Franz Niederholzer0 commentsDecember 11, 2017Diseases

New pesticide labels available to help control pruning wound infections

Topsin® M WSP and Rally® 40WSP now have 2EE labels to protect pruning wounds on almonds (and other stone fruit trees and/or grapes) from canker disease infection. These products should be especially helpful in protecting young trees where disease infection of relatively large pruning cuts may cause extensive damage.   —-Canker diseases listed on the Topsin®M and Rally® labels—-   Topsin®M WSP Rally® 40WSP Eutypa Eutypa Cytospora Cytospora Calosphaeria pulchella Calosphaeria pulchella Lasiodiplodia theobromae Lasiodiplodia theobromae Botryosphaeria Botryosphaeria* Phomopsis Phomopsis* *suppression, only   The labels are very similar in many regards.  The following are recommended on both labels: Application within 24 hours of pruning is highly recommended. Assure complete coverage of all cut surfaces. Add a registered spray dye to better assess coverage. Additional application after about 2 weeks, especially if rain, irrigation, or high humidity occurs. Product combination (tank mixing) for best results and resistance management (Topsin M is a FRAC 1 fungicide, Rally a FRAC 3, and both have single site – high resistance risk – activity). Use of an organosilicone surfactant to improve pesticide penetration into pruning wound surfaces. (It is up to the grower to select and use a crop-safe organo-silicone with these products on pruning wounds).   There are some differences in the labels that limit how they can be used separately or combined. While the labels recommend tank mixing for best results and resistance management, consider the following: The Rally label does not allow painting the product on pruning wounds, while the Topsin M label does allow painting In addition, at the labeled rate (1.5 lb/acre), Topsin M is limited to 2 applications/year (max of 3 lbs/acre/year), while Rally is permitted a max of 3 applications/season (max of 1.5 lb/season). Therefore, if the two products are combined, painting is out and only 2 applications

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Franz Niederholzer0 commentsJune 6, 2017General

Varietal trends in acres planted to almond, 1988-2016

The almond acreage report for 2016 was released by California Department of Food and Ag (CDFA) on April 26, 2017. Click HERE to link to the report.  This report is developed from voluntary grower survey responses, pesticide use reports and the annual nursery sales report. Along with total almond acreage for 2016, [940,000 bearing acres and 3000,000 non-bearing acres], the report gives values for the acreage in individual counties, Nonpareil planting by county, and trees by variety.  While not perfect, the report gives a sense of how much is being planted and what varieties are being planted. Curious about what varieties are being planted in the state and in what proportion, I calculated the percentage of total plantings for each reported variety over time from the raw numbers in the report. I selected the top eight varieties and made the graph of percentage acres planted over time that appears below.  Growers can see for themselves the patterns of acres planted by variety as the industry has grown.      

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Franz Niederholzer4 CommentsOctober 11, 2016Nutrient

Fall Foliar Nutrients – Zinc and Boron Review

Symptoms of zinc deficiency of almond Written by Franz Niederholzer, UCCE Advisor, Colusa and Sutter/Yuba Counties Bloom is the most important time of the year for adequate boron (B) and zinc (Zn) levels in almonds.  Zinc is essential to many processes such as cell division, protein synthesis and auxin synthesis in growing points (flowers and shoots), and bloom is the time of the most growing points in a tree.  Boron is essential for cell wall synthesis and division. Boron fertilization has improved fruit or nut set compared to deficient plants in many crops, but only if applied in time to get B into buds at bloom.  Both Zn and B can be absorbed into leaves and translocated within almond trees. Check leaf symptoms, summer leaf analysis or hull analysis results to see if Zn and/or B fertilization is needed.  Zinc deficiency produces “little leaf” symptoms (see photo below), with trees showing summer leaf levels of 15 ppm Zn or less considered deficient.  Trees with hull B levels below 80 ppm B at harvest are thought to be deficient, but almond yield may benefit from B application if hull levels are below 120 ppm B.  Do not fertilizer with B if hull levels are 200 ppm B or greater, as excessive B is toxic to plants. A fall foliar nutrient spray is a cost effective way to get Zn or B into buds for the following year’s bloom.  The return on investment for a fall B spray can be significant.  Yield increases of 200-400 kernel pounds per acre have been measured from a foliar nutrient application the previous fall at Nickels Soil Lab of 0.6 lbs. of actual B (the equivalent of 3 lbs. Solubor®/acre applied in 400 gallons/acre). Fall Zn sprays should increase leaf Zn the following year and eliminate Zn
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Franz Niederholzer0 commentsAugust 8, 2016Horticulture

Catch frame shaker sets in almonds?

