- Author: Joseph DiTomaso
Through Sustainable Conservation and the California Horticultural Invasives Prevention (Cal-HIP) committee, the PlantRight campaign was founded in 2005. PlantRight has brought together leaders from the nursery industry, environmental groups, and academics. Its goal is to address the ongoing sale of invasive garden plants in California and to develop a strategy to remove these plants from retail sale, as well as to prevent new potentially invasive plants from being introduced. To accomplish this first objective, PlantRight teamed with the UC Master Gardener program in 2011 to survey over 225 retail nurseries throughout the state for 19 known invasive species originating from the industry. The...
- Author: Guy B Kyser
- Author: John Madsen
In summer 2015, USDA-ARS and UC Davis Dept of Plant Sciences set up a water hyacinth control study with California Department of Boating & Waterways. The goal of the study was to determine the best of several different surfactants to pair with an aquatic-use formulation of glyphosate.
Aquatic weed trials are tricky compared to terrestrial trials, because the test sites are three-dimensional and they move around. In addition, water hyacinth is free-floating. In order to establish secure test plots, we built floating 1-m2 quadrats out of PVC pipe, swim noodles, and construction fencing.
On 31 July, we anchored the quadrats in open water within a sunken island in the Sacramento delta. Quadrats were...
- Author: Chris McDonald
It is weed season! There is a principle in weed management that weeds are often better competitors for resources. Competition begins as soon as seeds break dormancy. The seeds that germinate first are often the ones that obtain the most resources.
Most plants have developed deep roots before they are a few inches tall (Figs. 1 and 2). Growing beans in a paper towel will highlight this point, the plant will be many times deeper than it is tall. What this means for plant competition is that if there is a plant that germinates quickly and one that germinates slowly, the slow plant will be at a competitive disadvantage.
1a 1b...
- Author: Brad Hanson
Link to a recent (July 2014) research article in California Agriculture (link to table of contents for volume 68)
Brad
The article by E.D. Brusati, D.W. Johnson, and J.M. DiTomaso is entitled "Predicting Invasive Plants in...
- Author: David Low
- Re-posted by: Gale Perez
From the WeedsNews4873 | May 20, 2014 | 8:28 pm
Abstract: Non-native plant distribution and community composition, along with an array of environmental factors, were examined in 31 hedgerows, an archetypal class of conservation linkage, in the northern part of California's Central Valley. Row crop, orchard, and vineyard agriculture dominate this area, and hedgerows have been popular...