“Golden death”: A new leaf scorch threat to almond growers

A NEWLY RECOGNIZED leaf scorch disease has recently been found over a wide area in the state's almond-producing districts. First noted in 1958 on a few scattered trees in the Quartz Hill area of Los Angeles County, by (then) Farm Advisor J. A. Beutel, and soon after near Brentwood in Contra Costa County, the disorder has been referred to as "golden death" or "almond decline." Surveys made during the 1974 season have shown that the disease is sporadic but widespread in the central and northern portions of the Great Central Valley: from Merced County northward to Butte and Glenn counties, an important almond producing area.