- Author: Ben Faber
The August edition of the IPM Hour features Kristen Bowers from New Mexico State University discussing her research into using climate-adapted insect biocontrol agents to control puncturevine in the West.
Bowers, with funding from the Western Integrated Pest Management Center, is measuring the cold-hardiness of puncturevine-eating weevils from New Mexico to see if they can tolerate cool northern climes and potentially boost biocontrol efforts throughout the region.
Join the webinar live on Wednesday, August 9, 2023 at noon (Pacific Time.)
And tune in to other recorded weed talks~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
- Author: Ben Faber
Enjoy beautiful Davis, CA and its incredible 2-1/2 day workshop on Weeds
Hands-on approach to Weed Science School 2023
Weed Master - Joe DiTomaso
Most of us learn best by doing, which is why Weed Science School 2023 promises to be better than ever this year.
The course offers hands-on training and will include four rotations where participants can be involved in weed identification, spray nozzle demonstration, an adjuvant demonstration, and an herbicide symptomology lab. In addition, we provide several lectures on weed biology, ecology, organic weed management techniques, herbicides action and resistant management and prevention discussions, as well as various aspects on environmental impacts.
The Weed Science School is an intensive 2-1/2-day course(Sept. 19-21, 2023) focusing on the mode and mechanism of herbicide activity in plants and the fate of herbicides in the environment. The school is designed for those involved in consulting, research, development, or sales of agricultural chemicals in the private or public sector.
For a full agenda here, visit the UC WeedRICwebsite at http://wric.ucdavis.edu and click on WEED SCIENCE SCHOOL.
Weed Science School 2023
Sept. 19-21, 2023 ? UC Davis
$825.00 ? Early-bird registration fee (if received by 8/1/2023)
$900.00 ? Registration fee (if received by 8/18/2023)
$950.00 ? Registration fee (if received after 8/18/2023)
The course fee includes a comprehensive notebook, lunch and light refreshments each day. Class size is limited, so early enrollment is suggested. No walk-in registrations accepted.
We are holding 4 spots (at a discounted rate) for current students and UCCE Farm Advisors. Students must proof of student status with their registration form. To take advantage of the lower fee, contact the UC Weed Research & Information Center (wric@ucdavis.edu).
To register or for more information, visit Weed Science School 2023 (https://wric.ucdavis.edu/events/weed_science_school_2023.html).
- Author: Ben Faber
Problem: There was a Valencia farmer in Ojai, farming on a rocky loam. More rocky than loam, on a 10 % slope, where he had been spraying the weeds down, the soil had gradually washed away and all he had left was scattered cobbles.
Solution: He planted a winter cover crop to protect the soil from erosion. He weed whipped it three times a year because that's all he could afford.
Result: After two years he had stopped the erosion, and there was actually a little duff layer forming in the orchard from the decomposing ground cover.
Problem: But now that wonderful cover crop and the cover it provided had attracted gophers that were chewing on the trees and because of inattention had killed a few of them. He couldn't trap fast enough.
Solution: He brought in a ‘Jack Russell' terrier that did a marvelous job at keeping the beasts down.
Problem: About the same time he noticed that he was getting gobs of snails that were getting into the trees. Even though he had lifted the skirts and painted copper on the trunks, they were still getting into the trees. He couldn't keep up with the winter weeds.
Solution: He brought in weeder geese to help with the ground cover and chickens to help with the snails and they worked.
Problem: Now the terrier is distracted by the fowl and is killing the chicks and goslings, as well as the gophers. In fact, he would prefer chasing the fowlings to going after gophers.
Solution: He tied a tether ball around the terrier's neck which slowed it down enough so that the young ones could get away.
Problem: Also with the introduction of birds, he also brought in coyotes which killed the larger birds.
Solution: He brought in a ‘Queensland Heeler' which is a bred that is noted for killing dingos in Australia. They are short-legged, barrel chested dogs that roll over on their back and pretend to be dead and when the coyote comes sniffing around, it grabs the coyote's neck and kills it.
Problem: What's next in this cause and effect chain of events?
This is a true story, but in today's world because of Food Safety and Good Agricultural Practices Certification would not happen with all these animals in the orchard, but something like it happens every time we overturn the flow of events. This is not the only scenario that is played out in agriculture. But hey, that's what a good grower is doing, managing a somewhat chaotic chain of events.
The end of the story is that the grower died and another bought the farm and turned it into a goose/duck farm and sold the animals rather than the oranges which the birds were feeding on.
- Author: Trina Kleist
'Herbicide Injury" tutorial builds on popular website
A cartoon character that looks suspiciously like a Department of Plant Sciences professor leads an animated, online tutorial that recently won a 2022 Gold Award from the Association for Communication Excellence. UC Davis weed experts Kassim Al-Khatib and Brad Hanson worked with the University of California Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program to create “Diagnosing Herbicide Injury,” which debuted in October 2021 on Extension Foundation Campus.
The free, self-guided course explains how herbicides may – or may not – be the culprits behind plant maladies. The cartoon guide walks viewers through interactive slides describing common herbicide-related problems, their diagnoses and solutions; short quizzes solidify the viewer's knowledge at the end of each module. The course fulfills continuing education credits for several institutions; those who complete the course can get a certificate for a small fee.
