- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Insecticides farmers use in Northern California onion seed production appear to repel honeybees, which can result in reduced seed yields, according to a recent study by UC Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC ANR) researchers.
Visitation by honeybees is the single most important factor for onion seed set in commercial fields, said Rachael Long, UC ANR Cooperative Extension farm advisor in Yolo County.
“The more honeybees that visited the onion flowers, the higher the seed yield,” Long said.
If insecticides are applied repeatedly prior to onion bloom, honeybees were less likely to visit once the flowers opened...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Stately oak trees with blue-green leaves – known as blue oaks – are found in the foothills of California's Sierra Nevada and coast range, and nowhere else on earth. They are valued for their beauty, wildlife habitat, shade and acorn production. Protecting the resource poses challenges since the vast majority of blue oak woodlands are part of privately held ranches where owners use the landscape to raise cattle for a living.
Researchers with UC Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC ANR) have worked with landowners for decades to help them manage these oak woodlands in ways that balance the ranchers' economic needs with ecological considerations.
In the late 1990s, Tulare County...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Long-term research by UC Agriculture and Natural Resources scientists has documented the capacity for farmland in the San Joaquin Valley managed with conservation practices to sequester carbon, results that could give farmers a seat at the carbon trading table. The study was published this month in the Agronomy Journal.
Published research results provide evidence that farmers will need to get credit for sequestering carbon if such an opportunity arises in the future. In addition, the conservation practices have been shown to offer other environmental benefits – such as reducing dust emissions...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
In a move designed to raise awareness about a substance that is the very foundation of life on earth, 2015 has been declared the International Year of Soils by high-level national and global organizations, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the United Nations.
“Soil is a life-sustaining natural resource that often goes unnoticed,” said Anthony O'Geen, UC Cooperative Extension soil specialist in the Department of Land, Air and Water Resources at UC Davis. “But soil is fundamental for production of food, animal feed, fuel and natural fiber as well as performing many critical ecosystem functions, like...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The battle against Asian citrus psyllid (ACP) is continuing in California on many fronts, motivated by the insect's ability to spread huanglongbing (HLB), the worst citrus disease in the world. HLB has been found in only one isolated tree in California, and everybody who enjoys California citrus wants it to stay that way.
Farmers are diligently treating orchards where the pest has been found, county ag commissioners are monitoring traps to keep tabs on ACP movement, and UC researchers are looking into a wide variety of novel techniques to disarm ACP and the disease. In December, UC Cooperative Extension biological control specialist
