Test PB Collection: FTE

Pomegranate (Punica granatum) is a specialty crop now grown on more than 10,000 acres in California. Pomegranate production has increased for both fresh market and juice in the last several years, and with this increase, random internally rotted fruit has become more noticed.

It was bound to happen. Not all monarch butterflies that you rear will make it. Such was this case this week with when two monarchs eclosed, both crippled and struggling to survive.

Moviegoers are anxious to see the long-awaited "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," which officially opens Dec. 18. But the Linnaean Games are also a force to be reckoned with-- for those who study insect science or who want to study insect science.

Well it came again, the Citrus Tasting at Lindcove Research and Education Center in Lemon Grove near Exeter, close to Visalia and just down the road from Fresno and up from Tulare. They came, growers to see and taste new and old varieties.

Extension apiculturist emeritus Eric Mussen of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, "retired" in June of 2014 after 38 years of service but his phone and keyboard at Briggs Hall gather no dust. The honey bee guru continues to answer a range of questions.

Is the overwintering monarch butterfly population along California's coast increasing or decreasing? "So far, far the picture is rather mixed for the number of monarchs in California," according to Matthew Shepherd, communications director for the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation.

This salsola scene reminds me of Alexander Nevsky's battle on the ice, or maybe Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Tumbleweed"...

Keeping your eyes open in the field can result in some unusual finds. A recent observation that was sent in concerned an avocado fruit which didn't really have the shape of an avocado and certainly not the texture.

Seal of IPM - a practical and sustainable crop production system Arthropod pests or diseases cause a variety of damages to crops.

If you're missing the warmth of summer and watching butterflies flutter around your garden, sometimes it's good to back pedal. We were looking through our zinnia photos today and came across a Gulf Fritillary (Agraulis vanillae) spreading its wings on two different zinnias.