“This project builds on previous work in which I developed an interactive website to help people investigating herbicide injury symptoms,” said Al-Khatib, the Melvin D. Androus Endowed Professor for Weed Science. The website, built in 2015 by programmer Chinh Lam of UC's Integrated Pest Management program, offers 1,500 photographs showing herbicide injuries in more than 150 crop and ornamental plants. Such problems often are caused by incorrect application, drift and carry-over from a previous crop. Visitors can look for information by crop, herbicide, chemistry, mode of action and how symptoms appear. Each year, Al-Khatib adds hundreds of new images.
“As Extension weed scientists, we often get questions about herbicide injury,” added Hanson, a professor of UC Cooperative Extension. “If you suspect an herbicide and want to find out what the injury symptoms look like, this is a really useful website.”
Al-Khatib's site proved widely popular in the agricultural community. That lead to a handful of in-person short courses the two professors offered through the UC Weed Research and Information Center, focusing on symptoms that appear in the field.
Separately, beginning in 2016, the information technology people at UC IPM were starting to put their collection of in-person courses online. They were experimenting with different formats to make online learning more attractive, said team member Petr Kosina, who developed the award-winning video. “My vision was, we needed to make the online courses more interactive, more entertaining and more engaging,” said Kosina, a plant biologist with a degree in instructional design.
Video course has ‘thousands' of potential viewers
The gold-winning video is among more than two dozen courses the UC IPM team has put online in recent years. Other team members involved in the course's development were Kimberly Steinmann, Cheryl Reynolds and Tunyalee Martin.
Programmer Chinh Lam, left, of UC's Integrated Pest Management program, built the original website about herbicide injuries. Petr Kosina, center, and Tunyalee Martin are part of the UC IPM technology team that created the gold-winning video, based on the website's information.
The video's purpose is to help people distinguish herbicide-caused injuries from those caused by dozens of other potential factors, including insects, diseases, fertilizers, poor nutrition and environmental stressors such as drought. The course describes common patterns of herbicide injury and how to use laboratory analysis to confirm potential culprits. Its audience: growers, pest control advisers, sales representatives for chemical companies, field investigators and insurance adjusters who need guidance gathering information. Nearly 170 people finished the course in 2021, and more than 80 had enrolled by mid-2022, Kosina said. "There are several thousand potential learners in California alone," Martin wrote in the award application.
The animated, cartoon guide is a stock image that Kosina doctored to riff off of Hanson's beard and rectangular glasses; Hanson also narrates. The character brings a human element to the video and puts viewers at ease. Research shows that a cartoonish approach to a topic can improve adult viewers' response when they might see the material as intimidating or dry.
Viewers, indeed, have become fans. Here are a few comments from people who have taken the online course:
- “The avatar is a kick.”
- “I do not care for cartoons, but Brad's ‘character' was great! And his manner of speaking was great – grade A+.”
- “The use of several different types of multi-media concepts combined with the methodical and well-thought-out delivery of technical information really helps keep the online participant engaged.”
The course has been approved for continuing education units by the California Department of Pesticide Regulation, the Certified Crop Adviser program of the American Society of Agronomy, and the Arizona Department of Agriculture.
RELATED LINKS: Watch a short video by the UC IPM team that describes the course, how they approached the design and addressed accessibility and diversity.
Media Resources: Trina Kleist, tkleist@ucdavis.edu, (530) 754-6148 or (530) 601-6846.
Original source: UCD Department of Plant Sciences News. July 26, 2022
- Author: Karey Windbiel-Rojas
The UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program's website contains many useful features to help identify pests and problems in the garden and home. One such feature is the Weed Gallery, which contains hundreds of images and management tips for more than 150 common weeds found in California.
If you don't know what weed you are dealing with, the gallery will help you identify the plant using visual characteristics. First, narrow your search by selecting the weed category—broadleaf, grass, sedge, or aquatic plant (Figure 1). You will then see a collection of photos in that category.
Select the appropriate plant characteristic (Figure 2) to see another sub-menu of weeds that exhibit the traits of your weed. Scrolling over a thumbnail image on this sub-menu will bring up several photos of the weed—as a seedling, as a mature plant, its flower, and its seeds—to further aid in identification (Figure 3).
Once you think you've identified the weed, click on the link of the weed's name, which will take you to a photo gallery page where you can read about the weed's habitat, growth characteristics, and life stages (Figure 4). For many weeds, there is a link to a Pest Note that provides information about management, both chemical and nonchemical. In addition, each page in the gallery links to the Calflora website to show where the weed grows in California.
If you think you know the name of your weed, the gallery allows you to quickly access photos using common or scientific names to confirm identification. Just use the “List of All Weeds” link from the main weed gallery page.
The gallery contains other features as well:
- Want to know more about plants and their parts? Illustrated tutorials distinguish among broadleaf, grass, and sedge plants and define plant parts used in characterizing certain plant species.
- Need to identify common weeds found in lawns or turf? The broadleaf and grass categories link to a dichotomous key, where users can pinpoint common turf (and landscape) weeds.
- Didn't find your weed? See the weed identification tool under “More information” to search the UC Weed Research & Information Center (WRIC) technical weed key.
You can access the weed gallery page from the left-hand column on many pages on the UC IPM website or from the various weed-related pages within the website. To access the weed gallery directly, visit http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/weeds_intro.html.