Almonds are typically shaken to the ground by a side mount or boom shaker, allowed to dry where they fall for several days to weeks — depending on drying conditions and ant pressure – and then windrowed and picked up.  Once nuts are on the ground, no water should be applied to the orchard to avoid wetting nuts on the ground.  Depending on local conditions – how dry the soil was ahead of harvest as well as weather after shaking, if irrigation is applied between harvests of different varieties, etc.  – traditional harvest practices can result in water stress in the orchard, leading to measurable yield reduction in future years. Recently, some growers have moved to shaking and sweeping within 24 hours. The windrows are then conditioned (picked up, leaves and dirt blown out and dropped back on the orchard floor in a wide, shallow windrow) and left to dry out in the orchard middles.  Growers with micro- irrigation can irrigate (at least a little) once the windrows are down, reducing water stress in the orchard compared to a traditional shake-dry-windrow-pickup harvest.  This practice can reduce the time between shaking and pickup by 48 hours. Another alternative to traditional almond harvest is the use of catch frame shaker sets instead of shake-to-the-ground (no catch) machines (see photo).   Catch frame shaker sets (two machines; a shaker side and a receiver side) are used to harvest prunes and pistachios up and down the state.  Recently I watched a stock prune/pistachio catch frame set harvest almonds in a mature (10th leaf) orchard on Lovell rootstock on Class 2-3 soil at the Nickels Soil Lab near Arbuckle.   This orchard recently had the buried drip hose replaced and the orchard floor surface was rough under the trees.  A catch frame harvest was used to get

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Franz Niederholzer2 CommentsJanuary 25, 2016Horticulture

Wet or Dry, Get Ready for Bloom

Franz Niederholzer, UCCE Farm Advisor, Colusa/Sutter/Yuba Counties Spring isn’t here yet, but it will be before we know it. What happens then, weather-wise, and how you react to those conditions could change the season for your operation. But, no one can be certain of the weather this spring. Will it be wet? The forecasters think there is a good chance for that. If that’s the case, more bees and bloom sprays, and less irrigation will be needed. But, they could be wrong and 2016 could be another dry year. Better plan for a wet or a dry spring. Here are some things to consider: Topic Wet Dry Bees Higher hive stocking rates (3 hives per acre, minimum of 6-8 frames, with one frame of brood) are recommended in wet years. Spray carefully. No difference from the last few years. Make sure bees have water sources and fungicides are applied with bee health in mind. Click HERE1 for link to Almond Board BMPs for bees. Bloom sprays With rain at bloom, UC recommends 2 bloom sprays – pink (5% bloom) and full bloom. If it is warm at bloom, use material(s) with anthracnose activity. If it continues to rain, more fungicides will be needed. The more fungicides used, the greater the need to rotate chemistries. Click HERE2 to see info on fungicide efficacy/timing/resistance management. One bloom spray, timed before or at full bloom will provide good disease control under dry (no rain) bloom conditions. Weed management Properly selected and applied preemergent herbicides, sprayed before rain saturates orchard soils, provides weed control when you can’t get into too-wet orchards. Pre or post emergent sprays will control weeds. Don’t fall behind. Controlling weeds saves water. Nitrogen management 20% of annual N budget should go on by mid-March. If it’s still raining after petal

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Franz Niederholzer4 CommentsJuly 17, 2015Insects

Good Spray Coverage: Watch the Air

Written by: Franz Niederholzer, UCCE Farm Advisor, Colusa and Sutter/Yuba Counties and Luke Milliron, UCCE Horticulture Intern Good spray coverage is vital to effective pest control.  Nowhere is this truer than for NOW control at hull split.  Excessive sprayer speed kills spray coverage, especially in the tree tops.  But is there a simple way to figure out how fast to drive a sprayer to deliver good coverage in the tree tops while getting across the orchard in a timely manner?  Yes, watch the air.  Since airblast sprayers use forced air from the sprayer fan to carry pesticides throughout the tree, if the air from the sprayer fan(s) reaches the top of the canopy, the pesticide spray should get there, too. The following is a simple way to evaluate sprayer air movement in the canopy tops at different ground speeds.  Free hanging surveyors tape makes a great air movement indicator.  Tie 12-24” of surveyors tape to the top of a length of PVC pipe threaded through the branches in the middle of the tree row into the tree tops.  [Another option is to use a pruning tower to get up in the tree tops and tie several lengths of tape onto the highest shoots.]  Fill the sprayer half full of water, turn on the pump, close the spray booms, and run the sprayer down the row at a set speed with the fan on at operating tractor RPMs.  Have someone record a video of the movement of the tape(s) in the tree tops with a smart phone or iPad.  Review the video after the spray moves past the pole.  Did the tape move at all?  If no, then the sprayer air didn’t reach the tape, and neither will pesticide.  The sprayer needs to drive slower, or you need a sprayer with a larger

