- (Focus Area) Agriculture
- Author: Christine Casey
As mentioned in my post of May 1, my position at the Haven is being eliminated. Recognizing that the need for bee gardening information will remain, this post is a summary of resource materials, web sites, and nurseries that you may find helpful in the future. This information is not comprehensive, and some of the recommendations --such as the plant lists-- are California-centered.
Bee books
California Bees and Blooms. Heyday Books. ISBN 978-1-59714-294-6
Insects and Gardens. Timber Press. ISBN 0-88192-504-7. Winner of an American Horticultural Society Book Award, 2002.
Bees, Wasps, and Ants: The Indispensable Role of Hymenopters in Gardens. Timber Press. ISBN 978-0-88192-988-1.
The Bees in Your Backyard. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-16077-1. Available in a Kindle edition and in a spiral-bound edition. Both are great for taking into the garden.
Gardening books
California Native Plants for the Garden. Cachuma Press. ISBN 0-9628505-8-6
Sunset Western Garden Book. Time Life. ISBN 0-376-03920-5
The California Native Landscape. Timber Press. ISBN 978-1-60469-232-7
Web sites
UC Davis Bee Haven: http://beegarden.ucdavis.edu
UC Berkeley Urban Bee Lab: http://www.helpabee.org/
UC Cooperative Extension San Diego: https://ucanr.edu/sites/PollinatorAttractiveness/
Where to buy bee plants. This is not a complete list or a recommendation.
Davis, Dixon, and Woodland
Lemuria Nursery: https://www.facebook.com/LemuriaNursery
Redwood Barn Nursery: http://redwoodbarn.com/
UC Davis Arboretum plant sales: http://arboretum.ucdavis.edu
Sacramento area
Green Acres Nursery & Supply: http://idiggreenacres.com
The Plant Foundry: https://www.plantfoundry.com
California Native Plant Society plant sales: http://cnps.org/
San Francisco Bay area
Annie's Annuals: https://www.anniesannuals.com/
Berkeley Horticultural Nursery: http://www.berkeleyhort.com/
California Flora Nursery. http://www.calfloranursery.com/
Cottage Gardens of Petaluma: http://www.cottagegardensofpet.com/
Mostly Natives Nursery. http://www.mostlynatives.com/
Watershed Nursery: https://www.watershednursery.com/
California Native Plant Society plant sales. http://cnps.org/
Chico and Redding area
Floral Native Nursery: http://floralnativenursery.com/
Little Red Hen Nursery: https://www.littleredhen.org/pages/plant-nursery
McConnell Arboretum plant sales: https://www.turtlebaynursery.org/
The Plant Barn: http://theplantbarn.com/
California Native Plant Society plant sales: http://cnps.org/
Southern California
Tree of Life Nursery: https://californianativeplants.com/
Las Pilitas Native Plant Nursery: https://www.laspilitas.com/
Theodore Payne Foundation Retail Nursery: https://theodorepayne.org/plants-and-seeds/nursery/
California Native Plant Society plant sales: http://cnps.org/
Soils and water
UC Davis SoilWeb: http://casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu/gmap/
Water Use Classification of Landscape Species (WUCOLS): http://ucanr.edu/sites/WUCOLS/
From
Sandipa Gautam in the Central Valley
Hello everyone,
Please find first California red scale memo for 2024 season. CRS degree days for four counties, Kern, Tulare, Fresno, and Madera are updated on the LREC website. Please visit link for biweekly DD updates using the CIMIS station data https://lrec.ucanr.edu/Citrus_IPM/Degree_Days/.
Management choices for CRS – Mating disruption (CheckMate CRS), Biological control Aphytis melinus release; insecticides (Check UCIPM guidelines)
How can we better manage CRS – three key points to remember
- Spray applications are most effective when populations consist of immatures and are synchronized. Spray as crawlers of the first or second generation are emerging. Expect first generation crawlers in 1-3 weeks depending on your location.
- Monitor for CRS
- Pheromone cards for monitoring males, weekly or per flight.
- Leaf/twig sampling – sample the edge, interior or top of the tree. Determine if the scale is live or dead by rubbing your thumb.
- Use high gpa (750-1000) and drive <1.5 mph for a thorough coverage, except for Movento – apply at 250 GPA.
Attached is the first CRS memo of 2024 season with links to field trials conducted on CRS in the last decade.
Have a great season!
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
In the human world, we recognize Mother's Day as a special day to celebrate all mothers. It's a day that Anna Jarvis of Grafton, West Va., established on May 10, 1909 with a worship service at St. Andrew's Methodist Church, Grafton.
Lady beetles, aka ladybugs, are mothers, too. The female lays a batch of eggs, from 10 to 50, at one time, and can lay about 1000 eggs in her lifetime, scientists say.
Beneficial insects! Yes, but in their larval form they eat even more.
