Topics in Subtropics

The latest (2012) Department of Agriculture reports on county agricultural production can be found at http://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/California/Publications/AgComm/201212cactb00.

In a mandarin orchard today, I saw what appeared to be sun burn damage. The bark was missing on the top, south facing branches. It was old damage and was healing over along the edges. I mentioned it to the grower who told me it was roof rat damage.

The white sapote is a relative of citrus. However, it is too distant botanically for the fruit to resemble, be graft compatible, or hybridize with citrus.

With the proliferation of pests and disease that might appear in mulch used in orchards, it might appear that the practice will become more limited unless the material can be guaranteed to be safe.

A trial planted in Oxnard involved eight different pollinizer varieties at three different distances from 'Hass' tree rows. Yield data collected from 2002 2005 suggest that the presence of pollinizer varieties in close proximity enhance the total number of fruit harvested from Hass'.