Archive Nut, Prune and Olive Programs

Reminder Here are 2 events you dont want to miss. Centennial Celebration and Rice Field Day Program Rice Experiment Station, Biggs, CA Wednesday, August 29, 2012 Aquatic Weed School 2012 Bowley (Plant) Science Teaching Center, UC Davis Sept.

Are you ready for the Great Bee Count? It's happening Saturday, Aug. 11. You're encouraged to be a "citizen scientist" and count the bees in your backyard or garden over a 15-minute period and to watch or listen to a national online video broadcast at http://www.yourgardenshow.

Bee creative! That's what scientists at the University of California, Davis; area artists; and the general public will "bee" during the Davis Art Center's public exhibit, "Discovery Art: Cross Pollination, Sharing Art, Sharing Ideas," on Friday night, Aug. 10.

Videos of individual presentations that were made at the public launch of Conservation Agriculture Systems Innovation (CASI) are now available for viewing at http://ucanr.edu/LaunchCASI.

Abstract: Cheatgrass and its cousin, red brome, are exotic annual grasses that have invaded and altered ecosystem dynamics in more than 41 million acres of desert shrublands between the Rockies and the Cascade-Sierra chain.

Native on native. That's when you get when you see a yellow-faced bumble bee (Bombus vosnesenskii) on a penstemon, also known as "beard's tongue." Both the bee and the flower are native to North America.

Beekeepers describe their honey bees as "my girls" or "my beautiful girls." It's a term of endearment. Now take the green metallic sweat bee, Agapostemon texanus. If honey bees are beautiful (and they are) then these bees are spectacular.

Speakers from around the world will share their expertise with California farmers during a series of four conferences Aug. 28 to 30. The conference schedule is as follows: Aug. 28, 1-4 p.m. UC Davis Heidrick Ag Equipment Center 113 / Hutchinson, UC Davis (530) 752-1898 Aug. 29, 8-11 a.m.

How blue can it be? We spotted a metallic blue bug, one of nature's most amazing colors, last Sunday. It was in the Mostly Natives Nursery in Tomales, a Marin County site frequented by many University of California entomologists and staff as they work on their urban bee research and publications.

I recently ran across a report published by Crop Life International (a federation of plant science industry companies) on the cost of getting a "biotech" crop variety to market.