Archive Nut, Prune and Olive Programs

Armillaria Root Rot There have been a lot of new avocado orchards planted during the last few years. These often have been in old Valencia orchards or lemons that had poor production. In order to save money, growers have just cut the trees at ground level and replanted the avocados near the stumps.

Occasionally we see a honey bee on the violet trumpet vine (Clytostoma calystegiodies) but the hummingbirds seem to like it better. The delicate purple-veined blossoms burst out in late spring or summer. It's a UC Davis Arboretum All-Star.

Two programs at the University of California-Riverside are working together to provide information on new and existing varieties of citrus as well as information on other types of citrus diversity.

Link here for the full WSSA press release WSSA Pesticide Stewardship Series 10- The Applicator Must Ensure that Pesticide Spray Drift Does No Harm Posted on June 4, 2013 Recently, pesticide spray drift from different pesticide applications caused damage to field corn on a bordering farm, vegetables...

I received an extension question this week about controlling bamboo that I thought I'd share.

UCD ag engineering professor Ken Giles and colleagues have been testing a remote controlled helicopter for pesticide application in challenging terrain like hillside vineyards.

So many flowers. So many pollinators. So many floral visitors. On every field trip, we see something new and different, such as the male long-horned bee, Melissodes communis (below) on salvia and the female sunflower bee, Svastra obliqua expurgata, on a Mexican hat flower.

If you're craving to find out more about insects--specifically how to FIND them--then you'll want to attend the Bohart Museum of Entomologys open house from 1 to 4 p.m., Sunday, June 9. It's free and open to the public.

The early history of the parent navel orange was presented in the last issue of Topics in Subtropics as The Parent Washington navel orange tree - Its first years.

If you've studied bees, you know that there are approximately 20,000 described species of bees in the world. Most people are familiar with honey bees and bumble bees, but they don't know about "those big black bees" (carpenter bees) or "those green metallic bees" (sweat bees).