Coffee Shop Blog

All winegrape growers know what frost is, but not everyone understands the physics behind how it develops. Such an understanding is useful when figuring out how to protect your vines from frost damage. This article was written by Steve Hammersmith, president of Shur...

The newest contributor to the Coffee Shop is Larry Whitted, an independent pest control adviser (PCA)based in Lodi. Larry graduated from the Pest Management Program at U.C. Berkeley in 1980 and now has 34 years of experience as a PCA working with fruit and nut crops...

I want to share with Lodi growers and local PCAs this new UC Cooperative Extension library of video interviews with IPM scientists, educators, and practitioners. I hope you find this resource interesting and useful. The Integrated Pest Management approach has done...

Most vineyards in California are likely infected with trunk diseases (wood-canker). The main diseases are Botryosphaeria dieback, Esca, Eutypa dieback, and Phomopsis dieback. The infections are chronic and accumulate over time. Infected vines become less profitable...

As our county’s University of California Cooperative Extension viticulture Farm Advisor, Paul Verdegaal is among the most trusted people in Lodi when it comes to advice about vineyard management. In fact, my Ph.D. research found Paul to be the most connected...

On any given morning in the parking lot of small town coffee shops across the Country a handful of dusty pickup trucks are parked. Coffee shops have long been a place where farmers gather to catch up on just about everything, especially on things related to...

After six months of development, the Commission staff is excited to launched this new grower-oriented website. Thank you for visiting www.lodigrowers.com. This website fills an important and previously unmet need. The site is a “one-stop shop” for information on the...

Harinder and Ravinder (Bobby) Dhaliwal told me that for them, growing winegrapes is a “hobby”. I spoke with the brothers over lunch one day in July, and it quickly became clear that they are definitely not hobby farmers. Modest and hardworking most accurately describe...