SJC and Delta Field Crops

Since Fall 2020, I have been evaluating the effects of applying green waste compost on established alfalfa. The three-year project includes two trials one in the San Joaquin County Delta and the other in Yolo County and is a collaboration with Rachael Long (UCCE) and Radomir Schmidt (UC Davis).

UC Davis and UC Cooperative Extension will host the UC Dry Bean Field Day on Thursday, September 1, 2022 from 9:00am to 11:00am. The field day will begin at the Campbell Tract on the UC Davis campus, which is a different location from where it has been in recent years.

UC Cooperative Extension and UC Davis will host a Healthy Soils Program field meeting on compost. The meeting will take place on Thursday, July 28th from 10:00am to 11:30am. The meeting will take place off of S. Landi Road, on Roberts Island in the Delta.

I have been trapping armyworms in Delta rice since 2016, after the industry experienced an outbreak in 2015. Monitoring involves scouting for damage and deployment of pheromone bucket traps that catch the moths (Figure 1).

I have received a couple calls this year from growers and a PCA about root scarring in alfalfa fields. These observations were a bit of a head scratcher for all of us. At one of the fields, I noticed what looked to be a wireworm on the root, so that was throwing me off (Figure 1).