Fruits & Vegetables

Daniel Pacheco, owner-operator of Lucky Diamond Trucking in Sonoma County, delivers a 24-ton load of compost to Full Belly Farm in Yolo County. Compost suppliers worry a state rule phasing out diesel trucks could raise prices for the soil amendment and make it less affordable for small farms.

Photo/Caleb Hampton

Mendocino County farmer Krissy Scommegna, right, and her husband Gideon Burdick operate Boonville Barn Collective, which makes chili powders from Espelette, a pepper grown mostly in France.
Photo/Fred Greaves

Floodwaters inundate farm fields, in Monterey County in March.

Photo/California Department of Water Resources

Researchers are working to develop lettuce varieties that are resistant to plant diseases such as impatiens necrotic spot virus that have devastated lettuce crops in the Salinas Valley in recent years.
Photo/Kathy Coatney

California remains the nation’s top producer of cantaloupe and honeydew melons, with nearly 60% of cantaloupe sales and virtually all honeydew receipts.
Photo/Courtesy Turlock Fruit Co.

California asparagus production has diminished through the years due to competition from Mexico and expensive labor costs to harvest the crop. But some growers have maintained limited acreage of the spring vegetable.

A drone applies pesticides to an alfalfa field in Yolo County during trials conducted by University of California researchers in 2020. Proposed legislation could help facilitate drone use on farm fields.

Photo/University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources

Photo/John Beck
Guy George, left, farmed in Santa Cruz County for over 70 years, as small farms grew into global operations. He mentored numerous younger growers, including Arturo Diaz, walking beside him. “I learned things from him that I never thought I would learn,” Diaz said.

Ag Alert photo file
In research trials, a new experimental material, ISM 555, has shown to do a better job than pyrethroid at controlling lygus bug populations in strawberries and reducing distorted fruit.

Ag Alert photo file
Richard Smith, a University of California Cooperative Extension farm advisor emeritus, is a contributing author of a research blog about suppressing pathogens by improving soil health. Researchers say it remains unclear if traditional strategies used to manage soil health could suppress soil-borne diseases.

Photo/Daniel Hartwig
After planting was delayed due to a series of storms, farm employees plant processing tomatoes in Fresno County. Farmers must recalculate schedules for the harvest season, which generally runs from late June to October.