West Coast Nut - April 2017

WEST COAST NUT April 2017 Issue

In This Issue: Blight Control in Walnuts Jefferson Hazelnuts Orchard Tour Ag Recycling

A Good Thing for Almond Growers

New Pistachio Orchards From Training to Fertilization

RoboBees

The Future of Pollination?

PUBLICATION Photo Credit: Kathy Coatney

California Walnuts

AN INDUSTRY WORKING TOGETHER

TO BUILD DEMAND THROUGH HEALTH RESEARCH One of the main reasons for the increase in demand for California walnuts is the growing consumer awareness of their health benefits. We’ve been communicating these benefits since 1993, and the impact is undeniable.

Over the years, we’ve supported research in 9 countries with 52 institutions, leading to over 110 articles in medical journals.

As a result, over half of walnut media coverage around the world is now health-related.

Thirty years ago, virtually no one bought walnuts for health reasons. Today, 7 out of 10 U.S. consumers purchase walnuts for health benefits, and 85% of those surveyed consider walnuts to be healthy. It’s proof positive that the power of health research sponsored by the California Walnut Commission has changed and influenced consumer perceptions and buying habits.

And one more way our industry is working together to build demand.

We’ve been communicating the health benefits of walnuts since 1993 with supported research in 9 countries

Today, 85% of U.S. consumers surveyed consider walnuts to be nutritious

0%

85%

1990

2016

U.S. consumer perceptions of walnuts as healthy compared between 1990 and 2016

Walnut health research in USA, Spain, Germany, UK, Israel, Japan, China, South Korea, and Austrailia

walnuts.org

Per one ounce serving.

By the Industry, For the Industry Publisher: Jason Scott Email: jason@jcsmarketinginc.com Editor: Kathy Coatney Email: kathy@jcsmarketinginc.com Production: Logan Willems Email: logan@jcsmarketinginc.com Tel: 559.352.4456 Fax: 559.472.3113 Web: www.wcngg.com

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IN THIS ISSUE 4

Blight Control in Walnuts

Contributing Writers & Industry Support

12

2017 Flooded Orchards

AgSafe Contributing Writer

Sabrina Hill Contributing Writer

16

Jefferson Hazelnuts Orchard Tour

Almond Board of California Contributing Writer

Roger Isom President/CEO, WAPA

20

Ag Recycling

California Walnut Board Contributing Writer

Julie R. Johnson Contributing Writer

30

Sustainability Workshops Showcased Cover Crops for Almond Orchards

Janine Hasey UCCE Tree Crop Advisor, Sutter/Yuba/Colusa Counties

Cecilia Parsons Contributing Writer

34

What’s on Tap for 2017?

38

New Pistachio Orchards

42

Following the Coverage

46

AgSafe Nut Safety School

48

RoboBees

50

Leaffooted Bug Aggregations Began Dispersing in Early March

54

Food Safety Training for Walnut Growers

Kris Tollerup UCCE Area-wide IPM Advisor

UC Cooperative Extension Advisory Board

David Doll UCCE Farm Advisor, Merced County Elizabeth Fichtner UCCE Farm Advisor, Tulare County Dani Lightle UCCE Orchards Advisor, Glenn/Butte/Tehama Counties Franz Niederholzer UCCE Farm Advisor, Colusa/Sutter/Yuba Counties The articles, research, industry updates, company profiles, and advertisements in this publication are the professional opinions of writers and advertisers. West Coast Nut does not assume any responsibility for the opinions given in the publication.

What to do and Resources

A Good Thing for Almond Growers

A Look at Regulatory and Legislative Issues Facing the Tree Nut Industry From Training to Fertilization

Pest Management and Spray Efficacy

The Future of Pollination?

View our ePublication on the web at www.wcngg.com

Photo Credit: Kathy Coatney

INDUSTRY NEWS Ag Recycling: A Good Thing for Almond Growers Containers being granulated for volume reduction and transportation for proper end use per ACRC requirements.

See the full story on page 20

April 2017

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Page 3

BEST PRACTICES

Blight Control in Walnuts This year’s wet weather has produced flooding in many walnut orchards, such as this one in Tehama County, creating an environment of moisture favorable to walnut blight.

Julie R. Johnson Contributing Writer

B

light’s description “as any cause of impairment, destruction or ruin,” definitely applies to Xanthomonas arboricola pv juglandis (Xaj), a pathogen of Walnut

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West Coast Nut

April 2017

Blight and the topic of Richard Buchner’s presentation during this year’s annual Walnut Trade Show hosted by West Coast Nut.

Photo Credit: Julie R. Johnson

Buchner, University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) Orchards Advisor, Tehama County, said walnut blight caused by Xaj can cause significant crop loss and determining an orchard’s risk is often a matter of guess work.

“Three things are necessary for the disease to occur,” he explained, “pathogen, host and favorable weather.

This is often referred to as the disease triangle.”

One of Buchner’s take home messages, is when it comes to walnut blight, the past few years drought and sunshine can be a benefit in controlling Xaj, while this year’s rainfall can increase the threat of the disease.

“Beware, once the rain events start to come in,” he said, “and these bacteria start building up, you are going to see increasing pressure and you need to start thinking about not letting the disease build up to high Continued on Page 6 April 2017

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Page 5

Photo Credit: Richard Buchner

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West Coast Nut

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April 2017

levels in orchards, which in turn makes control relatively difficult.”

Along with the moisture, the disease also prefers, and benefits from warm weather.

Buchner said if growers can reduce or eliminate any leg of the disease triangle, it can greatly result in reduction in damages.

“Back when I first started working on blight some 30 years ago, those of you who can remember, we were looking at blight damage numbers somewhere in the 60 to 70 percentiles. That was when we had resistance to copper and before we understood the chemistries. It was able to run away from us,” he shared. “Since that time, research and technology has saved a lot of crop.”

The disease cycle begins with dormant walnut bud. The outer cataphylls support the bacteria, while the inner embryonic leaves and flowers are pathogen free.

As the shoot grows through the infected outer bud scales, bacteria have the opportunity to move or be transported through rainfall, heavy dew or otherwise wet conditions, and infect developing leaves, shoots and flowers.

During research in Tehama County, untreated trees under simulated, plus natural rainfall were found to have 32 percent blighted walnuts in the mid-canopy and almost 70 percent on walnuts reachable from the ground.

The probability of infection depends upon how much pathogen exists on individual buds and environmental conditions favoring bacterial spread and infection.

“Some buds remain closed and potentially harbor inoculum for subsequent years,” Buchner explained. “If frequent rains and favorable conditions exist, secondary inoculum can lead to additional crop damage and inoculum build up.”

Disease epidemics result in high bacterial populations in developing

buds and subsequent high inoculum for the following year.

Buchner said all green tissue is susceptible to Xaj, shoots, catkins, leaves and nuts, resulting in crop damaging black lesions.

“Nut infections are the most economically damaging because it is the nuts that we sell,” he added.

“Early infections invade and kill the developing kernel and kill as they go. The tissue is destroyed and the nuts fall off the tree. The later infections, more common where we get a little bit or rain up in the north end of the state, maybe as late as June, nuts are pretty well formed by then and Xaj don’t usually invade and kill the kernel, but do become a problem with bridging for other pests to get in, not only Navel orangeworm, but also codling moth and some other fungi infections are piggy-backing.”

The whole “secret to this game” of breaking the walnut blight cycle, according to Buchner, is to protect the green tissue, and to protect it early to prevent the development of infection in the walnut, and decrease as much as possible the bacteria over-wintering in the buds.

“The probability of infection depends on how much disease risk you have, so the more and more disease that is building up and over-wintering on a tree and its dormant buds, the higher your probability is of getting an infection that is going to result in economic damage and the more difficult it is going to be to control the disease,” he emphasized.

Measuring walnut blight risk involves accessing an orchard’s previous history and measuring dormant bud populations.

“Strategy is two point; keep the amount of inoculum down, and early spraying to protect developing green tissue and nuts. One of the problems is that the amount of inoculum you are trying to control is a moving target,” he said. “A lot depends, in reference to your blight control with the weather and the inoculum, is how all the stars lineContinued on Page 8

Photo Credit: Julie R. Johnson

Richard Buchner, UCCE Orchards Advisor, Tehama County, as he prepares to give his presentation on Walnut Blight at this year’s Annual Walnut Trade Show hosted by West Coast Nut at the Yuba-Sutter Fairgrounds.

