Topics in Subtropics

Calcareous soils have often more than 15% CaCO3 in the soil that may occur in various forms (powdery, nodules, crusts etc). They are relatively widespread in the drier areas of the earth.

Entomology Specialist and Lindcove Research and Education Center Director keeps her Asian Citrus Psyllid website for homeowners up-to-date at: http://ucanr.edu/sites/ACP/Homeowner_Options/Homeowner_Resources/ Check it out.

The recent find of the Kuroshio shot-hole borer in Santa Barbara shows that the beetle is expanding up the coast and it comes on top of the finding earlier this year of a single Kuroshio shot-hole borer in San Luis Obispo.

Last Sunday was forecast as 20% chance of rain in Ventura, but it didn't happen. Today, Friday it was supposed to rain, but it's barely a drizzle. My car's dust has just been redistributed. Could a better prediction be forecast? According to Cliff Mass it certainly could. http://cliffmass.blogspot.

Thanks for the rains that leach the soils of accumulated salts and bring on new fresh growth. Or maybe not. When we apply irrigation water with salts which with few exceptions we do in irrigated agriculture, salts accumulate in the soil.