Ongoing research

Those who hike the trails of Bodega Head, a small promontory in Sonoma County overlooking the Pacific Ocean, enjoy the colorful wildflowers, the roaring ocean, and a sheltered sandy beach. They picnic. They play. They pose for photos. But there's one thing they don't do.

Chemicals are often injected through irrigation systems, hence the name chemigation. When applied to fertilizers, it is called fertigation.

The scrub jays are just doing their job. But they're doing it too well. The gulf frittillary butterflies (Agraulis vanillae) are mating and depositing their eggs on our passion flower vines--as we want them to do--but complete metamorphosis always seems to be incomplete.

Visitors to Bodega Head, Sonoma County, will see lupine, California golden poppies, wild radish, mustard, seaside daises and scores of other flowers in bloom. And if they're lucky--a metallic blue digger wasp from the Sphecidae family of thread-waisted wasps.

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.