Richard Buchner UCCE Orchards Advisor, Tehama County

Common Mistakes with Walnut Blight Control • First spray timing too late.

• Blight population increased resulting in high disease pressure.

• Material rates too low.

• Poor spray coverage both by air and ground.

• Using a weak material in high blight potential orchards.

• Not tank mixing with Manzate.

• Dense tree canopies.

Walnut Blight Bud Sampling • Sample buds in December, January, February, March or early April for late leafing varieties. Buds can be samples to the time they start to open. Early samples will allow more time to design disease control strategies.

• Select 1,000 dormant walnut spurs with nice fat terminal buds. Cut off about a three inch length. Spurs reachable from the ground are easy to collect and represent a good sample location because bacteria sprinkle down through the tree canopy.

• Walk the entire area collecting a random sample. One or two buds per tree should spread the sample adequately. Deciding how many samples to collect will depend upon the experience on an orchard-by-orchard basis. One sample could easily represent 50 acres if experience suggests reasonable uniformity.

• Save spurs in a paper bag and store in a cool place. The paper bag will allow samples to breathe and eliminate condensation. The lab will select a 30 terminal bud subsample to place on agar and save the remaining buds as a backup sample.

• Mail to CSP Labs; 3556 Sankey Road, Pleasant Grove, CA, 95668. You might want to phone ahead at 916-665-1581 or www.csplabs.com • Cooperative Extension Advisors can help interpret results of pathogen assessments and discuss the relative disease risks those measurements indicate.

Walnut Blight Control Summary • First application at 40 percent, prayer stage. Second 7-10 days later.

• Watch weather and treat accordingly. Full label rates of copper plus and EBDC. • Any good quality copper will work.

• Full coverage for the first and second spray. Watch weather accordingly and treat accordingly.

• Use judgment based upon location and disease severity.

April 2017

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Page 7

Photo Credit: Richard Buchner

Continued from Page 7 up so to speak, in terms of actual infection from year to year.”

With this year’s wet winter, growers are going to see an increase in disease pressure as a function of the weather and depending on how good, or bad, spray programs are carried out.

“If you got clobbered with walnut blight last year, you probably have a lot of inoculum and you will probably get clobbered again,” Buchner said. “But it you want to get real sciencey and sneaky, there are techniques of actually sending sample buds to labs and they will actually come back and tell you what your potential of infection is.”

Four examples of blight disease on walnuts caused by Xanthomonas arboricola pv juglandis (Xaj).

Page 8

West Coast Nut

April 2017

Disease Control The right spray and spray timing are key strategies in blight control.

“The bulk of the disease’s damage occurs between mid-April to about

Continued on Page 10

Jeannine Lowrimore Northern California (209) 603-9244

Photo Credit: Richard Buchner

the middle of May when it is starting to level out,” Buchner explained.

“That is about when it is going to do what it does, and is causing the majority of its damage.”

He said it is suggested growers put the first spray on when 40 percent of the trees have buds that are opening and the shoots are elongated, or at the “prayer stage” since the unfolded leaves resemble praying hands, or, as Buchner puts it, growers are praying this first stage in the blight management process works.

“Often I will have growers spray when 20 percent of the buds are opening if the pressure of disease is high,” he added. “This places a protective layer of bactericide on leaf tissue. If bacteria are splashed from the outer bud scales to developing shoots and flowers, the bactericide barrier prevents infection and subsequent blight lesions. Early sprays

Richard Buchner explained during his presentation on Walnut Blight the importance of timely spray applications of copper mixture.

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Page 9

Continued from Page 9 are really the secret to controlling walnut blight.”

A second spray is applied about 7 to 10 days later to protect the remaining opening buds. Additional spray decisions are based upon measurements of infected buds, disease history, weather conditions and variety. This second spray backs up the first spray and protects the later opening buds which haven’t seen

any copper spray.

At times, there may be a need for a third spray, depending on weather, pressure, history, climate, and inoculum levels, according to Buchner.

“The take home message here is that the most important flower buds are the ones that come out early.

They have the highest probability of developing crop for you and are the most important to protect,” he add-

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West Coast Nut

April 2017

ed. “Spray well and spray early.”

Buchner and fellow researchers said many growers wonder if they need to blight spray Chandler or other late leafing varieties. They measured over 50 percent crop damage on Chandler walnuts when overwintering bud populations were high and spring weather favored disease. Conversely, they measured little to no blight on Chandler walnut with low to zero overwintering bud population levels even when wet spring weather favored disease.

The researchers found late leafing walnut varieties have less opportunity time to build high walnut blight populations. This does not eliminate, but reduces the probability of disease incidence. A good late leafing strategy would be to apply the first two spray applications with the intention of maintaining low inoculum levels.

What to Spray Copper tank mixed with an EBDC (Ethylene Bisdithiocarbamate) such as Manzate flowable or Pro-stick is currently the most effective spray choice.

“Our conclusion is that just about any good quality copper products work fine and are all effective for controlling walnut blight,” Buchner said.

Follow label rates because metallic rates and copper availability vary depending upon product. Full coverage at full material rates is recommended.

Remember, it takes at least two years of a very good spray program to drive the disease back down.

“Also, remember it is about coverage, coverage, coverage at full spray,” Buchner advised. “There may be many variables in blight management, but this is a sure thing.”

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INDUSTRY NEWS

2017 Flooded Orchards What to do and Resources Janine Hasey UCCE Tree Crop Advisor, Sutter/Yuba/Colusa Counties

F

or your county, contact your local Agricultural Commissioner and UCCE tree crop advisor.

In our counties, there are two main issues that are related to the 2017 storms: •

•

Orchards outside the levees along the rivers that are or have been flooded from river seepage due to high river flows and/or overflowing ditches/canals.

Orchards inside the levees next to riverbanks that had sloughing (slippage) when the high water in the Feather River was suddenly dropped in late February.

Depending on where your orchard is located will determine what programs may or may not be available.

What To Do Now Keep records and take photos of flooded orchards and damage. It is important to have this information to prove that damage or losses occurred from a particular storm event. This includes: •

• •

•

•

again, if water returns and for how long.

Leafing, flowering, fruit/nut set dates.

Note dates if/when symptoms are seen that could indicate waterlogging and/or Phytophthora crown and root rot: a lack of terminal growth, small, yellow and drooping leaves, sparse foliage, dieback, or a general collapse of the tree.

Note dates if symptoms of aerial Phytophthora are seen: cankers on branches and trunk (walnuts tend to bleed, peaches, prunes, and almonds will gum).

Within the levees, assess the number of trees uprooted or lost from sloughing.

Reporting damage/losses File a report of loss with your Agricultural Commissioner. Even if you do not know the extent of losses yet, documenting the flooding in orchards outside the levees and physical damage and tree losses inside the levees is advised.

Links to the forms Sutter County: https://www.co.sutter. ca.us/weatheragriculturaldamage Yuba County: Call 530-749-5400 or pick up the form in Scientifically proven to reduce the office at the Yuba County Government female NOW populations and Center. damage with Mass Trapping When water was first seen, length of time standing in orchard, when it drained, etc. When the rivers rise

and Monitoring.

Determining Damage It likely will take months before the extent of losses from disease and/or waterlogging can be assessed.

As the trees become

active and the weather warms up, we can expect to start seeing losses that could continue through the hot summer when trees with damaged root systems or crowns typically collapse. When you start seeing any of the symptoms listed above, contact someone who can diagnose the cause such as your Pest Control Advisor (PCA), or UCCE Farm Advisors Franz Niederholzer (prunes, almonds) or Janine Hasey (walnuts, peaches, kiwifruit) at (530) 822- 7515. The loss of trees from disease or waterlogging will need to be tied to the storm events and disaster declarations.

