- Author: Lindsay M. Jordan
Capitalizing on a wet winter, many cover crops established very well in San Joaquin Valley vineyards this year– it has not been uncommon to see stands of barley, mustard, and other species grow taller than 3 feet in vineyard interrows. A robust cover crop planting can offer many benefits to your vineyard site. Winter cereals can break up compaction with their fibrous root systems and legumes can fix nitrogen and contribute to vine nutrition. All cover crop plant species can be used to protect the soil surface from erosion and crusting, improve water infiltration, and provide structure-building organic matter to the soil when mowed or cultivated.
However, it has not only been intentionally seeded cover crops that took...
- Author: Cheryl A. Wilen
On April 1, 2015 Governor Brown mandated a 25% water reduction in urban water use. While you may have seen the news articles about some private citizens or even some public areas being irrigated like water is an unlimited resource, my observation is that most homes and public areas are in fact reducing their outdoor water use.
However, there were some problems that are coming along with that. I first noticed it when I was walking to the UC Riverside campus on April 14. The landscapers had cut off the water to the medians so all the turf was dead but now some drought tolerant weeds were growing. I think the campus had cut off irrigation to “non-essential” areas so that they could maintain adequate...
- Author: Elise S Gornish
This deadline to submit an abstract for the California Invasive Plant Council (CAL-IPC) Symposium is June 15, a week from Monday! Land managers who have great on-the-ground projects but don't normally think about presenting at conferences and researchers are especially encouraged to submit an abstract for a talk or a poster.
Abstract instructions and the submission form are available at http://www.cal-ipc.org/symposia/presenters.php
- Author: Oleg Daugovish
- Posted by: Gale Perez
From the Topics in Subtropics blog :: July 5, 2013
It is not always easy to kill weeds with herbicides for several reasons, but if you apply the right material at the right time to susceptible weeds you expect control. But you should never assume it, because resistant weeds rely on this assumption.
Repeated use of herbicides with the same mode of action (usually the same target site within plant) selects for naturally occurring resistance traits in weed population. The few resistant weeds proliferate since there is no longer competition from susceptible types and if other control measures are not...
- Author: Kurt J. Hembree
- Posted by: Gale Perez
While both horseweed and hairy fleabane have been here since farming began in the region, it's only since about 2003 that they have become such an obvious problem, particularly in tree and vine systems and non-crop areas.
In the past, the traditional use of combinations of pre- and postemergence herbicides and/or cultivation was adequate to manage them. However, recent changes in environmental regulations, economics, herbicide use patterns (toward more postemergence-only programs), treatment timing, and glyphosate-resistant biotypes have all contributed to the problem. Other factors contributing to their spread include, high seed production, wind dissemination, lack of seed dormancy requirement, preference for undisturbed areas...