December 2021 issue

Volume 66, Issue 12

Grapevines, and the grapes they produce, are an important specialty crop in the California landscape. In 2005, the primary pre-planting fumigant to control soilborne pathogens, methyl bromide, was phased out of use. Two USDA-ARS scientists studied alternative fumigants and their long-term impacts on soil microbes and grapevine health, publishing their findings in the Soil Science Society of America Journal. See p. 8. Cover photo, courtesy of Sadikshya Dangi, shows soil sampling in the vineyard at the San Joaquin Valley Agricultural Sciences Center in 2018.