Topics in Subtropics

A 'Meyer' lemon should be quite happy along the coast, unless it gets planted in new soil that has low copper because of high soil pH or high organic matter. And then you wonder what is wrong. Mild copper deficiency is usually associated with large, dark green leaves on long soft angular shoots.

View a four-minute video. A tell-tale sign of spring in California is a flush of new leaf growth on citrus trees.

Recently some 'W. Murcott' mandarins were shown to me. Brown spots in the core of the fruit.

Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, University of California Riverside. Evidence of avocado selection by human hand as far back as 8,000 BC is preserved in archaeological sites in Puebla State, Mexico.

It's that time of year for a riot of aphids on new growth cheeseweed (malva) and wild radish and with that food source to see ladybird beetles go to town, chowing down. There's ladybugs in both their larval and adult stages doing the feeding.