- (Public Value) UCANR: Safeguarding abundant and healthy food for all Californians
- Author: Bradley Hanson
Several of us are part of a multi-state project on electrical weed control in organic blueberry and orchard crops. Tong Zhen is the lead grad student researcher on the UC Davis part of the project and we are working closely with our counterparts at Oregon State University (Marcelo Moretti and team) and Cornell University (Lynn Sosnoskie and team).
Tong wrote about our "first impressions" of the Zasso electrical weed control unit in 2022 and we included a demo of the equipment last year at the 2023 UC Weed Day. Tong's projects are just getting rolling for 2024 in...
- Author: Whitney B Brim-Deforest
- Author: Roberta Firoved
- Posted by: Gale Perez
California rice growers will have a new herbicide available this year: Cliffhanger™, manufactured by Gowan Company. The active ingredient is benzobicyclon, which is the same as one of the two active ingredients in the currently registered herbicide, Butte®. Cliffhanger™ is a soluble liquid formulation (SC) which can be applied by ground-rig or airplane, including as a direct-stream application into the water. In contrast, Butte® is a granular formulation, as a pre-formulated mixture of benzobicyclon and halosulfuron. To use either product, applicators must attend a training and be certified.
Dates for the training are posted on the California Rice Commission calendar
- Author: Whitney B Brim-Deforest
- Posted by: Gale Perez
Background
White water fire (Bergia capensis) was found in September of 2023, by the Butte County Agricultural Commissioner's office in a rice field in Butte County. The weed was identified by the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA.) It is the first find of this weed in California, and possibly in the United States. It is native to Africa, southern China, and tropical Asia, and it is known to be in rice fields in Europe, Central and South America, as well as the Caribbean. It was likely transported in seed to rice-growing areas and has been established in those locations for many years.
In Butte County, the weed was only found in one rice field, and the Agricultural...
- Author: Aaron Becerra-Alvarez
- Author: Sarah Lorraine Marsh
- Author: Kassim Al-Khatib
- Posted by: Gale Perez
A new herbicide for early-season weed control in water-seeded rice will be available soon. The herbicide active ingredient (a.i.) is pyraclonil, which will be trademarked as Zembu™ (1.8% a.i.) by Nichino, America Inc. The mode of action is a protox porphyrinogen (PPO)-inhibitor or Group 14. This herbicide is formulated as a granule and will be used as a residual preemergence for application on the day of seeding onto flooded fields. The use rate is 14.9 lbs ac-1 applied by air. While this herbicide is not a new mode of action for water-seeded rice, it is a new mode of action for early-season residual weed control. Pyraclonil is widely used for weed control in paddy fields worldwide and is the most commonly utilized...
- Author: Bradley Hanson
A group of crop pest management and food safety researchers across the U.S. is currently gathering grower and ag industry information on field equipment sanitation practices with the ultimate goal of designing research to address needs of the agricultural industry and consumers.
My interest in California is largely driven by concerns about spreading seeds of the CDFA "A-list" parasitic weeds branched broomrape and related species in processing tomato, a topic with lots of current research. However, the risks of moving new pests around on field...