The UC Riverside Citrus Variety Improvement Program (CVIP), the forerunner of the Citrus Clonal Protection Program (CCPP), began indexing candidate varieties in 1958. At that time, the full range of indicator plants that is utilized today was not known.
The rice season has started. If you drive around the valley you will see tractors working the ground, fields being flooded and airplanes flying seed. The UC Rice Project staked its first variety trial of the season today. It was the Glenn County variety trial. This trial has 104 10x20 feet plots.
Honey bees aren't that much into roses. Wild roses, yes. Cultivated roses, not so much. Given a choice, they'll take the lavenders, mints and salvia (sage) over the roses any time.
The Weed Science Society of America (WSSA) announced its recent endorsement of a set of best management practices and recommendations to reduce the incidence and threat of herbicide resistant weeds to agricultural productivity.
Monarch butterflies, says Sonia Altizer, are "globally distributed and best known for undertaking a spectacular annual migration in parts of North America.
This is a repost (with permission) of an article by Mark Bolda (UCCE Santa Cruz Co) from April 27, 2012. The original post and the Strawberry and Caneberry blog can be found at: http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.
If you're growing a tower of jewels (Echium wildpretii) in your yard, you won't need a stop sign or a traffic light to encourage vehicles to slow down--they will automatically when they see this spectacular plant. it's a traffic stopper.