore, negative PCR results do not mean the disease is not there. The take-home message for Californians is to test trees at frequent intervals in areas where HLB has been found and do everything possible to eradicate the disease as quickly as possible.
IMAG0238
Sunkist Fruit Sorting System Heads for Cal Poly Pomona
In the 1990s, the Citrus Research Board gifted a Sunkist electronic fruit grading system to...
Sunkist fruit sorter heads to Cal Poly Pomona
Is There a Doctor in the House?
Is there a doctor in the house? If you head over to the UC Davis Department of Entomology's...
Bug banner at Briggs beckons. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Forensic entomologist Robert Kimsey as "Dr. Death." (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Entomologist/principal editor Steve Dreistadt (red shirt) of UC IPM answers questions about insects. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Kearney goes solar
An 80-panel solar array is being installed at the Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center to provide clean, green energy to the F. Gordon Mitchell Postharvest Laboratory, the sensory laboratory and a plant and sample handling lab. Initially, the array will generate 22.4 kilowatts of electricity per hour, a supply expected to cut the center's energy expenditures by $5,400 per year.
"We have a significant amount of electrically intensive equipment in the post harvest laboratory," said Robert Ray, superintendent of the physical plant at Kearney and coordinator of the project. "The laboratory includes a washer-waxer, fruit sizer, reach-in refrigeration boxes and sub-zero refrigeration units, among other equipment. The three facilities consume about 260,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year."
Development of the solar farm is being supported by UC Agriculture and Natural Resources with a $100,000 allocation. Installation of the ground-mounted panels by JKB Energy of Turlock is expected to begin in early May.
"This is our first step toward developing renewable energy sources at the research and extension centers," said Luzanne Martin, a project manager for the nine-center system that stretches from Desert Research and Extension Center, near the border with Mexico, to the Intermountain Research and Extension Center, just south of Oregon. "We hope it will be a model project. When we see the savings we will try to look for renewable-energy options at our other centers and expand the array at Kearney."
Kearney facility and field staff are preparing a 140-by-25-foot area north of the post harvest laboratory and east of the sensory lab by leveling the land, pulling out alfalfa and installing underground conduits.
Ray said the solar farm will be expanded when funds become available to generate 78 kilowatts per hour, the maximum offset for the post harvest meter based on limits set by the Public Utilities Commission. In the future, solar arrays could also be built to provide the electrical needs of other Kearney facilities.
Robert Ray points out the area where the solar array will be installed in early May.
The Sounds of a Rainforest
When you listen to a rainforest, what do you hear? What does it tell you? Those who attend the free...
Malay Lacewing butterfly (Cethosia hypsea). Photographed by Richard Tenaza and identified by professor/butterfly expert Arthur Shapiro of UC Davis.
Nasute termites. Photographed by Richard Tenaza and identified by research scholar/insect photographer Alex Wild of the University of Illinois.