Potential Disaster Relief Resources At this point, we don’t know fully what programs are available and who will qualify for what programs. The following is a list of some programs that may be available and links to them for more information: 1. County Assessor. The Revenue and Taxation Code allows reassessment of property damaged by misfortune or calamity. If there is at least $10,000 worth of losses of tree value currently on the tax roll, you can obtain a claim form from the Assessor’s office.

2. Tree loss calculators based on UCCE cost studies through Agricultural & Resource Economics at UC Davis. When an individual tree or vine is destroyed in an orchard or vineyard due to natural causes, vehicle accident, shaker damage, or other causes such as flooding, the link below provides workbooks on specific crops to calculate the value of a single tree or vine lost to any cause taking into account the loss of future income. For the crops below, there are two worksheet versions: “With Replanting” and Continued on Page 14

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West Coast Nut

April 2017

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Page 53

Continued from Page 12 “Without Replanting”. The tree or vine is replanted and eventually generates income in “With Replanting” worksheet.

The tree or vine is not replanted in the “Without Replanting” worksheet because of the age of the orchard or other reason preventing replanting such as loss of the tree and land from sloughing. https://coststudies.ucdavis.edu/treevine-loss/ Crops include almond, cling peach, prune, and walnut trees.

3. Farm Service Agency (FSA). All the programs available through the FSA can be accessed at https://www.fsa.usda. gov/ The USDA press release on disaster assistance programs: •

https://www.usda.gov/media/ press-releases/2017/03/08/usdareminds-individuals-and-smallbusinesses-california-nevada-and

4. Tree Assistance Program (TAP) •

https://www.fsa.usda.gov/Assets/

USDA-FSA-Public/usdafiles/ FactSheets/2015/tap_fact_sheet_ oct_2015.pdf The TAP provides financial assistance to eligible nursery and tree crop growers to rehabilitate or replant eligible trees or vines lost by natural disasters. To qualify, there must be more than 18 percent (15 percent + normal 3 percent) mortality loss in an orchard block. Final date to submit an application and supporting documentation is 90 days after the disaster event or the date when the loss is apparent.

farmland damaged by flooding. This program will not apply to orchards inside the levees.

For more information on FSA disaster programs, visit https://www.fsa.usda. gov/programs-and-services/disasterassistance-program/ or your local FSA county office at 1521 Butte House Rd Ste. A, Yuba City, CA, Phone: 530-671-0850 Comments about this article? We want to hear from you. Feel free to email us at article@jcsmarketinginc.com

Emergency Loan Assistance A program which provides emergency loans to help cover production and physical losses in counties declared as disaster areas by the President.

Emergency Conservation Program (ECP) ECP provides emergency funds for cost sharing with farmers to rehabilitate

- Mark Dutro

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West Coast Nut

April 2017

BEST PRACTICES

Jefferson Hazelnuts Orchard Tour Cecilia Parsons Contributing Writer

N

ew and experienced hazelnut growers joined Oregon State University (OSU) orchard crops specialist Nik Wiman on an orchard tour that featured one of the newer blight resistant varieties.

Jefferson, a hazelnut variety developed by Oregon State University to resist Eastern Filbert Blight, is one of the new varieties credited with boosting the Willamette Valley hazelnut industry and sparking interest from new growers.

Eastern Filbert Blight (EFB), a fungal disease, has infected many hazelnut orchards in Oregon and Washington since it was first found in the

Pacific Northwest in 1970. Infected trees lose vigor and become unproductive.

Wiman started his tour at the Jefferson orchard from ground level, noting the importance of soil type in orchard establishment. This orchard, he said, has Cloquato soil, a relatively uncommon, but one of the top rated soils in Oregon for hazelnut production. The silty loam soil has a 69 score out of a possible 75 in an OSU soil rating scale. Cloquato soil is associated with river areas and the 25-acre Jefferson orchard is located less than two miles from the Willamette River.

The orchard perimeter has some soil

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West Coast Nut

April 2017

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higher in clay content, but overall, Wiman said, the site is expected to favor high production.

“There are no bonus points for adding drainage tiles here,” Wiman said. There would not be an added benefit with this type of soil, but moderate rated soils in good locations could be improved with a tile system added.

Some soils improve with drainage; others don’t, Wiman said. Some soils are simply too thick with clay to allow water to drain off with tile. Starting out with a very poor soil and paying for drain tiling to make it slightly better is seldom worth the investment.

Any soil with a rating of at least 50 is worth draining if the improvement is 8–9 points.

Amendments such as lime and fertilizer can improve the fertility of any soil. However, it is impractical to change the soil texture throughout the entire rooting depth in a hazelnut orchard.

Prior to planting in 2011, Wiman said the orchard site was cleaned with a Roundup application and disk ripped to break up compacted soil.

Planting was done without the use of global positioning system to ensure exact tree placement, but Wiman said the grower used a system nearly as precise-a stake out line and notched planting boards to determine tree spacing. The orchard was laid out in 16.5 by 16.5 spacing with 158 trees per acre. Standard for older orchards, he added, is a 20 by 20 spacing, but he said the tighter spacing is working for this grower.

The orchard also has a unique pollinizer layout with every third tree and every third row a pollinizer. The three standard pollinizer varieties, Felix,

Photo Credit: Kathy Coatney

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Eta and Theta were planted with one variety per row.

The young, bare root trees were planted at the right time of the year, prior to bud break and trunks were coated with diluted latex paint to protect them from the sun. The grower did not paint his pollinizer trees with colored latex, Wiman said, due to toxicity in the paint pigment.

No herbicides were applied during their first year in the ground. All weed control was mechanical, Wiman said, to prevent herbicide damage to the vulnerable young trees.

He said field bindweed, the worst weed problem, was controlled by dragging the orchard floors. During the second year, the grower used spot treatments of Roundup to control field

bindweed and a pre-emergent herbicide. Chemical weed control continued in the third year. Canopy growth was expected to shade out most weed problems by the fourth year.

Wiman also noted problems associated with trunk guards. While they do shield the tree from herbicides, they can leave the tree susceptible after guards are removed if the bark is not Continued on Page 18 April 2017

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Page 17

Photo Credit: Kathy Coatney

Continued from Page 17 hardened off.

“Watch where your materials are going. Paint alone does not protect the trees from herbicides,” Wiman warned.

Wiman noted that the grower did apply nitrogen the first two years after planting the trees, though most growers do not apply nitrogen that early in the life of an orchard. An OSU recommendation is that no nitrogen is needed as young trees store nitrogen in scaffold branches. The orchard also receives a fall foliar nutrient application.

The orchard is irrigated twice during the growing season using 12hour sets via hand lines. Traditionally hazelnuts have been a dry land crop in Oregon, Wiman said, but higher summer temperatures are increasing stress on the trees. Planting later in the season will leave them susceptible to drought stress.

There have also been good yield responses to added irrigations. Research

Page 18

West Coast Nut

April 2017

is underway, he said, to determine amount and timing of irrigations. Typically, replacing evapotranspiration will cover water needs.

Disease control in the orchard begins with monitoring. Wiman recommended scouting orchards for EFB and removing and destroying all cankered wood prior to bud break. All fungicides should be applied beginning or just before bud break. Applications should be continued, he said, at two-week intervals to cover an eightweek susceptibility period for a total of four applications.

Key pest to control in the spring is the filbert worm and Wiman said it is appearing earlier in the season. Trapping for adults should begin in mid May rather than June, and degree-day models can be used. Traps should be set at the rate of four per ten acres and if two or three moths are found, that should trigger treatment.

Though the Jefferson variety is resistant to EFB, Wiman advised

Photo Credit: Kathy Coatney

treating young trees as if they were vulnerable. Quite a few old orchards have been interplanted-new varieties introduced in older orchards. Younger trees may have less resistance to EFB, but that may be linked to stress.

Wiman said he has seen cankers removed from Jefferson trees and the trees have recovered in subsequent years.

Yields from the orchard have exceeded the minimum expected from OSU projections. In 2014, the fourth year, yields averaged 239 pounds per acre. The next year, the orchard yielded 750 pounds per acre. Third harvest was expected to deliver 1,800 to 2,000 pounds per acre.

Comments about this article? We want to hear from you. Feel free to email us at article@jcsmarketinginc.com

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Page 19

INDUSTRY NEWS

Ag Recycling A Good Thing for Almond Growers

Containers being granulated for volume reduction and transportation for proper end use per ACRC requirements.

