Ongoing research

What we've been waiting for all season... A migratory monarch butterfly fluttered into our Vacaville garden at noon today (Tuesday, Sept. 17) and nectared on a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola. Then she treated us to a butterfly ballet.

There has been a recent expansion of Avocado Lace Bug into parts of the Carpinteria area. It was more or less located in the San Diego coastal area. It spreads mainly with people....... Read about it at the UC-IPM website and the observations of Mark Hoddle, IPM Specialist at UC Riverside.

The alternate bearing (AB) nature of olive is one of the top physiologically-driven challenges faced by olive growers. AB refers to the tree's habit of producing a heavy crop in one year followed by a light crop the next year.

A new report reveals that California farmers participating in the state's Farm to School Incubator Grant Program are increasing sales of fresh, local and organic produce, meat and dairy products to schools, according to researchers evaluating program impacts.

Friday, September 13 brought growers, students and researchers to the Kearney Ag Center to obtain CEU's and learn about forage related research projects at the station as well as off the station in adjacent counties.

Writing my last blog post as the Livestock and Natural Resources Advisor for Placer, Nevada, Sutter, and Yuba Counties is bittersweet. When I became the advisor in 2017 (filling Roger Ingram's enormous shoes), I assumed I would stay in this job until I retired. Life had other plans for me.

I've often thought how hard it must be to exist as a garden plant. There you are, stuck in the ground, unable to move, subject to the whims of the wind, rain, sun, and general environment, and worse of all, the fickle, precarious treatment of your gardener parent.

A professional development workshop on 'Predatory Mites in Agriculture' was organized at the Kearney Agricultural Research Center on September 11, 2024. This workshop was facilitated by Area Citrus IPM Advisor Sandipa Gautam.

In this issue: Headed South on Highway 49 Welcome Andrea Warner!...

MEETING POSTPONEMENT ATTACHED...