Blackberry growers should note that the moderate rains taking place in ambient temperatures of 65 to 75 degrees F as is common in February and March on the Central Coast are excellent conditions for outbreaks of downy mildew. Downy mildew is caused by the fungal pathogen Peronospora sparsa. …
This was published back in 2008, but even though I haven't had a call on this for a while, it's still good to have posted here: Raspberry sawfly, Monophadnoides geniculatus, is an uncommon pest in raspberries on the Central Coast of California. I recently had a question concerning this pest,…
3/9/2026 - this is a blog post I wrote back in early 2010, but when we switched over to the new blog presentation system last year it was unfortunately removed from the thread. Still, it's good information to have out in the public domain, so I post it back up again. MarkThere are many causes of…
Happy New Year all!Be sure to save the date for our Annual UCCE Strawberry Production Research meeting to be held at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds in Watsonville. As always, just a super line up of speakers on a range of topics sure to interest anyone involved in the strawberry endeavor in…
The Economist, a leading British news and current affairs magazine, wrote recently that “slop” is the word of the year 2025, “representative, if not of the whole year, at least of much of the feeling of living in it.” It seems that this word “slop” was first officially described in the 15th century and…