Page 20

West Coast Nut

April 2017

Kathy Coatney Editor

R

ecycling Ag pesticide containers is easy, cost effective and good for the environment, according to Ron Perkins, executive director of Ag Container Recycling Council (ACRC).

ACRC was founded in 1992, and they are celebrating their Twenty-fifth anniversary this year. ACRC has 40 members from the industry that includes all of the larger chemical manufacturers.

Members pay annual dues based on the pounds of plastic pesticide containers they produce, and Perkins estimates about 90 percent of the industry participates in ACRC program.

Green Plastic Planet Recycling just makes sense for growers from a financial standpoint, according to Bill Graves, CEO of Green Planet Plastics and an environmental professor at Butte College in Chico, California. Graves is also a small almond grower in Butte County, and he began accumulating empty pesticide containers.

Even on a small farm the pesticide containers begin to add up, Graves said. “Pretty soon you’ve got 20, then you’ve got 30 or 40, and then you go what the heck should you do with these things?”

While it is legal to take the containers to the landfill, they had to be triple or pressure rinsed before they leave the farm, Graves said.

Graves noticed the recycle symbol number two on the bottom of the containers. With a little research, he discovered ACRC, but there weren’t any venues or locations near Butte County.

Continued on Page 23

Photo Credit: Interstate Ag Plastics

April 2017

www.wcngg.com

Page 21

Continued from Page 21 Graves went to the Butte County Board of Supervisors and received permission to collect the containers at the county landfill, so long as he kept a vehicle count and weighed the material he received.

The next step was funding.

Graves created a 501c3 nonprofit, and named it Green Plastic Planet.

While Graves is the executive director and founder of Green Planet Plastics, he isn’t the owner. “If I were to get out of the business, I would literally have to give all the assets to another recycling 501c3,” he said.

Graves does single day collection events in Glenn County once a year and twice a year Butte County. The first recycling event was held in February of 2010, and about 10,000 pounds of plastic containers were collected for recycling.

“Since that date, I frequently go

Page 22

West Coast Nut

April 2017

A pile of containers awaiting processing in Glenn County. Containers are not allowed to accumulate, but are recycled within a week.

Photo Credit: Green Planet Plastics

over 30,000 pounds when I have recycling events,” Graves said, adding he has collected over 600,000 pounds of plastic since he began in 2010.

Graves also accepts containers from pest control companies, golf courses and from other counties.

Graves said it is a benefit for growers to recycle. Before his events, growers were paying $50$100 for a bobtail to take the containers to the landfill.

Donations from growers and annual donations from utility and chemical companies as well as some local banks helps keep Graves in operation.

Graves was asked to be a California Department of Pesticide Regulation (CDPR) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) presenter and provide continuing education on laws and regulation hours

for growers, pest control advisors (PCAs) and certified crop consultants (CCAs).

“I would love to eventually turn the recycling portion of my business over to somebody else,” Graves said, and just give presentations across the country.

Agri Plas Allen Jongsma, one of the owners of Agri Plas in Brooks, Oregon, recycles a variety of Ag products in Oregon, Washington and Idaho.

Jongsma recycles the blue films that are used in the totes that hazelnut growers use in the collection of their nuts. He also recycles irrigation drip tubing, and herbicide and pesticide containers.

There is no charge to recycle at Jongsma’s facilities, and the operation runs 12 months out of the year.

Jongsma has been in the Ag Continued on Page 24

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Continued from Page 23 recycling business for 25 years and there’s been a definite increase in Ag recycling, he said. “We’ve seen it continue to grow. We’re big with the nursery industry here in Oregon.

We got lots of nursery pots, and their film off their greenhouses, and their trays,” Jongsma said.

“We take in lots of different plastics from a lot of people,” Jongsma said, adding we receive a lot of shrink wrap, too, but we don’t do fumigation film.

Jongsma said his company originally started in southern California.

He closed the California facility, but he still has some plastics shipped to him from California.

A large nursery in the Bay Area recently shipped about 40,000 pounds of nursery pots and trays because there was nowhere to recycle them in California.

All of Jongsma’s plastic is ground

on site, and they have mobile grinders, too. For a grower with large volume, they send out a mobile grinder and grind on site.

Interstate Ag Plastics Brad Bittleston, president of Interstate Ag Plastics in Buttonwillow, California, recycles in California, Arizona and Nevada.

Bittleston does pesticide container recycling, and there are drop off cages on Bittleston’s site where farmers can leave containers.

“We’ll do a pre-inspection, and if they’re triple rinsed, then they can just drop them off in what we call cotton trailers,” Bittleston said.

The vast majority of Bittleston’s collections, grinding and packaging is done onsite at farms with his mobile grinding trucks.

“It’s convenient for the farmer, and it’s cheap,” Bittleston said.

If the farm meets their minimum requirement of 6,000 pounds it’s a free service, if not, it’s a $250 charge, but growers can deliver the containers to his facility for free, Bittleston said.

“Right now we are a single stream recycling company. Our main focus is Ag containers, and we go from quart size to 55 gallon drums, and then we’ll also collect the bulk containers like your totes,” Bittleston said.

Recycling Ag Plastic The law says that in order to transport a pesticide container it must be triple or pressure rinsed, even if the containers go to the landfill, Graves said.

“Triple rinsing is an absolute criteria,” Graves said. Recycling criteria consists of:

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West Coast Nut

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Triple or pressure rinsing the container Removing the cap Removing the booklet on the container

“The farmer can self-certify that it’s triple rinsed, but we do check them as they arrive,” Graves said.

Larger sized containers must be cut so that fit through the door of the chipper.

Graves only takes up to a 55 gallon drum. “The larger drums are supposed to be reused,” he said.

Granulating Containers Contractors like Agri Plas in Oregon and Interstate Ag Plastics in California grind the containers for ACRC, Perkins said.

“They go out to users of pesticides, Ag retailers, applicators, aerial applicators, growers, and they

take granulators on trailers and they grind up containers right onsite,” Perkins said.

The plastic containers are ground into flakes about three-eighths to a half inch in size. These flakes are blown into super sacks, which are about six feel tall and three feet across, and they weigh between 1,800 and 2,000 pounds, Graves said.

The last event Graves held at the end of February 2017 had six full sacks that weighed in at over 11,000 pounds.

“This is pretty good for a rainy February day,” Graves said.

The contractors inspect each container as they pick them up and before they grind them.

“If they don’t feel that it has been either triple or pressure rinsed, then they won’t take it,” Perkins said.

After the containers are ground,

Photo Credit: Green Planet Plastics

•

Bill Graves, founder of Green Plant Plastics. they are run through a HDPE plastic wash line, to remove any adhesive, paper or aluminum foil that might still be on the container, Perkins said.

Usage of Recycled Material The flakes collected by ACRC can only be used in ACRC approved end uses. “We have to approve any end use,” Perkins said, and none of Continued on Page 26

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Continued from Page 25 the material is exported.

“What it boils down to is, to get approved it has to be something that is handled by human beings a minimal number of times such as drain tile,” Perkins said.

There are eight end use products currently approved, but in Perkins’ 10 years as executive director, all the material has gone into Ag drain tile (black corrugated pipe) used to drain agriculture fields.

“Manufacturers of drain tile really love the material, and they take everything that our contractors produce,” Perkins said.

“We are always looking for other end uses, but we have been fortunate that it’s been a very good market in the drain tile,” Perkins said.

Recycling Ag Containers on the Rise California is the number one state for recycling Ag containers.

“More pounds of containers get recycled in California than any other

state every year,” Perkins said.

In California, a lot of the collection is done through the county agriculture office. They have sites where people can bring their containers for recycling, and there are some other states that have similar programs, Perkins said.

ACRC has seen growth in the past 25 years with more and more recycling of Ag containers.

In 2016, 11.1 million pounds of pesticide containers were recycled, up from 10.4 million the previous year—about a 6.7 percent increase, Perkins said.

“In the 10 years I’ve been here, I’d say it’s probably averaged about a five percent increase per year in how much has been recycled,” Perkins said.

