Archive Nut, Prune and Olive Programs

Ever watched Valley carpenter bees (Xylocopa varipuncta) foraging on salvia?

On typical days, the air near the ground is warmer than the air above it. This is because the atmosphere is heated from below as solar radiation warms the Earth's surface. A surface inversion occurs when the atmosphere at the earth's surface is colder than the layer above it.

Announcing a new NSF-funded program at UC Berkeley: DS421. Three Grand Challenges motivate our program: Data. The revolution occurring in data acquisition, assimilation, and analysis, and the resulting challenges and opportunities for the research community and society at large.

The "Painted Ladies" are back in the Davis area. These are not the two-legged type, but the winged type--Vanessa cardui. They're migrating and driving UC Davis entomology and ecology students nuts.

It was not the greatest of St. Patrick's Day surprises. A green lacewing nailed by a garden spider? And on the porch light fixture? So true.

Good news for POST weed control in several tree crops. With a recent label change, Rely 280 is now registered for use on citrus, stone fruits, pome fruit and olives.

We received the following e-mail from the California Dept. of Pesticide Regulation. ************************************************** ...

You can tell it's almost spring when you hear bees buzzing on the flowering crab apples. Spring officially starts Friday, March 20, but don't tell that to the bees. They're in the midst of their spring build-up. Meanwhile, California Agriculture Day beckons.

One point I always make is that the sooner you control annual weeds, the better. The reduces crop-weed competition, along with a host of other issues caused by weeds (we'll save that for another blog). But the real key to forward-looking weed management is to kill the weed before it produces seeds.

A sharp-eyed youngster noticed the resemblance.