Did you ever wonder how that latest plant variety made its way to your local nursery? Few people outside of the plant breeding and marketing industry realize that the “new” plant you just saw at the garden center last weekend actually began its journey from 6 to 20 years earlier ¹ . One of the last steps in that journey is the plant trial.

Plant trials take place all over the country at universities and public gardens and are usually the last step before a company decides to launch a new cultivar onto the market. Although they will have evaluated a promising new...

In May, I looked at a lima bean field in the Sacramento Valley that showed poor seedling emergence scattered throughout the field (photo 1). I sent samples to the UC Davis Plant Pathology lab and the main pathogen consistently recovered from the roots was Fusarium root rot, a fungal disease caused by Fusarium solani f. sp. phaseoli. This pathogen is specific to beans and field peas and will not infect other field crops. A few bean seedlings also had Rhizoctonia and Pythium (also fungal pathogens).

Finding Fusarium root rot in a lima bean seedling field was a surprise because this disease is most commonly encountered in established fields during mid- to late season, where it is one of the...

Italian ryegrass is a major weed in orchards, vineyards, field crops and fallow fields of California (Figure 1). Several different herbicides are used to control ryegrass and had been effective in reducing infestations until resistance evolved in many populations following repeated use of the herbicides. To date, resistance to glyphosate, paraquat, and some ACCase and ALS inhibitors has been confirmed in ryegrass infestations across the agricultural landscape of California. To make matters worse, resistance to multiple postemergence herbicides with different modes of action has been confirmed within the same orchard, vineyard, or field in some areas. Consequently, management of Italian ryegrass in California annual and perennial...

Who can participate in citizen science? Everyone. Our 4,000 certified California Naturalists recorded over 7,000 volunteer hours under citizen science in 2019.

Though citizen science is a relatively new term, people have been participating and contributing to scientific research for years. With the field growing immensely within the past 10 years, technological advances have helped researchers involve more people, communities have come together to answer important questions, different groups have contributed and shared information, and so much more. It's a powerful tool to teach about and experience science.

However, many in the field have begun to acknowledge a problem: the name. Citizen science - currently the most...