Trees & Vines

Cornerstone Certified Vineyard employees José Ventura Vieyra García, from left, Anelly Reyes Jiménez and José Cervantes, graduates of the Fundación de la Voz de los Viñedos leadership academy, prepare for winegrape harvest at their workplace near Santa Rosa.

Photo/Fred Greaves

Winegrape production in California is outpacing demand. With some 20,000 acres of new vineyards becoming productive, another 50,000 acres may need to be pulled to balance the market.

Photo/Fred Greaves

Winegrapes grow at Tablas Creek Vineyard in Paso Robles. In 2018, the vineyard was recognized as certified regenerative organic. The wine region celebrates its sustainable farming practices. 

Photo/Tablas Creek Vineyard

At a farmers market in Thousand Oaks, which is at the center of a quarantine for the Queensland fruit fly, produce that can host the invasive pest must be covered with netting to prevent potential spread.

Photo/Karen Wetzel Schott

San Joaquin County farmer Joe Cataldo, who grows winegrapes and cherries in Lodi, says a portion of his vineyard would be affected by a transmission line project proposed by Pacific Gas & Electric Co. Farmers are concerned the project could remove productive farmland and reduce property values.

Photo/Christine Souza

Farmer Chris Lange, left, and his son Derek hold harvested navel oranges from their orchard in Tulare County, California’s top growing region for the fruit.

Photo/Richard Green

Carbon monitoring technology by Agrology, gathers data on climate, smoke and irrigationat this vineyard in Sonoma County. The company’s other sensors measure carbon in the soil.

Photo/Courtesy of Agrology

Richard Loquaci of Madera Agricultural Services checks on vine-dried raisins in the Central Valley. The Loquaci family manages farming of Selma Pete grapes for the Madera County raisin snack company Life’s Grape.

Photo/Lori Eanes

A “mummy shake” takes place in Manteca to sanitize an orchard for the dormant season. Shaking the trees removes remaining almond mummies that can become a food source for overwintering pests.

Photo/Vicky Boyd

At the 2023 Almond Conference in Sacramento last week, attendees walk by the Almond Board of California’s custom-painted van promoting the tree nut at the trade show.

Photo/Ching Lee

At this San Joaquin County vineyard, an integrated management approach is used to limit the spread of the grapevine leafroll virus, first by controlling populations of the vine mealybug, the vector of the virus. Management efforts include scouting fields by foot, mapping infecting vines, testing samples and roguing, a technique of removing extra vines.

Photo/Courtesy LangeTwins Family Winery and Vineyards

A Pacific flatheaded borer larva is found inside a pear. The beetle pest is known to attack mainly wood but was discovered feeding on pear fruit in Lake County earlier this fall.

Photo / Clebson Gomes Goncalves

Daniel Hartwig

This palm tree in San Diego County is among more than 20,000 killed by invasive South American palm weevils.

Photo/University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources

Dane St. George, a graduate student in the Johnson Lab of Wildlife Habitat Ecology at California Polytechnic State University, Humboldt, installs a camera in an owl nest box above a Napa Valley vineyard.

Photo/Johnson Lab of Wildlife Habitat Ecology/California Polytechnic State University, Humboldt

pistachio file photo – Photo/Christine Souza

After testifying last week at a hearing held by the California Assembly Committee on Ports and Goods Movement, California Farm Bureau President Jamie Johansson, right, and Assembly Member Mike Gipson, D-Carson, toured the Port of Oakland.

Photo/Katie Little

California winegrape growers may have to remove 50,000 acres of vineyards to balance production, according to marketing association Allied Grape Growers. 

Gaia Daystar, warehouse associate with Spark food hub in Davis, readies locally grown pears for delivery to correctional facilities. Fresh produce is being sourced from farms across Northern California for inmate populations. Specialty crop block grants support the effort.

Photo/University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources

Asian citrus psyllid – Photo/Mike Lewis/University of California, Riverside

Ward Burroughs, who farms certified regenerative organic almonds with his wife Rosie and daughter Benina Montes, uses an off-ground twin shaker in an almond orchard. The family says the catch-and-shake method of harvesting saves on labor and replaces the use of sweepers.

Photo/Vicky Boyd