LAKEPORT, Calif. – The North Coast Pear Research Meeting will take place on Wednesday, Feb. 7.

The meeting will be held at the Scotts Valley Women’s Club, 2298 Hendricks Road in Lakeport.

The event is sponsored by the University of California Cooperative Extension, California Pear Advisory Board, Pear Pest Management Research Fund and Lake County Department of Agriculture.

The agenda is as follows:

7:30 a.m.: Registration/coffee/continental breakfast.

8 a.m.: Welcome and announcements, Rachel Elkins, UCCE Lake and Mendocino counties.

8:10 a.m.: Evaluation of new bactericides for control of fire blight of pears by Jim Adaskaveg, Department of Plant Pathology, UC Riverside.

8:40 a.m.: Effect of climate change on codling moth emergence and flight pattern, Alan Knight, USDA-ARS, Wapato, Washington.

9 a.m.: Katydid biology and control, Lucia Varela, UCCE Sonoma County.

9:20 a.m.: Effect of fire blight materials on disease incidence and fruit finish, Rachel Elkins.

9:40 a.m.: Lake County Agriculture Department Update, Steve Hajik and Katherine Vanderwall, Lake County Department of Agriculture.

10 a.m.: Break and refreshments.

10:20 a.m.: Optimizing a protocol for the high-throughput phenotyping of Armillaria resistance in pear, Sara Montanari, Department of Plant Sciences, UC Davis.

10:40 a.m.: Update on the Pear Genomics Research Network Web site, Julie Jacquemin, Fruit and Nut Research and Information Center, UC Davis.

11 a.m.: Study on mechanical mass-harvesting of pears, Stavros Vougioukas, Dept. of Bio and Ag Engineering, UC Davis.

11:20 a.m.: Post-harvest fruit thinning to increase fruit size on size-controlling rootstock, 2013 orchard systems trial update, Rachel Elkins.

Noon: Adjourn and lunch.

To reach the Scotts Valley Women’s Club from Highway 29 in Lakeport, take the Scotts Valley Road exit and go west (away from the lake). Just past the packing shed (on your right) there is a bridge crossing Scotts Creek. Immediately after crossing the bridge, Hendricks Road will turn to the left. The women’s club will be on your right shortly after taking this turn.