- Author: Carl Bell
- Posted by: Gale Perez
From the Invasive Plants in Sourthern California blog (http://ucanr.edu/blogs/socalinvasives/index.cfm)
This blog should be filed under, “They'll try anything, especially if they think there is lots of money in it and they don't know the business.”
Since I moved from an agricultural assignment 14 years ago in the low desert to do invasive plant extension work I have seen a whole bunch of strange ideas and practices floated out there that are sexy, but don't make sense. These have included steaming with a sugar-enhanced foam, tons of sugar dumped on the soil to fool...
- Author: Gale Perez
Todd Fitchette wrote the article "Herbicide-resistant weeds a growing problem" for the Western Farm Press (Feb. 18, 2014). Here's the link: http://westernfarmpress.com/management/herbicide-resistant-weeds-growing-problem
- Author: Carl E. Bell
- Posted by: Gale Perez
Some tips on grazing for invasive plant control
Using livestock for controlling invasive plants has a lot of appeal; the animals seem like a natural, green method; they're cute; and at times they can be a very inexpensive way to do some weed control. But there are also various difficulties and issues with using livestock that should be understood before you jump into a grazing program, I've discussed some below.
Livestock have different eating preferences and needs; Cattle (photo of cattle courtesy of Jack Kelly Clark, UCANR) like grass, sheep like grass and forbs, goats like browse (foliage on stems of woody shrubs, young stems and bark, like photo), and horses like grass.
They eat...
- Author: Steven Fennimore
The weed science program at UC Davis has a long and storied history which set the program on its course to develop practical weed management options for growers. Much of the progress has been built on use of herbicides to control weeds in the wide diversity of California crops. Undoubtedly California growers have much better weed management options today than they did in 1940 or 1950 thanks to translocated herbicides like glyphosate which enable us to suppress the most difficult perennial weeds like field bindweed. Much of this progress in weed management is owed to the agrochemical industry which through private investment in weed management research, developed some very effective products. However, conditions are not static, and the...
- Author: Seth Watkins
- Author: Brad Hanson
Compared to some other tree crops, California olives have relatively few registered preemergence herbicide options. However, several recent label changes have increased these options and a few new herbicides are currently being tested and may be registered in the relatively near future.
Several new herbicides have been registered in other tree and vine and UC weed scientists have conducted several experiments with the support of the California Olive Commission, the USDA IR-4 Project, and the crop protection industry to evaluate their crop safety in olives. Although these herbicides are not currently registered in olive, early crop safety results have been mostly promising with penoxsulam (PindarGT), rimsulfuron (Matrix),...
