UC Weed Science (weed control, management, ecology, and minutia)

The development of improved cultivation technology for row crop production has been an active area of research, and has made significant progress in recent years. Currently, standard cultivation removes weeds from the majority of the bed using sweeps, knives, coulters and blades.

For the past 12 years, county-based Weed Management Areas (WMA) have organized and collaborated to detect, map and treat invasive weeds around the state.

Last Thursday (July 19th) was the 56th annual UC Weed Day at the Davis campus. We had a really good turnout again this year with just under 150 participants including weed science researchers, students, farmers, land managers, pest consultants, and government agency people in attendance.

Today I thought I'd share a recent research report on the the phenomenon of "enhanced" degradation of the herbicide simazine in citrus orchard soils. Click here for a link to the publication in the open-source journal, Air, Soil, and Water Research (Abit et al. 2012.

In conjunction with the USDA Range Management group out of Oregon and many Weed Scientists throughout the western US, a two day field school will focus on improving the management and threat of invasive plants, and especially cheatgrass and medusahead.