- Author: Ben Faber
Are you interested in climate-smart solutions for your agricultural or forestry operation? USDA offers voluntary programs and services to help you build soil health, sequester carbon, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, enhance productivity and commodity marketability, and mitigate the impacts of climate change while building resilience to strengthen your operation.
Check it out
- Author: Ben Faber
Join us for a two-hour webinar covering the new ‘Airblast Spray Advisor' and ‘Airblast Spray Planner' web apps, decision support tools for planning and evaluating airblast spray application in trees and vines. Develop your knowledge and skills to effectively use these tools in your operations to improve your productivity while potentially reducing the frequency of your spray applications. This training will focus on axial airblast sprayer applications directed to tree and vine canopies (no herbicide boom sprayer applications).
The 2-hour webinar will cover the new ‘Airblast Spray Advisor' and ‘Airblast Spray Planner' web apps, which are decision support tools for planning and evaluating airblast spray application in trees and vines. This will be useful especially for those who would like to develop their knowledge and skills in effectively using these tools in their operations.
/span>- Author: Ben Faber
UC Riverside and CAPCA SoCal Chapter partner to provide:
UC Riverside Citrus Field Day for growers and industry members
Thursday, March 10, 2022
7:30 a.m. to 12:40 p.m. (lunch to follow)
1060 Martin Luther King Blvd, Agricultural Operations, Riverside, California
7:15 – 7:45 Registration
7:45 – 8:00 Welcome, Tracy Kahn and Peggy Mauk
8:00 – 8:30 Update on HLB quarantine and pesticide regulations, Ruben Arroyo, Riverside Co. Ag Commissioner
8:30 – 8:45 Develop effective protectants and therapies to manage citrus HLB using a novel class of citrus-derived antimicrobial peptides, Hailing Jin, UCR
8:45 – 9:05 Next generation of HLB tolerant rootstocks and their potential in California, Danelle Seymour, UCR
9:05 – 9:20 Break and travel to field stops
9:20 – 9:40 Potential planting strategies in the presence of HLB, Peggy Mauk, UCR
9:40 – 10:00 Controlling Asian Citrus Psyllids using beneficial insects, Nic Anne Irvin, UCR
10:00 – 10:30 DEMONSTRATION: Utilizing drone technology for pest management, Mehdi Shahbazi, Talos Drone
10:30 – 11:00 Control of citrus brown rot using fungicides – Rodger Belisle and Wei Hao, UCR
11:10 – 11:40 Long-term solutions for citrus huanglongbing – Chandrika Ramadugu, UCR
11:40 – 12:40 Display and opportunity to provide feedback on unreleased hybrids, new irradiated selections and introductions, Mike Roose and Tracy Kahn, UCR
12:40 – 1:40 LUNCH
Register online at https://capca.com/events/uc-riverside-citrus-field-day/ Cost is $25 and includes lunch.
This will be an outdoor field meeting. Participants should wear footwear appropriate for walking in citrus groves and on uneven ground. Be prepared for adverse weather conditions. Participants may need to drive their own vehicles to the various stops. Those who need assistance or are unable to participate on the walking portions of the meeting, please contact Agricultural Operations at 951-827-5906 so we can try to accommodate your needs.
UCR researchers appreciate the ongoing support of the Citrus Research Board
- Author: Ben Faber
Image: Allen King
A Fillmore grower recently reported honeybees collecting rust spores on willow trees!!! Her baskets are loaded with rust spores. Rust-collecting honeybees are reported by others so it's not an unusual occurrence.
From: Randy Oliver, “Fried Eggs” Identified! https://scientificbeekeeping.com/fried-eggs-identified/ Oliver shows bee-collected rust pollen from poplar trees in Spain in hive frames.
Quote: "Above is a photo of a typical comb filled with beebread consisting of rust fungus spores. Note the lousy brood pattern and the dying brood. When the colony is feeding upon this beebread, it goes downhill quickly. However, if we feed the hive several pounds of high-quality pollen sub, it will turn around immediately and grow again.
Antonio Pajuelo (pers comm) also reports a correlation between the consumption of poplar rust spores and colony mortality, but doesn't know whether it is due to spore toxicity or lack of better nutrition. It may be that the collection of rust spores is due to the lack of more attractive and nutritious floral pollen, and as such would simply be a generic indicator of poor colony nutritional status.
On the other hand, Schmidt (1987) found that caged bees fed Uromyces spores as a sole protein source actually had their lifespan reduced compared to those fed sugar syrup only—strongly suggesting that the spores were toxic. The spore-fed bees lived about 20 days less than those fed the most nutritious pollens!"
John Menge, a retired UC Riverside plant pathologist and mycologist has this reasoning:
The bee rust problem is very interesting.
I would have liked to work on that problem when I was at Riverside.
Two thoughts:
First I thought poplar rust was a Melampsora not Uromyces.
All the old literature gave the Uromyces name to all Uredospore stages.
Second, as you know, rusts have five different spore stages.
It would help to know what spore stages are in the hives.
One spore stage is pycniospores.
It is the spermatia stage and is sweet as honey.
It attracts all types of insects including bees.
Its job is to promote fertilization of the fungus so the bees are pollinating the fungus.
In the process of gathering the spermatia sugar, the bees are inadvertently gathering urediniospores.
Or perhaps there is lingering pycnia sugar on the urediniospores.
Or perhaps there are other attractants on the spore so the bees will disperse them.
At any rate I can tell the researchers are entomologists because they are worried about the bee colonies.
Mycologists worry about the cottonwood trees and the success of the rust fungi.
Apparently the fungi have outsmarted the insects again.
- Author: Ben Faber
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