Trees & Vines

California’s avocado industry sent 350 million pounds of the fruit to packinghouses in 2024, and this year’s crop could reach 375 million pounds.
Photo/Rob McCarthy

Agricultural biologist Rochelle Romano checks traps in Vacaville for the glassy-winged sharpshooter, a vector for Pierce’s disease.
Photo/Sapana Pandey

Ag Alert file photo

The high-tech Smart Apply system individually controls air-blast sprayer nozzles to match material applications to canopy density, resulting in potentially reduced pesticide use.

Photo/Courtesy of John Deere

Katerina Axelsson, CEO and founder of San Luis Obispo-based Tastry, uses artificial intelligence software to guide winemakers in their craft. Through chemistry, machine learning and AI, the company tests wines and can identify compounds that are out of balance. Once identified by the lab, a winemaker can correct any imperfections during a second fermentation.

Photo/Courtesy of Tastry

Employees at Dutton Ranch in Sebastopol pull leaves away from fruit zones to expose winegrape berries to more sunlight in preparation for harvest in 2023. A new survey of more than 1,600 vineyard workers in Sonoma County found that the workforce has on average 14 years of agricultural work experience, including an average of nine years in the county and seven years with their current employer.

Photo/Fred Greaves

A gene-edited plantlet is regenerated through tissue culture by Verinomics, which has partnered with Burchell Nursery to create the self-fertile Nonpareil+ almond variety.

Orchard sanitation after harvest, including mummy removal, remains the best step nut growers can take to battle the Pacific flatheaded borer and carpophilus beetle.

Photo/Vicky Boyd

Pacific flatheaded borers typically bore into the trunks and branches of trees, but for the past two years, they have been found inside pear fruit in Lake County, leaving researchers baffled.

Photo/Clebson Gomes Gonçalves

The 2024 Almond Conference trade show floor.

Photo/Ching Lee

Mark Hoddle, University of California, Riverside, biological control specialist, checks a hanging Picusan trap for South American palm weevil at Sweetwater Reserve in San Diego County. Behind him is a dead date palm with dropped fronds, an impact of the pest.
Photo/Mike Lewis, University of California, Riverside

Winegrapes are harvested at R Vineyards in Lake County. The family-owned vineyard managed to fend off a 2015 wildfire by running its sprinkler system for 18 hours while the smoke persisted. Grower and winemaker Dave Rosenthal said the defensive strategy allowed him to wash off smoke and ash residue from the vines, lessening the chance of smoke tainting his grapes.

Photo/Monica Rosenthal

Eric Focht, a researcher from the University of California, Riverside, avocado breeding program, shows off the Luna UCR, which he helped develop. Released last year, the new avocado variety has some of the same desirable traits as Hass, the industry mainstay. Luna UCR also appears to be more efficient in producing fruit per cubic meter of canopy than its predecessor, UC researchers say. 
Photo/Vicky Boyd

University of California, Davis, graduate student Ivan Bermudez collects harvested pistachios as part of a study comparing approaches to managing salinity and boron in drip-irrigated pistachio orchards.

Photo/Louise Ferguson

Agricultural byproducts such as almond hulls, shown here at a huller and sheller in the San Joaquin Valley, have diverse uses off the farm. The Building the Circular Bioeconomy in the North San Joaquin Valley group, or BioCircular Valley, seeks to build a regional bioeconomy by converting agricultural biomass into feedstocks, fuel, clothing and bioplastics.

Photo/Almond Board of California

Fourth-generation winegrape grower Steve Perrin walks between rows of zinfandel vines in his Lodi vineyard. An unprecedented downturn in the wine market has caused grape prices to plummet and left growers struggling to find buyers. Many growers could see their entire crop rot on the vines.

Photo/Caleb Hampton

Paul Keck, director of farming operations for Hadley Date Gardens, inspects a cluster of Deglet Noor dates at his family’s farm in the Coachella Valley. California growers and shippers say this year’s crop looks promising after Tropical Storm Hilary destroyed much of last year’s production.

Photo/Albert Keck

UC Yolo Gold prunes were patented by the University of California last year. The California Prune Board and UC researchers are encouraging growers to plant and evaluate new prune varieties to help guide the future of prune production in the state. The prune board is offering subsidies to growers to reduce their financial risk.

Photo/Robyn Rominger

Merced County farmer Scott Hunter of Hunter Farms samples Monterey almonds prior to harvest last week. He and other farmers say high heat could mean the state’s 2024 crop may be lighter than the 2.8 billion-pound estimate released in July by the U.S Department of Agriculture.

Photo/Christine Souza

Justina Ramos Aguilar sorts Bosc pears last week at Stillwater Orchards’ packinghouse in Courtland. California pear growers are harvesting a lighter crop this year and selling more of it on the fresh market because of weakened demand for canned pears.

Photo/Caleb Hampton

Vine mealybug are key vectors in spreading the grape leafroll virus in vineyards.

Photo/Courtesy of Kent Daane

California fresh figs are packed for shipping at Catania Worldwide in Madera. While most of the state crop ends up as dried fruit, demand for fresh figs has increased. The San Joaquin Valley remains the top fig-growing region, with Madera, Merced and Fresno counties leading in production.

Photo/Christian Parley