After four years of drought, turfgrass has taken a beating. Some people have turned off the water—the turf has turned into a few patches of grass, but mostly weeds, if anything is growing at all (Figure 1.) Others have reduced irrigation amount or frequency resulting in sparse grass and more weeds (often perennial weeds and/or drought tolerant weeds such as bermudagrass, dallisgrass, field bindweed, dandelion, narrow or broadleaf plantain, knotweed, hairy fleabane, star thistle and others.) Other people of course have removed the grass and replaced the landscape without turfgrass. There also has been a concerted effort to get people to reduce the grass in the landscape by painting with a broad brush that grass is a heavy water...

A quick post today to share a link to the recently revised "UC IPM Pest Management Guidelines for Avocado" (UC ANR Publication #3436).  You can download the whole document as a pdf here, or use it online at the above link

Although there are also well-written sections on general avocado pest management, as well as specific information on insects, mites, and diseases of avocado, since this is the Weed Science blog, I'd better post a link directly to the Integrated Weed Management section...

Reposted with permission from the January 2014 issue of "CWSS Research Update and News", a semiannual publication by the California Weed Science Society.  Check out that issue for several other interesting research and extension articles.  Take care, Brad

Control of Willowherb in California's North Coast Vineyards

- John Roncoroni, UCCE Napa...

Happy New Year! It’s too cold in Tulelake for field work, so I’m busy summarizing 2013 research results. Today I posted a progress report on the Intermountain Research and Extension Center (IREC) website summarizing results for our 2013 onion weed control research. The study was conducted at IREC to evaluate rates of DCPA (Dacthal) alone and combined with pendamethalin (Prowl H20) applied at loop stage for control of kochia in onions grown on silty clay soil with high organic matter. Sulfentrazone (Zeus), an unregistered herbicide in onions, was tested at various rates as a preemergence and postemergence herbicide on the same soil type. Prowl H20 application timing was also evaluated by comparing applications...