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Research through October 19, 2026, 8:30 a.m. PT. This week’s most consequential new development is DPR’s draft 2025 review of 1,3-dichloropropene monitoring. The rest of the edition pairs current pest and water-management updates with timely fall decisions whose original UC guidance is clearly dated, not presented as breaking news.
This week in numbers
- Nov 30: Comment deadline on DPR’s draft 2025 annual 1,3-D report1
- Oct 22: Diamondback moth field day in Soledad, 9:30–11 a.m.2
- 55%: California rice harvested as of Oct. 11, vs. a 54% five-year average5
For PCAs: Pesticide and Pest Management
1. DPR opens 1,3-D draft-report review; current use rules are unchanged
New this week · DPR announcement, Oct 16, 2026
DPR released its draft 2025 annual 1,3-D report and opened comments through November 30. The draft excludes 2025 samples analyzed October 24–December 31 after CDFA voided those results because a laboratory reference standard had degraded.1
DPR instead elected to evaluate all six monitoring stations with modeling; the draft includes Parlier, with five station evaluations still to come. This is a monitoring and public-comment action, not a new registration or use restriction. The lower-emission methods, setbacks, acreage and rate limits, and soil-moisture requirements referenced by DPR are rules that took effect in 2024.1
Next step: By October 30, review 2025 1,3-D records and township or field assumptions against the current label, permit conditions and county requirements. Submit technically supported comments by November 30 if the draft’s data handling or modeled assessment materially affects your operation.
Source: DPR announcement, Oct 16
2. Salinas Valley DBM briefing puts resistance and coverage on the agenda
New this week · UCCE Salinas Valley, Oct 14, 2026
UC Davis and UCCE scheduled a diamondback moth field day for October 22, 9:30–11 a.m., at Huntington Farms in Soledad. The announced program covers resistance, efficacy trials, nonchemical tools, non-crop hosts, sprayer coverage and regulatory updates; the notice does not publish trial results or claim CE credit.2
UC IPM separately advises keeping DBM counts distinct from other caterpillars, checking crop-stage and border-row risk, and rotating modes of action, because no California economic threshold has been established and resistance spans multiple insecticide groups.3
Next step: Register before October 22 and bring block-level scouting and recent mode-of-action histories. Until local results are reviewed, base decisions on current field counts, crop stage, label directions and local resistance experience, not the event agenda alone.
Sources: Field day details and registration · UC IPM: diamondback moth in cole crops
3. Flag grape trunk-disease blocks before winter pruning begins
Seasonal reminder · UC IPM text updated December 2014
UC IPM reports that winter rain releases Botryosphaeria spores and pruning wounds provide infection sites. Delayed pruning, late in dormancy, reduces risk by avoiding higher spore-release periods and taking advantage of declining wound susceptibility.4
Symptoms can overlap with other trunk diseases, and infections may occur years before obvious decline.4
Next step: Before the first pruning pass, map vines with dead spurs, cankers or prior dieback and separate diagnostic work from routine pruning. Build rain timing and block history into the pruning plan; do not assume similar canopy symptoms identify the causal pathogen.
Source: UC IPM: Botryosphaeria dieback in grape
Pesticide-use note: Current California labels, permits and county requirements govern. Verify registration, crop or site, pest, timing, restrictions, intervals and local conditions before recommending or applying any pesticide.
For CCAs: Agronomy
4. Rice and cotton move into the postharvest record-check window
New this week · USDA NASS Crop Progress, Oct 13, 2026
For the week ending October 11, USDA NASS estimated California rice harvest at 55%, close to the 2021–2025 average of 54%. California cotton harvest reached 20%, compared with the five-year average of 16%; 85% of cotton bolls were open.5
These statewide estimates describe timing, not an individual field’s readiness, yield or soil condition.5
Next step: As each field clears, reconcile applied water and nutrient records with yield, residue handling and observed variability. Prioritize representative soil or tissue follow-up where performance diverged; do not turn statewide progress percentages into field prescriptions.
Source: USDA NASS Crop Progress, Oct 13
5. Stanislaus County refreshes the late-season crop water-use guide
New this week · UCCE Stanislaus County, Oct 16, 2026
UCCE Stanislaus County published a weekly evapotranspiration report covering October 9–15. It gives the prior week’s estimated water use for almonds, peaches, walnuts, established vineyards, alfalfa and pasture, and is offered as a guide for the coming week’s irrigation schedule.6
Its estimates are regional decision support, not a direct prescription for a block with different soils, root-zone storage, canopy condition, irrigation uniformity or effective rainfall.6
Next step: Before the next irrigation decision, compare the October 16 guide with local weather, measured soil moisture or plant-water status, and the system’s actual application rate and uniformity. Adjust by crop and block; do not automatically replace estimated ET without checking whether the root zone still needs water.
Source: UCCE Stanislaus ET report, Oct 16
6. Adequate-N almonds: older replicated work argues against automatic October N
Research to apply · Sacramento Valley Orchards, Dec 2018; updated Sept 2023
UCCE reported that October nitrogen did not increase yield in two years of replicated trials in a high-yielding Colusa County almond orchard with adequate summer leaf N.7
That result is narrow: two seasons, one orchard context and trees already testing adequate. It does not establish a statewide prohibition or answer deficiencies in other blocks.7
Next step: Before approving fall N, review this season’s leaf analysis, yield and the complete nitrogen budget, including irrigation water and organic sources. Where N was adequate, challenge an automatic October application; where data show a need, have the CCA document the field-specific basis and timing.
Source: Sacramento Valley Orchards: postharvest nutrition review
What are you seeing?
Email info@jcsmarketinginc.com and tell us your crop, county and biggest field question.
We may take it up in a future edition.
Editorial note: Source findings and regulatory descriptions are summarized above. The “Next step” passages are MyAgLife editorial suggestions for field review, not source-issued prescriptions. This report does not award CE credit.
Sources
- California Department of Pesticide Regulation, “DPR Releases Draft 2025 Annual Report on 1,3-D, Opens Public Comment Period,” October 16, 2026.
- Ian M. Grettenberger and Dylan J. Beal, UC Cooperative Extension Salinas Valley Agriculture, “Diamondback Moth Management Field Day, Oct 22 2026,” October 14, 2026.
- UC Statewide IPM Program, “Diamondback Moth,” Cole Crops Pest Management Guidelines, UC ANR Publication 3442, text and treatment table updated December 2020.
- UC Statewide IPM Program, “Botryosphaeria Dieback,” Grape Pest Management Guidelines, UC ANR Publication 3448, text updated December 2014.
- USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, “Crop Progress,” released October 13, 2026; California rice and cotton tables for the week ending October 11.
- Abdelmoneim Z. Mohamed, UC Cooperative Extension Stanislaus County, “Evapotranspiration Report – 10/16/2026,” October 16, 2026; report period October 9–15.
- Franz Niederholzer, Sacramento Valley Orchards (UC Cooperative Extension), “Postharvest Nutrition Review,” December 19, 2018; last modified September 28, 2023.