Wolfskill Experimental Orchards

Wolfskill Experimental Orchards I

3rd Annual Strawberry Commission Production Research Meeting - April 24

April 6, 2026
By Mark P Bolda
All are welcome to attend the Third Annual Strawberry Commission Production Research to take place this coming April 24 at the Santa Maria Inn in Santa Maria. I'll be presenting there with a large number of my colleagues, lots and lots of information to be shown and discussed.Flier, in English and Spanish,…
View Article

Downy mildew in blackberry

April 1, 2026
By Mark P Bolda, Yu-Chen Wang
Blackberry growers should note that the moderate rains taking place in ambient temperatures of 65 to 75 degrees F as is common in February and March on the Central Coast are excellent conditions for outbreaks of downy mildew. Downy mildew is caused by the fungal pathogen Peronospora sparsa. …
View Article

Raspberry Sawfly

March 15, 2026
By Mark P Bolda
This was published back in 2008, but even though I haven't had a call on this for a while, it's still good to have posted here: Raspberry sawfly, Monophadnoides geniculatus, is an uncommon pest in raspberries on the Central Coast of California. I recently had a question concerning this pest,…
View Article

Poor Pollination in Raspberries

March 10, 2026
By Mark P Bolda
3/9/2026 - this is a blog post I wrote back in early 2010, but when we switched over to the new blog presentation system last year it was unfortunately removed from the thread.  Still, it's good information to have out in the public domain, so I post it back up again.  MarkThere are many causes of…
View Article

Slop: Word of the Year from The Economist

January 9, 2026
By Mark P Bolda
The Economist, a leading British news and current affairs magazine, wrote recently that “slop” is the word of the year 2025, “representative, if not of the whole year, at least of much of the feeling of living in it.” It seems that this word “slop” was first officially described in the 15th century and…
View Article

Now You See It, Now You Don't. A Note about Fruit Ripening in Blackberry

August 14, 2025
By Mark P Bolda
A persistent question this time of year is why sometimes blackberry fruit are not ripening. They go through flower, green fruit and then to red, but once at that stage some (or many, I have even witnessed cases of all, really sad) stay red and simply refuse to ripen.As many readers of this blog know this is…
View Article

Interesting Insect Find Close to Strawberry Determined Not to Be a Pest

May 30, 2025
By Dylan J Beal, Mark P Bolda
Mark was easing into some Sunday morning reading last week at a small park in Watsonville that is very close to a strawberry field when the unusual insect depicted below paid him a visit.  Given that he had never seen this insect (and doubts that many of you have either), he felt a surge of unease that…
View Article

Introducing the Spiny Assassin Bug

November 18, 2024
By Mark P Bolda
Close readers of this blog will know that last year Mark noted toward the end of the season a very unusual looking insect in two of his strawberry research plots, which UCCE Entomologist on the Central Coast at the time Kirsten Pearson identified as the spiny assassin bug, an insect in the family Re...
View Article

Mode of Action of Sefina

September 9, 2024
By Mark P Bolda
With the recent Section 18 permit to use Sefina insecticide for control of lygus bugs in strawberry, a number of growers and PCA's have approached both of us concerning the mode of action of Sefina, of which the active ingredient is afidopyropen.
View Article
Previous Next

Welcome

"The Wolfskill Experimental Orchards are a research treasure," says Professor Ted DeJong, a University of California pomologist and the Orchard's director. "Work here has resulted in the development and release of 55 new varieties - 29 strawberry, 8 processing peach, 7 cherry, 5 almond, 3 prune and 3 pistachio, as well as 2 almond-peach rootstocks."

 

 
 

Contribute for a Better Future

Make a Gift