Over ACRCs 25 years in operation, they have recycled 175 million pounds of Ag containers.

“If that all went into four inch drain tile, that would be 100,000

miles of corrugated pipe,” Perkins said.

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West Coast Nut

April 2017

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BEST PRACTICES

For six years, Ralf Sauter has planted supplemental mustard forage prior to almond bloom on about 30 acres of almonds at Okuye Farm near Livingston.

California Almond Sustainability Program workshops gave growers a firsthand look at forage plantings in Woodland, Livingston and Fresno. Project Apis m. (PAm), discussed bee-friendly seed designed specifically for almonds.

Sustainability Workshops Showcased Cover Crops for Almond Orchards Almond Board of California Contributing Writer

E

ach year as honey bee hives come in to pollinate 120 acres of almonds at Okuye Farm near Livingston, the bees are greeted by a standing bloom of mustard flowers that help fortify and sustain them prior to almond bloom.

Ralf Sauter, who manages the fourth-generation family farm, has for the last six years been planting supplemental mustard forage prior to almond bloom on about 30 acres of sprinkler-irrigated ground to help give pollinators a healthy start.

Sauter gave growers a firsthand look at his forage plantings during a California Almond Sustainability1 Program (CASP) workshop in January that featured bee-friendly cover crops. The workshop at Okuye Farm was one of three throughout the state presented by Almond Board of California (ABC).

Studies show that planting forage for honey bees leads to better nutrition, and healthy honey bees provide better pollination, according to a newly developed ABC resource on bee forage, “Forage

Your Way to Better Honey Bee Health.”

Honey Bees, Beneficials and Hedgerows Row plantings aren’t the only option for planting forage; growers can also choose to plant forage along orchard margins or in open fields nearby. Hedgerows, with their long bloom periods, are also an option to provide forage for bees, as well as harborage for beneficial insects and benefits to the soil.

Sauter works with Project Apis m.

(PAm), which provides resources to Continued on Page 32

Sustainable almond farming utilizes production practices that are economically viable and are based upon scientific research, common sense and a respect for the environment, neighbors and employees. The result is a plentiful, nutritious, safe food product.

1

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West Coast Nut

April 2017

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Continued from Page 30 growers, including bee-friendly forage seed designed specifically for almonds, along with technical assistance for planting and managing bee forage resources in and around almond orchards.

The organization has identified several low-moisture native seed mixes, including a specially blended mustard mix for fall and winter bloom and clover mix and lana vetch for spring bloom, as well as resources including seed suppliers and planting systems specific to bee habitat in almonds.

Planting Bee Forage Inexpensive Sauter said his plan for managing fall forage plantings is relatively simple and requires no additional expense and very little management. He broadcasts the mustard seed mix in the fall, and relies on irrigation from his regular post-harvest solid set sprinklers to germinate the crop. Growers on micro-irrigation rely on natural rainfall in the fall to germinate the seeds.

“I usually plant mustard seed the day after I harvest,” Sauter said. “At that time, the ground is free of weeds and I have fully exposed soil. That gives it a head start over competitive weeds.”

With his sandy-loam soils, Sauter said the irrigation naturally incorporates the seed enough that he has first bloom by mid-October, and plants are in full bloom by the time his beekeeper brings in the hives.

He finds the mustard plants out-compete winter grasses, and also help build organic matter in the soil.

“It’s hard to pinpoint what makes a difference, but I am pretty convinced the increased organic matter from the grasses helps with water infiltration,” remarks Sauter. “I have had problems with infiltration, and since I started doing this, I have noticed a difference. Despite all the rain, I am not seeing any puddles out there this year.”

Forage Publication The Almond Board has recently expanded its Honey Bee Best Management Practices to include information on planting blooming pastures. The new publication provides guidance on what orchard situations are best suited for plantings, water requirements, competition with Page 32

West Coast Nut

April 2017

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almond blooms and more. Additional information on resources for planting bee forage in almonds can be found on the PAm website at ProjectApism.org, or at the Almond Board website at Almonds. com/Pollination.

During the California Almond Sustainability Program workshops, growers reviewed the newly revised online CASP system, including the Irrigation Calculator and Nitrogen Calculator. In order to access the Nitrogen Calculator, Irrigation Calculator and Mapping Tool, visit

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INDUSTRY NEWS

What’s on Tap for 2017?

A Look at Regulatory and Legislative Issues Facing the Tree Nut Industry Roger Isom President/CEO, WAPA

W

hile the rest of the country will apparently get to enjoy some relief from an increasing regulatory front, the same cannot be said for California.

Despite the obvious changes at the federal level, the election furthered the movement to the left in California, with the Democrats now controlling both the Assembly and Senate, as well as all statewide offices.

This does not bode well for business in California. There may be one bright spot; however, as the state’s pre-occupied with President Trump and his actions, it is appearing to have an impact on the amount of bills that were introduced this year. On

another front, there were over 60 bills introduced dealing with cannabis, or marijuana, to try and deal with the fallout from the passage of Proposition 64 this past election. It too, appears to have helped take the legislature’s mind off of more regulations to some degree. And while the state is facing critical infrastructure issues related to water storage in terms of lack of water storage and dam spillway problems, the legislature is focusing on such issues as naming the state dinosaur. Yes, legislation (AB 1540) was introduced to name Augustynolophus Morrisi as the official state dinosaur. Hearings will be held and state

money, sorry, your money will be spent to make this official. Enough said.

Now let’s take a meaningful look at the agenda for the year ahead…

Legislation On issues that truly do matter, one at the top of the list is transportation funding.

SB 1, is a bill which increases a number of transportation-related taxes and fees as follows: •

Gasoline excise tax: $0.12/gallon (3 year phase-in: 6 cents/year 1, 3 cents/ year 2, 3 cents/year 3) Continued on Page 36

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West Coast Nut

April 2017

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Continued from Page 34 • • • • •

Price-based excise tax: $0.075/gallon Diesel excise tax: $0.20/gallon Diesel sales tax: 4 percent/gallon Vehicle Registration Fee (VRF) increase: $38 per vehicle annually VRF increase: an additional $100 for zero-emission vehicles, as defined

A similar bill (AB 1) is in the Assembly.

Both bills hope to create an additional $5.1 billion annually to fix roads and infrastruc-

ture related to transportation.

On the labor front there is legislation to follow up on last year’s ag overtime legislation. AB 5 (Gonzalez) would create the Opportunity to Work Act, and would require an employer with 10 or more employees to offer additional hours of work to an existing nonexempt employee before hiring an additional employee. This is an attempt to stop those operations that would change shift to having employees

only work 8 hour shifts by hiring additional employees.

As the state continues its work on the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), SB 252 (Dodd) would require an applicant for a new well permit in a city or county overlying a critically overdrafted basin to comply with certain requirements as part of an application for a well permit. The bill would require a city or county overlying a critically overdrafted basin to make information about the application for a well permit publicly available, and, require a public notice and comment period before issuing any new well permit.

The bill would prohibit a new water well from being developed in a critically overdrafted basin except in compliance with these provisions and with specified exceptions.

Meanwhile, the legislature will continue to push its climate change agenda, including a bill that will have a devastating impact on electricity costs. SB 584 (De Leon) would move up the date for the state’s investor owned utilities to purchase 50 percent of their energy from renewable sources (solar, wind, geothermal) by 2025. This is up from the current date of 2030. Then the legislation would require 100 percent of the energy purchased to be renewable by 2045!

In response to the Trump Administration’s proposed rollback of damaging federal environmental laws, the California legislature introduced SB 49, which if passed: •

•

•

Page 36

West Coast Nut

April 2017

Makes current federal clean air, climate, clean water, worker safety, and endangered species standards enforceable under state law, even if the federal government rolls back and weakens those standards.

Directs state environmental, public health, and worker safety agencies to take all actions within their authorities to ensure standards in effect and being enforced today continue to remain in effect.

Federal laws in these areas set “baselines”, but allow states to adopt more stringent standards. This bill simply ensures CA does not backslide as a result of rollbacks by the new regime in Washington DC.

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16 Years in Walnuts | 30 Years of Sorting in the Field Regulations On the regulatory front, it too will be an active year again, with CalOSHA, DPR, and ARB leading the way.