Mature lady beetles will feed on 20 to 25 aphids per day, but their late-stage larvae will consume 10 times that number, making them far more effective predators, according to Whitney Cranshaw, a professor and Extension entomologist with Colorado State University (now emeritus), in a July 2018 article in Phys.Org.
A salute to lady beetles and their larvae on Mother's Day!
- Author: Pamela S Kan-Rice
UCCE advisors will present webinars on May 21 and 28
Late spring rains have delayed California's fire season this year, which provides farmers and ranchers an opportunity to improve their wildfire preparedness. Barns, wood fencing, hay and other property commonly found on farms have inherent vulnerabilities to wildfire.
Fortunately, buildings and infrastructure can be hardened and maintained to reduce their vulnerability to fire and fire-related damage to agricultural resources. Having a plan in place to keep livestock safe and healthy is essential to maintaining animal health and resume operations as quickly as possible post-wildfire. Join the UC Agriculture and Natural Resources Fire Network team to learn about wildfire preparedness strategies for farms and ranches.
The two-part webinar series will cover hardening structures and managing livestock during wildfire.
Part 1: Ranch Hardening and Wildfire Preparedness Strategies for Agricultural Structures
- May 21 at 6-7 p.m.
- Join UC Cooperative Extension fire advisor Luca Carmignani and UCCE forest advisor Yana Valachovic to discuss best practices for incorporating principles of structure hardening and defensible space into agricultural structures and operations.
- Register by May 20 at https://bit.ly/3y1MbuP. Link to webinar will be emailed to registrants.
Part 2: The Realities of Managing Livestock Health During Wildfire
- May 28 at 6-7:30 p.m.
- Join UCCE livestock and natural resource advisors and our partners for a set of presentations about managing livestock health during wildfire events and what to do if you find yourself trapped by an approaching wildfire.
- Register by May 20 at https://bit.ly/3y1MbuP. Link to webinar will be emailed to registrants.
- Author: Ben Faber
You see them here, you see them there, you see those brown garden snails everywhere in the avocado trees this year. A wet year. What do you expect? Lush, beautiful tree growth, yeah. And when you come to harvest the fruit, the leaves and fruit are covered with snails. They are in your hand as soon as you go to pick the fruit.
It's especially noticeable on trees with a tight canopy with poor air circulation and canopy skirts down to the ground. Young GEM trees with their tight canopies and fruit low down and even in the leaf mulch, are especially prone in a wet year like this. We don't normally expect to see snails in avocados. They seem to go for citrus whether it's a wet or a dry year and growers are aware of the need for snail monitoring and control. But avocado growers can get caught off guard.
Snail feeding on fruit
Snails love the closed canopy which is more humid with direct contact to access from soil
So what do you do?
- Inspect young and topworked trees regularly for damage, especially during and after wet conditions. Be sure to distinguish the cause of damage. Caterpillars, earwigs, Fuller rose beetle, grasshoppers, and June beetles also chew tree foliage.
- Inspect surfaces for slimy or dry silvery trails characteristic of snails and slugs. Look for snails hidden under trunk wraps or other shelters near trunks.
- Modify cultural practices, encourage biological control, and exclude snails from canopies to provide good control.
- Prune the skirts up so that they are not touching the ground, but not so high that leaf mulch is blown away.
- Control weeds in young groves and groves where tree canopies are sparse as low vegetation favors snails.
- Retain dropped leaves and apply coarse organic mulch near trunks to retard snail numbers and to suppress root rot and weeds. Frequent microsprinkler irrigation encourages snail problems.
- Increase the interval between irrigations to the extent compatible with good tree growth. Trim branches that touch soil to restrict snail access to canopies and expose the soil surface to drying.
Birds and other small vertebrates, parasitic flies, and several types of predatory beetles commonly prey on snails. The predatory decollate snail (Rumina decollata, family Subulinidae) is widely distributed in southern California. Decollate snail is commercially available and legal for introduction only in certain San Joaquin Valley and southern California counties (Fresno, Imperial, Kern, Los Angeles, Madera, Orange, Riverside, Santa Barbara, San Bernardino, San Diego, Ventura, and Tulare counties). Decollate introductions are not recommended in avocado. Establishment of significant decollate numbers usually requires several years after introduction, and brown garden snail primarily is a pest when avocado trees are young.
Snails and slugs are repelled by copper. Commercially available bands of copper foil wrapped around trunks exclude snails. Another alternative is to add Bordeaux mixture to whitewash and paint 1 to 2 inch strip around the trunks of trees. Certain snail baits are available for spot applications. Molluscicides also kill predatory decollate snails. Pesticides are rarely warranted for mollusk control in avocado.
Read more at UC IPM
https://ipm.ucanr.edu/agriculture/avocado/brown-garden-snail/#gsc.tab=0