Archive Nut, Prune and Olive Programs

SACRAMENTO The California Department of Food and Agriculture is joining with government partners, NGOs and private industry to celebrate the inaugural California Soils Week, scheduled to correspond with World Soils Day on December 5, 2017 but also including events in northern and southern Californi...

I have only received one weed-related farm call in my two seasons as the vegetable crop advisor in Colusa, Sutter and Yuba counties. In early August 2017, one of the melon PCAs I work with called me up to tell me about a grassy weed in a fresh-market honeydew field.

The National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) is a USDA service which has been collecting aerial imagery once a year during the growing season for the entire continental US.

You never know what you'll find when you visit a pollinator garden. Take the case of our visit Nov.

In most coastal areas of California, avocados are grown in hilly areas up against wildlands. This is done for various reasons, often for improved frost control amongst other reasons.

Who knew? You've probably watched those colorful painted ladies (Vanessa cardui) fluttering about in your yard, but have you read the newly published research about their wing color patterns and genetic codes?

The 2017 season was marked by weather extremes, including record winter rainfall and high summer temperatures. Despite those, Delta rice growers generally observed an average to above-average season. Total acreage for the Delta south of the Yolo Bypass was roughly 2900 acres.

See those red spots on your milkweed seed pods? Lady beetles (aka ladybugs or "garden heroes") are feasting on aphids. And they're having a ball. We've been watching the critters on our milkweed, Gomphocarpus physocarpus, for the last couple of months.

It's not a question of whether katydid did or didn't. She did. In answer to what-are-we-going-to-see-next-in-insect-sightings-today-in-our-weird-climate-changing patterns, a katydid appeared on our yellow rose bush on Nov. 21 in Vacaville, Calif. And stayed for several days.

So if you have lemons, read this. And if we have rain, really read this. I think because we prune lemons so much, this is more of a lemon problem, because I've never heard of other citrus getting it. It is a wood decay fungus on a lot of other tree species, though.