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Franz Niederholzer0 commentsMay 29, 2015Insects

Navel orangeworm management at harvest: When, what, & how to get the best results

Franz Niederholzer, UCCE Farm Advisor, Colusa & Sutter/Yuba Counties; Emily Symmes, UC IPM Area Advisor, Sacramento Valley Almond nuts become vulnerable to navel orangeworm (NOW) damage at hull split.  In the south Sacramento Valley this year, Non-pareil hull split is expected in the last week of June, about the same time as last year, based on the prediction model developed by UC researchers (see it on-line at:  http://fruitsandnuts.ucdavis.edu/Weather_Services/almond_hullsplit_prediction/).  Protecting nuts from NOW (and peach twig borer) with hull split sprays and timely harvest are key to delivering a high quality crop to the huller and maximizing grower returns.  If you haven’t already, now is a good time to plan your hull-split spray(s). Non-pareil (NP) nuts split first – and have the most value.  Not surprising, the primary focus in NOW management is protecting NP nuts.  The worst NOW damage to NP nuts occurs if the nuts are still in the trees when 3rd generation NOW egg laying begins.  Harvest should occur when 100% of the nuts have split but the hulls are still green (see picture below). If this can be accomplished before 3rd generation egg laying, a significant portion of NOW damage to NP can be avoided.  Preconditioning of just-shaken nuts accelerates their drying and hastens pickup, reducing nut exposure to protein feeding ants and allowing irrigation ASAP before pollinizer harvest.  Careful orchard monitoring of NOW populations using egg traps and degree days indicate when egg laying should occur.  This can be supplemented with using pheromone traps to follow male flights.  In addition to timely harvest, properly timed and applied hull split sprays can help reduce the overall NOW population in the orchard and thus limit crop damage and income loss from current and future resident NOW generations. Once hull split occurs, growers can target different NOW generations depending

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Franz Niederholzer0 commentsDecember 5, 2014Insects, Weeds

Time to change your sprayer nozzles?

When was the last time you replaced the nozzles on your sprayers – airblast and/or weed?  If you can’t remember, chances are it’s been too long.  If your nozzles are worn and allowing more flow per minute than manufacturer specs you could be wasting hundreds of dollars per orchard.  For example, if you apply $200/acre/year worth of insecticides, fungicides, and miticides through worn airblast sprayer nozzles that allow 5% more flow per minute than expected, then you are wasting $10/acre/year.  For a 100 acre orchard, that’s $1000/year in excess materials.  Replacing those worn nozzles will save you hundreds of dollars per year in that 100 acre orchard.  Yes, a new set of wear-resistant airblast sprayer nozzles isn’t cheap, but spraying through worn nozzles is more expensive.

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Franz Niederholzer3 CommentsAugust 30, 2014Irrigation

After a tough year, make key irrigation maintenance a priority.

Written By: Franz Niederholzer, UCCE Farm Advisor, Colusa/Sutter/Yuba Counties Despite strong nut pricing, the drought is making 2014 a very tough year for growers, their trees, and in many cases, their irrigation systems.  Low quality irrigation water, potentially stressing trees and irrigation systems, was/is applied to many orchards this year that normally received higher quality water.  Irrigation system maintenance, especially cleaning drip lines to ensure uniform and adequate water flow, should be high on the do-to list this fall.  The following is a quick review of key practices to keep drip emitters from clogging.  For more complete information, see the sources listed at the end of the post.

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Franz Niederholzer0 commentsAugust 10, 2014Horticulture

Odd weather at harvest, so far

Written by Franz Niederholzer, UCCE Farm Advisor, Colusa/Sutter/Yuba Counties So far, the weather in the Sacramento Valley has been unusually moist early in the 2014 harvest season.  Higher humidity and rain last week (Aug 4-5 = 0.1-0.6”) slowed nut drying just as the season began.  A chance of thundershowers is forecast for the coming week (Aug 11-15), so we won’t spring right back to the usual August weather – hot and dry.  Growers anxious to get nuts up and out of the orchard will have to wait longer than expected to deliver a dry, quality crop.  Wet nuts are more vulnerable to damage (chipped, broken and embedded shell), which can reduce return to grower.

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