Strawberries and Caneberries

3rd Annual Strawberry Commission Production Research Meeting - April 24

April 6, 2026
By Mark P Bolda
All are welcome to attend the Third Annual Strawberry Commission Production Research to take place this coming April 24 at the Santa Maria Inn in Santa Maria. I'll be presenting there with a large number of my colleagues, lots and lots of information to be shown and discussed.Flier, in English and Spanish,…
View Article

Downy mildew in blackberry

April 1, 2026
By Mark P Bolda, Yu-Chen Wang
Blackberry growers should note that the moderate rains taking place in ambient temperatures of 65 to 75 degrees F as is common in February and March on the Central Coast are excellent conditions for outbreaks of downy mildew. Downy mildew is caused by the fungal pathogen Peronospora sparsa. …
View Article

Raspberry Sawfly

March 15, 2026
By Mark P Bolda
This was published back in 2008, but even though I haven't had a call on this for a while, it's still good to have posted here: Raspberry sawfly, Monophadnoides geniculatus, is an uncommon pest in raspberries on the Central Coast of California. I recently had a question concerning this pest,…
View Article

Poor Pollination in Raspberries

March 10, 2026
By Mark P Bolda
3/9/2026 - this is a blog post I wrote back in early 2010, but when we switched over to the new blog presentation system last year it was unfortunately removed from the thread.  Still, it's good information to have out in the public domain, so I post it back up again.  MarkThere are many causes of…
View Article