Due to the passage of SB1167, CalOSHA is required to adopt a heat illness and injury prevention standard applicable to workers working in indoor places of employment by January 1, 2019. The standard shall minimize heat-related illness and injury among workers working in indoor places of employment. The standard shall be based on environmental temperatures, work activity levels, and other factors. CalOSHA has begun work on the standard and held a meeting on February 28th in Oakland to discuss the topic.

Pesticides Near Schools CDPR proposed the notion of a mandatory ¼ mile buffer zone for fumigants, which included a mandatory notification of all pesticide application within ¼ mile of schools. Meanwhile, activists are applying heavy pressure on CDPR to adopt a one mile buffer zone instead. It is expected

that a revised draft will be released later this year.

Sustainable Freight Strategy This plan by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) addresses air pollution emissions in the goods movement area, including looking at mandating electric forklifts, electric refrigeration units on trucks (TRUs), mandated declining emissions at freight hubs such as warehouses, and advancing zero emission technologies in trucks, ocean going vessels, locomotives, buses and airport shuttles.

Climate Action Plan The Climate Action Scoping Plan Update establishes a proposed framework of action for California to meet the most aggressive climate target in North America: a 40 percent reduction in greenhouse gases by 2030 compared to 1990 levels.

This plan attempts to adopt policies and rules that will allow the state to achieve this very ambitious goal. While no other state or country has any type of similar

mandate, this plan is designed to continue to shift the California economy away from dependence on fossil fuels to a “zero emission” community, regardless of cost or impact to the businesses that are forced to try and comply with these mandates.

Potential measures include an increased Renewable Portfolio Standard for electric utilities (renewable energy), conversion of mobile sources to zero emission technology, measures to reduce Short Lived Climate Pollutants including methane, hydrofluorocarbons, and black carbon, and renewing the Cap and Trade Program through a declining cap.

This is only a look at state regulatory and legislative issues. There will be matters on the federal front, such as FSMA and water legislation implementation, which will be the focus of a future article.

Comments about this article? We want to hear from you. Feel free to email us at article@jcsmarketinginc.com

April 2017

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Page 37

Photo Credit: Cecilia Parsons

BEST PRACTICES

New Pistachio Orchards From Training to Fertilization Cecilia Parsons Contributing Writer

T

he purpose of training young pistachio trees is not primarily for production. The desired effect of pruning, University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) farm advisor emeritus Bob Beede said, is to make trees that are efficient production units that fit into the space allotted in the orchard.

Pistachio trees, Beede told growers and farm managers attending the annual Pistachio Day event, are strongly apically dominant, meaning they do not develop limb girth rapidly enough to maintain their structural branches in an upright position. Sufficient girth and upright growth are necessary to effectively transfer shaker energy to nut clusters during harvest.

Pruning to achieve structural integrity also allows for more efficient weed control and spray application in an orchard.

Pistachio trees are moderately vigorous and have two flushes of growth per year, in the spring and in the summer.

Growth is largely from terminal buds.

Spurs, or pre-formed growth occurs laterally on one-year old wood. Beede stressed the importance of creating

compressed structural branches during the training years. Slow growth in limb diameter, he said, has the potential to leave trees with flat structural limbs and excessively open tree centers.

“This is one aspect you really have to watch for,” Beede warned. Pruning crews, especially those who have worked in tree fruit, have a tendency to open up the centers, he explained.

"As pistachio trees transition from the juvenile stage to a crop bearing mode, they should be upright with a 'messy' appearing interior," Beede said.

Most pistachio trees are trained in the modified base system. Beede attributed this system to Bob Peterson who devised the pruning system to divide the tree canopy into zones. Once the primary branches are 15-16 inches long, they can be pinched back, dividing the shoots into two laterals. Continuous division like this results in a uniform canopy that allows for ample light on all sides, Beede said.

This pruning system is easily taught to pruning crews and growers need to monitor growth to determine when the next pinch should occur. Beede

said it might take six passes through the orchard during the first year after first dormancy to achieve optimum tree shape. Growers who are anxious to have a larger tree sooner pinch back at a longer length.

“If they are dealing with higher salt conditions or do not want to bear the cost of multiple passes, that may be better option for them,” Beede said.

The cost of tree training also has growers default to longer pruning systems.

In early years of the pistachio industry in California, Beede said it was critical not to waste growth because of the slower growth of the rootstock used at the time. The newer cultivars have more “horsepower” Beede explained.

Planning and preparation of an orchard site prior to planting is important regardless of the types of trees chosen.

Growers have choices among older style trees grown in pots, the container clonal trees or pre-budded trees.

Goals for the first year, with rootstock, include developing a vigorous plant for budding in late July to mid August. Achieving a 48-inch or greater Continued on Page 40

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West Coast Nut

April 2017

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Continued from Page 38 scion growth is possible in well-managed systems as trees can grow one inch per day. Beede advised not heading in the fall to reduce trunk taper and to build carbohydrates for fall. Fall bud missed trees, he said, but do not force the bud.

Winter prune scion at 42-44 inches, but not lower than 38 inches to leave room for catch frames.

Beede strongly advised putting the irrigation system in place prior to planting. There should be a six- inch slack in the lines and they should be laid out for a day to relax.

“If you pull them tight, the emitters can walk three feet and not be where you

want them,” he warned.

On planting day, he said do not get too far ahead with the trees as they can heat up in the sun and become stressed.

Instruct the planting crews to not use the tree trunk as the handle. The correct way to handle the trees is to pick them up by the top of the sleeve and place a hand underneath to prevent root tearing.

Trees should be planted at the soil line and the tubes stapled to the stake with dirt covering the base to prevent desiccation. To get the best start for the young trees, the field should be as weed free as possible and the emitters located at the base. Smaller sprinkler patterns

are advised.

The trees should be monitored for moisture, Beede said. If the root balls are allowed to dry out, water may not penetrate to the roots even though the surface of the soil is wet.

Keep the maroon leaves coming before budding and irrigate one week prior and two to three days after. Avoid a wet field during budding. Timing of budding depends on stock vigor, planting date, availability of budwood- and a budder.

Beede said that stock planted January through early April should be 3/8 inch in diameter by mid July to mid August.

Larger trees do take a bud better and

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push it harder than marginal size trees.

He warned that budding after the end of August could expose a shoot to a November frost. Pistachios can be budded that late, he said, but not pushed. Allow it to remain dormant then cut back the stock in January and train the bud up the stake in the spring.

Trees should be budded at 24-30 inches to get the bud union above the location of where the shaker head attaches to the tree for harvest. Having the union in the clamping zone, Beede said, greatly increases the risk of tearing the bark on the trunk. Pistachio trees are not as susceptible to trunk wound canker diseases as almond trees, but they heal very slowly and excess damage can weaken the tree and leave it less productive.

Once buds begin to grow-about 14 days after budding, Beede said 50 percent of growth could be cut of. All terminals competing with the scion should also be removed.

The first tie on the scion should keep it straight, but if not, Beede said to wait until spring when juice is flowing in the tree to put it in a straighter position.

Beede’s advice for second growing season: “It is most important to remove small quantities to get division and make a productive orchard.”

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

Develop two to four primary and secondary scaffolds.

Tip primaries and secondaries when they reach 12-14 inches to force lateral branching.

The last tipping date depends on plant vigor and growing location.

It may be as late as mid August in Kern County or mid July in eastern Tulare and Fresno counties.

Pinch leaf off petiole at the second or third node position to encourage more than one lateral to grow.

Cross tie as needed to improve upright tree shape.

Prevent nutritional deficiencies.

Winter prune secondaries to 12-14 inches and tertiaries at 22 inches.

Comments about this article? We want to hear from you. Feel free to email us at article@jcsmarketinginc.com

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BEST PRACTICES

Following the Coverage Pest Management and Spray Efficacy Almond Board of California Contributing Writer

S

pray efficacy in orchards has been the subject of in-depth research on effective application approaches for many years, with the focus on improvements in spray coverage. Good coverage results in improved efficacy as well as reduced spray drift and less wasted material on the ground. Fine-tuning sprayers for the conditions of each application can therefore help improve spray coverage while also reducing off-site movement of pest control materials.

