- Author: Gale Perez
Yes, there is life beyond weeds. Anyone who has met Tom Lanini knows he is an avid fisherman, Joe DiTomaso is a chef, and Brad Hanson brews beer BUT did you know...
Michelle Le Strange (UCCE Farm Advisor)
- Author: Julie Finzel
I had the privilege of attending and participating in the Weed Research and Information Center's 2013 Weed Science School. This biannual event proved to be exactly what I was expected...two and a half days packed full of really helpful and useful information and demonstrations.
The first day we got started around 12:30 and received instruction on general plant biology and herbicide absorption, translocation, and metabolism. These presentations were followed by information on the different mechanisms through which herbicides work to control weeds including lipid and amino acid synthesis inhibitors, cell division, and cell wall inhibitors, growth regulators, and photosynthetic, pigment synthesis inhibitors, and free radical...
- Author: Brad Hanson
In the past couple of years, I've gotten a lot of questions about goosegrass in orchard production systems, particularly about suspected glyphosate-resistant biotypes.
From a California orchard standpoint, we have two main goosegrasses (Eleusine spp) to deal with; these are goosegrass (Eleusine indica) and threespike goosegrass (Eleusine tristachya). These species are fairly similar but have quite different flowers (see the photo below).
According to the Weeds of California and Other Western States, goosegrass is a summer annual (or occassionally a short-lived perennial) while threespike goosegrass is a perennial (or sometimes...
- Author: Richard Smith
- Author: Shimat Villanassery Joseph
Bagrada bug, Bagrada hillaris is a new invasive insect that arrived in the Salinas Valley in the summer of 2013. It is a potential pest of cole crops which is of particular concern in Monterey County which has 97,830 acres of cole crops and other crops in the mustard family including bok choy, Napa cabbage, rappini, and component s of spring mix such as, mizuna and arugula. Paving the way for the movement of this insect into the valley are weeds in the mustard family.
Bagrada bug was first observed in fields of spring mix and broccoli in the south end of the valley between King City and San Ardo. Upon inspection of the weeds in the areas surrounding these fields, bagrada bug was observed on shortpod mustard...
- Author: Brad Hanson
One of the major research and extension areas in my program is weed control efficacy in orchards and vineyards. During the 2012-13 growing season, we conducted about 50 herbicide efficacy trials in commercial orchards or research station sites. Today I thought I'd share some data from 2012-13 orchard weed control efficacy experiments comparing various tank mixtures and sequential applications of Matrix (rimsulfuron) and Alion (indaziflam). This work was primarily funded by the Almond Board of California, Bayer CropSciences, and DuPont.
By way of background, both of these herbicides are residual products with different modes of action. Matrix is a group 2 herbide (ALS inhibitor) and Alion is a group...