From the TOPICS IN SUBTROPICS blog (Jan. 10, 2020)

Weed Management in Citrus Orchards

Proper weed management is important for several reason, but in general younger orchards are much more susceptible to the negative impacts of weed overgrowth. The full canopies of mature orchards limit the amount of sunlight reaching the orchard floor, which suppresses the growth of many weed species. Younger trees also have less extensive rooting systems, putting them into direct competition with weeds for water and nutrients. The presence of weeds provides habitat for...

For the past several years, California rice has been dealing with a pesky new weed, weedy rice aka “red” rice. Weedy rice is a difficult pest to manage, because it is the same species as rice (both are Oryza sativa L.), rendering herbicide use next-to-impossible. In the southern US rice-growing region (Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Arkansas), they utilize two rice varieties (in rotation) that have been conventionally bred to tolerate the use of two herbicides: Clearfield (imazamox) and Provisia (quizalofop). Since weedy rice is susceptible to these chemicals, the entire field can be sprayed with these herbicides: the rice varieties survive, and the weedy rice is controlled. In California, these varieties...

Principal Weed Scientist

IR-4 Project, North Carolina State University

Closing date: 1/21/2020

For more information, visit https://jobs.ncsu.edu/postings/127846

PRIMARY FUNCTION OF ORGANIZATIONAL UNIT     

The IR-4 Project is a national Federal/State partnership research program to assist farmers of fruits, vegetables, nuts, herbs, ornamentals, and other specialty crops by facilitating registration of safe and effective chemical and bio-based pest management products. The IR-4 Project is needed because the crop protection industry focuses their research efforts on major crops such as corn,...

New research published in PNAS (Fusco et al 2019) highlights the role of invasive grasses in creating new wildfire regimes at not just local but regional scales. Weed scientists are familiar with the concept of the grass-fire cycle (D'Antonio and Vitousek 1992): exotic grass invasions promote hotter or more frequent fires, which in turn facilitates more extensive grass invasion, causing more fires, etc.  Perhaps now is the right time to better educate non-scientists about this critical concept as wildfires take up more of the public's...