During last December’s Almond Conference in Sacramento, almond growers heard about research regarding fine-tuning spray efficacy from industry leaders and specialists.

“Our studies are directed at controlling navel orangeworm and improving the performance of the products that we have,” said Brad Higbee, director of Entomology Research, Wonderful Orchards.

“We don’t have a lot of options when it comes to controlling navel orangeworm;

the diamides and insect growth regulators are the main groups we have, along with mating disruption.” Higbee noted, “What we need to keep in mind is that the place the residues need to be to have the most effect is on the hull—the nut itself,” adding that the problem in targeting residues on almond hulls and nuts is that canopy density and the dynamics of hull splitting make this difficult.

Testing Variables Higbee’s presentation highlighted research on quantifying spray coverage at various elevations, as well as positioning of the spray, along with machinery comparisons to improve performance of residual insecticides in controlling navel orangeworm.

Higbee added that a typical ground sprayer covers the bottom half of the tree efficiently, while the top half receives relatively weak coverage. Tower sprayers can improve this uniformity of spraying

trees, especially for the upper parts of the canopy, but don’t work as well for the lower parts of the tree canopy in terms of coverage.

“The standard ground application at two miles per hour, delivering about 200 gallons per acre with an Air-O-Fan [AOF], remains among the best in coverage; however, above 12 feet within the tree, there is a severe drop-off in coverage and residue deposition,” he said. “Power take-off–[PTO] based machines are as effective as engine drive sprayers, and we found the Progressive Ag tower to be a top performer with spraying depth.”

Second Spray A qualitative leap was made with the addition of a second spraying, Higbee said, bringing vast improvements in coverage. “Residues sit for 30 days and when we analyzed these plots, they did not indicate much loss in activity. With a second spraying, we doubled the residue on the Continued on Page 44

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West Coast Nut

April 2017

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Continued from Page 42 trees and saw a 55-60 percent reduction in damage,” Higbee said.

Joel Siegel of USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) has done extensive research on biological targets pertaining to spraying assessment, examining the kill of eggs over the height of trees, with both aerial and ground applications. “The challenge remains that ground application decreases as it reaches greater heights, and aerial application has the greatest coverage at the top of the tree, with decreasing coverage as you go down,” he told the Almond Conference audience.

Air as a Factor Another key factor examined during the presentation was on the speed and quality of air associated with spraying.

Matt Strmiska of Adaptiv shared the value of and components surrounding air with spraying.

“It is important to think about where the air is targeting and the rate it hits the tree, especially with controlled nozzle positioning,” he said, and suggested using flagging tape attached to nozzles to see the direction of air flow on sprayers.

In a joint trial evaluated by United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agriculture Research Service (ARS), using an engine-drive sprayer with 4.5 ounces per acre of Altacor, at two mph, resulted in a 75 percent kill rate in comparison to a PTO at 65 percent.

“If air cannot reach your target, know that both water and your insecticide will not either,” Strmiska said. “Adjusting RPMs can make a difference. These variables are important to investigate and test.”

With regard to fine-tuning spray coverage, consider the impact and potential results with slight variations in spray elevation, speed, target and locations of application. These adjustments can provide significant coverage improvements for better outcomes: more effective treatments and less waste of material.

For more detail and data, view the presentation “Pest Management: Fine Tuning Spray Efficacy” at Almonds.com/ ConferencePresentations.

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April 2017

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The energy requirements to maximize nut cell division leading to larger nut size is significant and requires large, healthy, and efficient functioning leaves. Zinc is essential for maximum leaf development, vascular function and root growth. Magnesium is critical for chlorophyll. Manganese is required for proper root development and nitrogen utilization. Agro-K’s Zinc +4 D.L. provides these key nutrients helping maximize leaf surface area, chlorophyll and root growth.

Yield results of two consecutive years of replicated data, on the same trees, are shown in the charts. The increases on the treated plots equaled 486 and 514 lbs./ac in 2015 and 2016 respectively. These nut meat yields were statistically different from the grower standard practice at the 5% level (P=.05) and 1% level (P=.01) respectively.

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Almonds naturally tend towards alternate bearing. Meeting peak nutrient demand at all stages of crop growth and tree development is critical to maximizing tree growth and health in the current year and to set the stage for next year’s production. Achieving consistent above average yields year over year requires a thorough understanding of plant physiology and nutrient demands, the right tools to address the nutrient requirements on a timely basis, and the commitment to stick to a long-term science driven approach to nutrient management.

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INDUSTRY NEWS

AgSafe Nut Safety School AgSafe Contributing Writer

S

tarting April 25th AgSafe will be hosting the third in the three part Nut Safety School. Created in partnership with Western Agriculture Processors Association, this Safety Series provides practical knowledge through hands on demonstrations and interactive seminars. The goal of this series is to be a resource for agricultural operations of all sizes, with an emphasis on growers who may not have a dedicated safety manager as these courses will provide practical knowledge necessary to work safely, effectively, and efficiently.

The upcoming class, which is being offered in English and Spanish will cover year around operation safety for nut orchards such as pesticide and irrigation safety, proper equipment use and

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West Coast Nut

April 2017

pre inspections, as well as night work and lone worker safety. We will identify hazards associated with equipment and practices during year around operations in orchard nut production.

AgSafe is a non-profit organization based in Modesto, California, providing training, resources, and outreach in the areas of worker safety, food safety, and human resources across the food and farming industries. Through classroom and webinar instruction as well as hands-on training, AgSafe has educated nearly 80,000 employers, supervisors, and workers in health and safety hazards impacting their respective industries.

Our priority is to ensure the food and farming industry has access to current, practical information that will aid in

protecting workers while strengthening their business. Our success comes from a boots on the ground approach to addressing how to keep workers safe and why it’s critical to do so. AgSafe is here to help, if you have any questions please call our office at 209-526-4400 To register for any of the following classes visit our website www.agsafe.org, call 209-526-4400, or email us at safeinfo@agsafe.org.

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April 27 Fresno

April 26 Delano

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Photo Credit: Kevin Ma and Pakpong Chirarattananon, Harvard Microbotics Lab

INDUSTRY NEWS

RoboBees The Future of Pollination?

Sabrina Hill Contributing Writer

With Editorial Contributions from The Wyss Institute

I

t sounds like something straight out of a Sci-Fi film: Robotic bees that can do everything from pollinating plants to sophisticated environmental monitoring to rescue missions.

However, these RoboBees are no longer science fiction, thanks to years of work by the researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University.

According to the institute, a single RoboBee weighs less than one-tenth of a gram, is about half the size of a paper clip, and flies using artificial muscles compromised of materials that contract when a voltage is applied.

The design all started with the idea to develop tiny vehicles that were capable of self-directed flight but could also work in a group. Bees were the perfect Page 48

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April 2017

answer. According to institute representatives, researchers broke development and design into three aspects: body, brain, and colony.

“Body development consists of constructing robotic insects able to fly on their own with the help of a compact and seamlessly integrated power source; brain development is concerned with “smart” sensors and control electronics that mimic the eyes and antennae of a bee, and can sense and respond dynamically to the environment; the Colony’s focus is about coordinating the behavior of many independent robots so they act as an effective unit,” the institute explains in an article on its website.

Work on the project started as far back as the early 2000s. Years later, in

summer of 2012, the bees first took flight.

“I was so excited, I couldn’t sleep,” said then- graduate student Pakpong Chirarattananon in a statement from the institute.

The demonstration of the first controlled flight of an insect-sized robot is the culmination of more than a decade’s work, led by researchers at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard.

“This is what I have been trying to do for literally the last 12 years,” said Robert J. Wood, Charles River Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences at SEAS, Wyss Core Faculty Member, and principal investigator of

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the National Science Foundation-supported RoboBee project. “It’s really only because of this lab’s recent breakthroughs in manufacturing, materials, and design that we have even been able to try this. And it just worked, spectacularly well.”

Inspired by the biology of a fly, with submillimeter-scale anatomy and two wafer-thin wings that flap almost invisibly, 120 times per second, the tiny device not only represents the absolute cutting edge of micromanufacturing and control systems; it is an aspiration that has impelled innovation in these fields by dozens of researchers across Harvard for years.

