Since the inception of the freshshipping tree fruit industry shortly after the California Gold Rush (during the 1860s and 1870s) the state’s dominant orchard system has been the open vase, with trees trained into a wide “cone” tree shape at relatively ample spacings within the orchard. Originally, trees were planted on wide, 22-to-25-foot spacings (70 to 90 trees per acre) in both directions to...

Plum curculio, Conotrachelus nenuphar Herbst (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), is a key pest of peaches in the southeastern United States. Part of its life cycle, specifically, the pre-pupal, pupal and pre-adult stages are spent in the soil. Experiments were conducted in 2 peach orchards to evaluate the effects of some common orchard weed management practices on the development of the soil dwelling ...

In 2001, Salmonella Enteritidis phage type (PT) 30 was isolated from drag swabs of 17 61-ha almond orchards on three farms linked to an outbreak of salmonellosis associated with consumption of raw almonds. The objective of this study was to evaluate the long-term persistence of Salmonella Enteritidis PT 30 in one of the almond orchards associated with the outbreak. Swabs (gauze saturated with f...

This year’s research focused on further evaluation of potential alternate bearing with multiple year ReTainTM treatments. After three years of treatment with ReTainTM, there does not appear to be any negative effect on yield. There was a lower reduction in PFA than was expected, but this is thought to be unrelated to multiple year treatments. Treatment of a Chandler orchard with ReTainTM was do...

In 2001, Salmonella Enteritidis phage type (PT) 30 was isolated from drag swabs of 17 61-ha almond orchards on three farms linked to an outbreak of salmonellosis associated with consumption of raw almonds. The objective of this study was to evaluate the long-term persistence of Salmonella Enteritidis PT 30 in one of the almond orchards associated with the outbreak. Swabs (gauze saturated with f...

1 The presence and abundance of arthropods were compared in three olive orchards under organic, integrated and conventional management regimes. In each olive orchard, trees were sampled in the canopy by beating branches and soil arthropods by placing pitfall traps. Contrary to expectations, the highest abundance of arthropods occurred in the integrated management orchard. The most abundant grou...

Densities of an herbivorous pest may be impacted by landscape and orchard architecture. We present two orchard experiments where the densities of the Asian citrus psyllid (Diaphorina citri) were compared depending on: (1) the presence or absence of a windbreak and (2) if the orchards consisted of a solid set re-planting or an orchard with a mixture of mature and reset-replacement trees. Psyllid...

In a young walnut orchard planted on black walnut rootstock, and stunted as a result of root lesion nematode feeding treatments are being applied in an effort to invigorate tree growth and/or significantly reduce the nematode population. Treatments began in 1989 and include: (1) Spring grafting two paradox seedlings to the existing trees trunk (llinarching")i(2) application of Nemacur 3 nematoc...