Test PB Collection: FTE

What's better than a bee threading through a flowering artichoke? Two bees, a honey bee and a long-horned sunflower bee. Flowering 'chokes are big draws for bees. Plant 'em, let 'em flower, and they will come. Sometimes in droves. Sometimes in diversity. Always amazing.

June 17, 2013 CONTACT: Jeannette Warnert, (559) 240-9850, jwarnert@ucanr.

Honey bees are in trouble. They are dying in record numbers. That's why you should watch "Blossom Buddies," a two-part video segment in the Growing California series, produced by the California Department of Food and Agriculture in partnership with California Grown.

A sure way to generate controversy among citrus growers is to initiate a discussion on navel orange tree pruning. Some growers maintain that yield and fruit size is best maintained by minimal pruning, while others believe that the number of large fruit is increased when trees are severely pruned.

Flies are pollinators, too. It's appropriate during National Pollinator Week to remember that. We spotted this newly emerged green bottle fly (below) nectaring on lavender last week in our yard. It seemed out of place among the honey bees, leafcutter bees and carpenter bees working the blossoms.

According to a previous ANR blog post, the 2013 processing tomato crop in California is experiencing worse-than-usual curly top problems, which is caused by a complex of Beet Curly Top Viruses (BCTVs) (Processing tomatoes face critical threat: curly top).

We have long-horned cattle and long-horned grasshoppers.

INTRODUCTION When and how olives are harvested are among the most important factors in both the quantity and quality, and therefore value of processed table olives and olive oil.

What's that hopping on our patio? At first we thought it was a grasshopper.

Poison hemlock, Conium maculatum, was brought from Europe into the U.S. as an ornamental in the 1880s and now occurs throughout North America. In California it is most commonly found at lower elevations and coastal regions but it is continuing to spread into other areas.