“We had to develop solutions from scratch, for everything,” explains Wood. “We would get one component working, but when we moved onto the next, five new problems would arise. It was a moving target.”

Flight muscles, for instance, don’t come prepackaged for robots the size of a fingertip.

“Large robots can run on electromagnetic motors, but at this small scale you have to come up with an alternative, and there wasn’t one,” says co-lead author Kevin Y. Ma, a graduate student at SEAS. The tiny robot flaps its wings with piezoelectric actuators—strips of ceramic that expand and contract when an electric field is applied. Thin hinges of plastic embedded within the carbon fiber body frame serve as joints, and a delicately balanced control system commands the rotational motions in the flapping-wing robot, with each wing controlled independently in real-time.

“Harnessing biology to solve real-world problems is what the Wyss Institute is all about,” says Wyss Founding Director Don Ingber.

“This work is a beautiful example of how bringing together scientists and engineers from multiple disciplines to carry out research inspired by nature and focused on translation can lead to major technical breakthroughs.”

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Leaffooted Bug Aggregations Began Dispersing in Early March

Loose-knit aggregation of leaffooted bug on palm.

Kris Tollerup UCCE Area-wide IPM Advisor

W

inter temperatures this 2016/2017 season were not cold enough to have any negative impact on overwintering populations of leaffooted bug. Since mid-October we have monitored large populations on a ½ mile-long pomegranate hedgerow in the Parlier area.

Aggregations averaged about 206 individuals on October 19 with just over 50 percent of the individuals at the 4 th and 5 th instar stage. Temperatures remained mild through November and by the month’s end aggregation size averaged ~30 individuals with 16 and 66 percent of the bugs at the 5 th and adult stage respectively. The decrease in aggregation size likely occurred due to new adults leaving and not adult or nymph mortality. The temperature did reach a low of 27° F during the early morning hours of December 20 yet no adult or nymph mortality occurred.

Our data suggest that female leaffooted bug began laying eggs on the pomegranate during early September and an entire generation was produced by the end of November. As the temperatures cooled and the pomegranates began losing leaves and the fruit rotted and dropped, essentially all the adults left for more sheltered overwintering sites. In this case, several thousand of those individuals moved to a nearby palm tree and large Cyprus trees.

We have closely monitored the aggregations on the Cyprus trees since mid-February and until early-March the aggregations have remained compact consisting of roughly five to 40 adults. Temperatures have now warmed and we are seeing smaller aggregations, greater flight activity, and individuals on nearby citrus trees. I interpret this increase in leaffooted bug activity as an Continued on Page 52

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April 2017

Photo Credit: Katrina Steinhauer

BEST PRACTICES

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Continued from Page 50 indicator that the bugs have begun to disperse and will soon move into almond in search of food.

In almond, weekly monitoring should begin in March and continue through June. Monitoring in pistachio, should begin in late April to early May, and continue through July. In the past, I have recommended positioning yourself so that the sun is behind you and using a long pole to knock branches in the upper tree canopy. This causes leaffooted bugs to fly such that they can be seen or heard. However, a simpler method is to forego the long pole and visually search the sunny side of tree canopies for about 15-20 seconds each.

Importantly, at this early stage in the season, focus on orchard edges near pomegranate and common overwintering sites such as citrus, Cyprus, or palm trees.

Note that visual monitoring should include inspection for gummosis on almond hulls as the season progresses. Be aware, however, that damage is/has already occurred if gummosis is found. When inspecting nuts with gummosis, cross-section the area to determine the presence of a pin-sized discolored wound caused by the penetration of the insect’s mouthparts. This is important since gummosis also occurs due to physiological damage. Leaffooted bug feeding induced gummosis appears clear to light amber color while bacterial spot induces dark amber to orange gummosis. Additionally,

Adult leaffooted bug on almond.

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inspect fruit on the ground for the presence of gummosis and a stinging wound to determine if leaffooted bug caused the damage.

Unfortunately, no treatment threshold exists. If damage or leaffooted bug are found, consult the University of California Pest Management Guidelines for management options.

Insecticide use should occur only if monitoring indicates the presence of leaffooted bug and/or its feeding damage. Apply insecticides only after considering the potential risks of the compound to beneficial organisms, including bees and biological control agents, and to air or water quality. For more information on these topics please consult the UC IPM Pest Management Guidelines for Almonds at http://ucipm.ucanr.edu > Agricultural pests > Almond Comments about this article? We want to hear from you.

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Photo Credit: Kris Tollerup

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Having trouble finding

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Food Safety Training for Walnut Growers • Captures both male and female CM (vs) males only with CM pheromone alone.

California Walnut Board Contributing Writer

T

he Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) has finally been published for walnut growers. For several years the California Walnut Board (CWB) has notified growers through industry news letters (like this one) and at the state wide grower meetings about the new rules coming from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Each grower will need to have at least one person attend an eight hour class that details all the requirements to comply with the Produce Rule.

Last year we put aside budget money to help our growers learn the new rules and we’ve worked with the DFA/ Safe Food Alliance to sponsor grower training which will occur starting in May 2017. The walnut board will pay for this training for the first 275 growers who attend the training (at $285 value). We want to limit it to one person per farming operation to maximize the number of farms getting this important training. Three locations have been identified and dates have been set for this eight hour training.

It starts May 1st in Chico, May 8th in

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April 2017

Stockton and June 13th in Tulare. At press time the exact training locations are still not identified but when we know, the information will be posted on our website walnuts.org and also on the DFA website.

The time line for required training depends on the annual gross sales of each operation. Gross sales less than $250,000 need to attend training and comply with the rules by Fall 2019.

Sales between $250,000 and $500,000

by Fall 2018 and above $500,000, by Fall 2017. Growers attending this training will only have to do so once; there’s no annual training requirement for the Produce Rule from FDA. If these training dates don’t work for your schedule, DFA and the California Farm Bureau have teamed up and will offer 10 additional grower training sessions. If there are remaining funds in the budget, California Walnut Commission (CWC) will pay for walnut growers to attend this training. Dates and locations have not been determined yet but CWC will place the locations and time on the website when they’re finalized.

• Increases male CM capture by double or greater than the male/female lure (CM-DA COMBO) alone.

• Increases female capture up to 6 X more than CM-DA COMBO alone.

• Best product to use in orchards treated with DA-based mating disruption products like CIDETRAK CMDA COMBO MESO or Puzzle Piece.

• Best lure to use in conventional and mating disrupted orchards with low density CM abundance.

+

Contact your local supplier and order now.

Visit our website: www.trece.com or call 1-866-785-1313. ®

INCORPORATED INSECT PHEROMONE & KAIROMONE SYSTEMS

Your Edge – And Ours – Is Knowledge.

© 2017, Trécé Inc., Adair, OK USA • TRECE, PHEROCON and CIDETRAK are registered trademarks of Trece, Inc., Adair, OK USA, TRE-1044

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• Highly concentrated, guaranteed species analysis • Naturally occuring root colonizing organisms, not genetically modified • Stimulates root and plant growth • Enhances nutrient cycling and a reduction in nitrogen needs • Reduces leaching of nutrients 34284-B Road 196 Woodlake, CA 93286

Tel: 559.564.1236 Fax: 559.564.1238

info@callnrg.com www.callnrg.com

Product Manufactured Resources Group April 2017by Natural www.wcngg.com

Page 43

Lunch Sponsor

Passport Sponsor

Pre-Harvest Meeting Hosted By:

WEST COAST NUT

Tote Bag Sponsor

Donut Sponsor

In Conjunction with UC Cooperative Extension Sponsors

CE Credits will be offered Free to attend Free tri-tip lunch

June 9, 2017

Free coffee and donuts in the morning

7:30am - 1:30pm

Fresno Fairgrounds Commerce Building 1121 S. Chance Ave Fresno, CA 93702

Network with vendors who offer products for the almond industry Win a $500 VISA Gift Card

Pre-Register to Attend

at wcngg.com and be eligible to win a John Deere Gun Safe at the show.

Exhibitor space available

Call us today at (559) 352-4456 or visit us online at www.wcngg.com/events to sign up as an exhibitor.