- Author: Lauren Fordyce
Healthy Soils Week (Dec. 4-8) is a week-long initiative by the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) to highlight the importance of soil health throughout California.
Healthy soils can improve crop yields, sequester carbon, reduce erosion, and increase biodiversity. In addition, they can reduce pest problems and pesticide and fertilizer use. Healthy soils lead to healthy plants which are less susceptible to pest attacks and can better tolerate and recover from pest pressure.
In integrated pest management (IPM) we promote the use of cultural control methods to improve soil and plant health, making an environment less conducive for pests to...
Soil solarization is a method home gardeners and farmers can use to manage soilborne pests such as weeds, disease pathogens, nematodes and insects. Solarization can reduce help reduce pesticides used to control these pests.
Soil solarization is simple: prepare the site, water it a bit, then cover the soil with clear plastic for an extended period of time to allow the sun to heat the soil to temperatures lethal to a wide range of pests.
Learn more about this process in our recently updated Pest Notes: Soil Solarization for Gardens & Landscapes, by authors Jim...
If you have house or office plants and have ever seen small, dark-colored insect swarming around them, your plants could have fungus gnats.
Fungus gnats are tiny flies that as adults, resemble mosquitoes. Fungus gnats don't bite people, but their presence can be annoying. Their larval stage lives in wet, overly moist potting mix, where they feed on decaying matter.
The first step to managing fungus gnats is allowing the soil in your houseplants to dry out in between watering. To read more about how to manage this pest, visit the UC IPM publication Pest Notes: Fungus Gnats.
- Author: Brad Hanson
A repost and link to a recent Weed Science Society of America press release entitled: "About Weed Seeds and Their Longevity" Click the link to go to the full...