At the front of the class students pluck choice flowers from a line of buckets. They trim the stems and clip the leaves, bunch a few together, arrange and rearrange them. Anthony Neve, biting his lip, places the last snapdragon in his bouquet. A graduating senior, Neve found his way into the Environmental Horticulture and Urban Forestry major and into this class as a result of his family business, Neve Brothers Wholesale Cut Flowers, which he hopes to help continue after college.

“It’s everything I’m interested in,” he admits, maintaining his focus on the ebullient bouquet before him. He lowers his head and cranes his neck, studying the arrangement from several angles. “Every day’s...

Do you have snails and slugs chewing up your favorite garden plants? Are spiders hanging out in and around your home? How can you get rid of those pesky webs?

The UC Statewide IPM program has just released six short videos to help you find answers to these questions. Find the videos on the UC IPM YouTube channel or linked from the specific Pest Notes publications on Snails and Slugs or Spiders.

Snails and slugs chew holes in leaves and fruit of many different types of plants, but they aren’t always present when the...

Growing caneberries under tunnels keep the berries dry even when it rains, preventing disease and assuring fruit quality. However, during rains, water drains from the plastic down into rows that contain the anchoring posts of the tunnel structure. The accelerated runoff in these post rows causes soil erosion and sediment and nutrient loss. Persistent soil moisture in post rows also promotes weed growth. While weeds growing in the anchoring rows do not directly compete with canes, they can reproduce and quickly spread into neighboring cane rows.

Rather than using herbicides in caneberry growing tunnels, the UC Integrated Pest Management program suggests planting a cover crop to prevent weeds in anchor rows.

Cover crops in...

In recent weeks, Master Gardener hotlines and UC Cooperative Extension offices in the Central Sierra foothills have been bombarded with the question, “What is this bug? They're all over my strawberries!” Samples have arrived in jars and bags, with the sample insects in “living and breathing” condition and also in a decidedly “squished” state.

The identification of all these various insects is the same. It is the bordered plant bug (Largus succinctus or Largus sp.) The adult is pretty easy to identify, but the immature nymphs can sometimes be a bit more difficult, as they don’t look anything like the adults. The nymphs (immature stage) lack fully developed wings. Their color...