California DPR Pesticide Use Reporting for Vineyards

Who Must Report in California

In California, any commercial agricultural pesticide use must be reported to the county agricultural commissioner (CAC) in the county where the application occurred. This requirement applies to all commercial pesticide applications on agricultural land, including general use pesticides, not just restricted use pesticides (RUPs). This is broader than federal requirements, which apply only to RUPs.

The reporting obligation falls on the person or company that made the application. If you hire a licensed pest control operator (PCO) or pest control adviser (PCA) operating as an applicator, they are responsible for reporting their applications. If you apply pesticides with your own employees using your own equipment, you are the reporting entity.

Monthly Reporting Deadlines

Pesticide use reports (PURs) must be submitted to the county agricultural commissioner by the 10th day of the month following the month in which the applications occurred. Applications made in March must be reported by April 10. Applications made in November must be reported by December 10. This is a hard deadline, and late submissions are a violation subject to penalty.

County agricultural commissioners submit the data to CDPR, which compiles it into the statewide pesticide use database. This database is publicly accessible and is used by researchers, regulators, environmental organizations, and the press. Your vineyard's pesticide use history is part of this public record.

What Must Be Included on the PUR

California pesticide use reports require the following data for each application: applicator name and license number, date of application, county, township/range/section or site location, commodity or site treated, acres or units treated, pesticide product name and California registration number, amount of pesticide used (in pounds or gallons), application method, and pest managed.

For vineyards, the commodity is typically grapes (wine), grapes (table), or grapes (raisin). Getting the commodity code correct matters because the data is analyzed by commodity at the state level and incorrect coding creates reporting errors.

County Agricultural Commissioner Role

The CAC is the primary regulatory contact for pesticide reporting in California. Each county has its own commissioner and office, and requirements can vary slightly by county in terms of acceptable submission formats. Most counties accept electronic submission through the California eDPR system. Some still accept paper forms.

The CAC also enforces pesticide laws at the county level. If an inspector identifies an application record discrepancy during a field inspection, the first contact is typically the CAC, not a state agency. Maintaining a cooperative relationship with your county's agricultural commissioner office is practical risk management.

Restricted Use Pesticides: Additional Requirements

Applications of restricted use pesticides require a written recommendation from a licensed PCA before application and must be made by or under the supervision of a licensed QAL (Qualified Applicator License) or QAC (Qualified Applicator Certificate). The written recommendation must be kept on file for two years.

Organophosphate and carbamate cholinesterase-inhibiting pesticides, which are restricted use in California, trigger additional requirements including a health monitoring program for workers with potential exposure. Most of these products have largely been removed from common wine grape spray programs due to worker safety and environmental concerns, but if your program includes any of them, the compliance requirements are substantial.

Penalties for Non-Compliance

Failure to submit pesticide use reports on time or submitting incomplete or inaccurate reports can result in penalties ranging from a written warning for first-time minor violations to fines of $1,000 to $5,000 per violation per day for repeated or willful violations. In serious cases involving restricted use pesticide record falsification, penalties can reach $25,000 and include license revocation.

The most common violations are late submissions and missing product registration numbers. Both are avoidable with a systematic record-keeping approach. Recording applications on the day they occur and using a system like VitisScribe that tracks California registration numbers alongside product names makes assembling monthly reports a compilation task rather than a reconstruction exercise.

Integration with Spray Records

Your California DPR reports should flow directly from your spray records without requiring significant additional data entry. If your spray records are complete, the data needed for the PUR is already there. The challenge is getting it into the correct format for county submission.

Vineyard management software that includes California DPR reporting templates can reduce the time spent on monthly reporting significantly. The alternative, transcribing from paper spray logs to county submission forms or to the eDPR system entry screens, is time-consuming and introduces transcription errors.