Topics in Subtropics

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Topics in Subtropics Blog
You can subscribe to this  blog with multiple entries per week reflecting what's happening with subtropical crops and upcoming educational events.  Just click on the "Subscribe" button just to the right of this paragraph.  There's also our seasonal quarterly Topics in Subtropics newsletter found at our Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Riverside, San Diego, Tulare and Kern Counties Cooperative Extension websites.
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Rhapsa scotosialis female

Moths, Flies, Beetles Pollinating Avocados? O, MY!

August 31, 2018
By Ben A Faber
And doing it in the dark? In a recent paper, David Pattemore and associates reveal some fairly different observations about avocado flowering. One, that the female stage can be open and potentially receptive to pollination at night.
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citrus cornucopia

True Costs of Citrus Production

August 29, 2018
By Ben A Faber
STUDY FORECASTS COST OF REGULATIONS ON CALIFORNIA CITRUS INDUSTRY Citrus Research Board Report Explains Cost Impacts on Growers August 20, 2018 Visalia, Calif.
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acmispon

Microbes and Fertilizers

August 27, 2018
By Ben A Faber
RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- Beautiful things can happen when plants surround themselves with the right microbes. A study on Acmispon strigosus, a plant in the pea family, showed a 13-fold growth increase in plants that partnered with a highly effective strain of the nitrogen-fixing bacteria Bradyrhizobium.
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avocado leaf blight before heat

When It Gets Hot, It Gets Confusing

August 20, 2018
By Ben A Faber
So I got called out to see an orchard that had dieback. Over the phone it sounded like Dothiorella Leaf Blight (http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=10354). This symptom shows up when there has been water stress of some sort, over a period of a few weeks to months.
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