Trees & Vines

A crew near Lodi separates wood from wires and metal stakes after taking out a diseased vineyard. Some growers say burning discarded vines is the best option to prevent the spread of crop pests.

Photo/Vicky Boyd

An adult Asian citrus psyllid, left, and yellow nymphs feed on a citrus tree’s leaves and stems, leaving behind a white, waxy substance. Psyllids carrying the huanglongbing bacteria can kill citrus trees. 

Photo/Michael E. Rogers

Wine grapes are exposed to targeted smoke as part of smoke-taint study at Oregon State University.

Photo/SeanNealon/Oregon State University

University of California researchers are conducting trials at this young walnut orchard in San Joaquin County to study alternative soil-treatment methods to control nematodes and protect root growth.

Photo/Vicky Boyd<

Prunes are harvested from an orchard in Winters. After years of removing acreage, California prune growers have found their market sweet spot. With prunes earning a higher price in recent years, they now fear there will be a rush to plant more fruit, upsetting the supply-demand balance.

Photo/Ching Lee

Photo / Ag Alert file

Photo/Mary Lu Arpaia, University of California Cooperative Extension

Sarb Johl of Johl Family Farms in Yuba County says growers need to manage their expectations in a smaller canning-peach sector.

Photo/Robyn Rominger

At Scully Packing Co. in Lake County, employees Leticia Arias, from left, Pilar Hernandez and Rigoberto Jimenez pack boxes of California Bartlett pears at the company’s facility in Finley. Packinghouse owner and pear grower Pat Scully said this season’s crop is sizing nicely.

Photo/Christine Souza

To protect walnut trees from the flatheaded borer, researchers say farmers should remove weakened, injured, dead or flagged branches to target mature larvae that overwinter in infected wood.

Photo/Vicky Boyd

Luis Guillermo Velasquez, front, and José Martínez pull leaves last week at a Dutton Ranch vineyard in Sonoma County. This time last year, North Coast vineyards were already harvesting winegrapes, but the cool spring has delayed fruit development and harvest.

Photo/Fred Greaves

Winegrapes grow in Anderson Valley in Mendocino County. Vineyard growers in Mendocino and Sonoma counties say proposed water-quality regulations are costly and duplicate efforts by growers who participate in sustainability certification programs.

Floodwaters inundated almond orchards in San Joaquin County in January, overwhelming farmers’ ability to pump out excess water. Many trees were later infected by a water mold, Phytophthora.

Photo/Vicky Boyd

Earlier this year, Hartnell College students Marcos Arteaga, left, and Napolean Navarro get hands-on experience through one of the school’s agricultural technology courses in Monterey County.

Photo/Hartnell College

Thomas Gradziel, a plant geneticist at the University of California, Davis, examines a Kader peach variety at an experimental orchard. He says the peach sector is breeding varieties that are firmer and more adaptable to machine harvesting and that are better equipped for challenges of climate change.

Photo/Christine Souza

A truck in a Tulare County citrus grove is tarped to prevent hitchhiking Asian citrus psyllids.

Photo/Courtesy Citrus Pest and Disease Prevention Program

Sprinklers irrigate a San Joaquin County almond orchard. A new mobile irrigation audit program helps growers evaluate groundwater pressure and irrigation system flow rates and overall efficiency.

Photo/Vicky Boyd

At Terra Bella Ranches in Santa Barbara County, workers place avocados in picking sacks. A persistent labor shortage has challenged California’s avocado sector, which relies on workers to hand-pick the fruit from trees that primarily grow on hillsides.

Photo/Courtesy Sheldon Bosio

At an experimental almond in Colusa County, University of California researchers are working with almond growers to manage orchard weeds to reduce costs of herbicide treatments. Research was presented at the Nickels Soil Laboratory annual field day in Arbuckle.

Photo/Robyn Rominger