Ongoing research

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A field of green ribboned in yellow. Anyone who drives down Pedrick Road in Dixon, Calif., and sees the spectacular sunflower fields can't help but smile. Yellow sunflowers do that to you. They make you smile.

Rice blast: more of the same with a bit of a twist in 2011 - Armyworms - 2011: About the same as last year.

Today I'm asking for input from folks who work in orchard and vineyard weed control (land owners, managers, pest control advisors, sprayer operators, etc.) on your take on herbicide resistant weeds.

I ran across a Weed Science Society of America (WSSA) press release from last summer that I found interesting.

It's a perfect example of "the bad, the ugly and the good." In that order. Not "the good, the bad and the ugly." The yellow starthistle (Centaurea solstitialis) is the kind of obnoxious weed you wish would go away forever.

Released August 15, 2011, by the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), Agricultural Statistics Board, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

First you give them roots, then you give them wings. That's what's happening in our bee condo, a wooden block (nest) with drilled holes for leafcutting bees (Megachile). They flew in, laid their eggs, provisioned the nests with pollen and leaf fragments, and capped the holes. We had 11 tenants.

I've been receiving reports of high armyworm populations this summer. You can always find some armyworms in rice fields, but I have rarely seen fields that needed a treatment due to armyworm injury. Defoliation caused by armyworms is not uncommon.

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