- Posted By: Brad Hanson
- Written by: Weed Science Society of America
Article reposted from the Weed Science Society of America (WSSA) website. The pdf version of the article is attached at the bottom of the post.
Take care,
Brad
http://www.wssa.net/index.htm
http://www.wssa.net/WSSA/PressRoom/WSSA_Compost_WeedFree.htm
Time, temperature and turning are critical factors
Compost can be a gardener's best friend. It can deliver dramatic improvements in soil quality and nutrients to nourish your plants throughout the growing season. But unless you use the right techniques,...
- Author: Brad Hanson
I recently ran across an article from Western Farm Press (written last November) that I thought was interesting and worth reposting here.
The article, which was entitled "Weed Control: Communication with Farmers Essential", provided a synopsis of a journal article on the subject. (the scientific publication was in the Journal "Weed Science" and was titled "Investigating the Human Dimension of Weed Management: New Tools of the Trade").
Both the web article and the journal publication discussed the human dimension of how weed management decisions are...
- Author: Brad Hanson
Last week I attended the Western Society of Weed Science annual meeting (Spokane, WA). Joe DiTomaso and I were invited to speak in an Education and Regulatory Symposium entitled "Use of New Technology by Weed Science Educators" and I thought I'd share a few thoughts about the session and also my presentation on blogs.
This interesting symposium organized by Marvin Butler from Oregon State University had four speakers plus time for discussion.
First, James Leary from the University of Hawaii at Manoa spoke about "The Virtual Field Day (VFD): Web-based video presentations that extend to a broader audience". He discussed his use of low cost, self edited YouTube...
- Author: Brad Hanson
A few months ago I compiled some statistics on the acreage and value of tree and vine crops in California and put together a simple map of where the main production areas are located. One caveat to this map is that I only had access to land use data layers for the Central Valley counties and some Bay area and Central Coast areas. Therefore, this map does not show orchards and vineyards in Southern California or the Desert growing regions which are very important for some crops in the chart below the map.
These crops all fall under the label of "specialty crops" although some of them have fairly substantial acreage. One of the things I found most interesting in looking at these data compared to a few years ago is the...
- Author: Brad Hanson
Happy New Year!
Today I thought I'd attach a poster presentation from the recent 38th Annual Almond Industry Conference. The attached poster has some information on an ongoing research project in which we are testing thermal disinfestation as an alternative to soil fumigation for management of almond replant disease.
This is not especially a weed research project but has become an interesting area of research because of the high economic and environmental costs of soil fumigation. In second and later generation, trees can be affected by a variety of soil pests including fungal and bacterial pathogens, parasitic nematodes, and other yet-to-be-identified pests that can reduce orchard establishment and early...