Strawberries and Caneberries

Seeing that I just handled my third call in just a week's time on a weird "lygus sort" of bug appearing in great numbers in some strawberry fields I thought it would be worth a note to share what is going on.

Good morning. The quarterly reports this last week of two of America's best big box retailers, Walmart and Target, rocked the stock market not only for their disappointing results but also for the dim view they described of the retail environment in general.

I had the picture below sent to me just this morning by Joji Muramoto and student assistant Cole Margarite of an unusual discovery they made while picking strawberries. In the photo provided by Cole below, that cluster of round white objects stuck to the side of the berry are stink bug eggs.

You are invited to participate in the UCD Strawberry Breeding Field Day on June 1, 2022 in Prunedale, CA. Discussed and for view will be research projects and the program's most advanced day neutral selections. Find attached agenda and map for details.

Good morning. A bracing article out of the Business Section in today's paper on rising grower interest in the use of microbes as an alternative to delivering plant nutrients which as we all know are rising a lot in price (sorry, paywall): https://www.wsj.