Ongoing research

In 2020 near California's state capital, UC Master Gardeners of Sacramento County awaited with excitement for its annual Harvest Day they organized each year. But the ongoing pandemic forced the cancellation of this much-anticipated event leaving the usual over 1500 attendees disappointed.

I recently went looking for our copies of Walter Ebeling's book on pests of subtropical tree crops. It was created over 40 years ago, but is still a great reference for past pests and those that still pop up with less frequency than avocado thrips and persea mite do today.

In the rolling foothills of El Dorado County, Calif., a beautiful community garden thrives. Not just an ordinary garden plot, but a community space that cultivates life skills, self-confidence, and weaves a vibrant tapestry of community.

Cover crops are typically planted in ground that is otherwise fallow. In an annual crop rotation in the Sacramento Valley, cover crops are commonly planted in the fall, grown over the winter, and terminated in late winter/early spring. Thus, cover crops can take up space outcompeting winter weeds.

Do your tomato plants suffer from lack of vigor, yellowing leaves, and poor fruit production? These symptoms are associated with many different problems, including lack of soil nutrients, excess salts in the soil or irrigation water, poor drainage or waterlogged soil, or a variety of plant diseases.

Did you know that the largest organ of the human body is...the skin? You have three layers of skin. The skin protects you from mechanical, thermal, biological, or chemical hazards. It prevents loss of moisture and protects you from the effects of the sun.

Some of us have planned our landscape to include areas of no greenery. Remember selling your lawn when water was scarce? Well, you may have tired of the cubic yards of bark or, worse yet, the crushed rock you replaced it with.

We all have family histories, the stories we learn as children that become part of who we are as adults. Usually, we gather these stories and history from people, books, or classes, but sometimes we find history in the garden. Growing up, I heard stories about plants in the garden.

Preliminary grain and forage yield results for our fall-planted common wheat, triticale, durum wheat and barley trials are now available on the UC Small Grains Research and Information Center website: https://smallgrains.ucdavis.

If you've ever seen the nests of the bindweed turret bees, Diadasia bituberculata, and if you've ever tried to photograph these fast-flying bees, you know how speedy they are and how difficult they are to photograph.