Test PB Collection: FTE

By the beginning of the irrigation season, the entire root zone is usually wetted by winter rainfall. Under low volume irrigation during the irrigation season only fifty percent or less of the root zone is wetted with each irrigation on most soil types.

The lady beetle, aka ladybug, was at the wrong place at the wrong time. We don't know how she managed to get tangled in the cellar spider's web or why the cellar spider opted to have her for dinner instead waiting for a tasty honey bee, a nutritious leafcutter bee or a plump bumble bee.

The Conservation Agriculture Systems Innovation Center will hold a two-stop field tour of innovative and cost-cutting no-till cotton production systems on Thursday, May 30. The program begins at 9 a.m. in south Dos Palos (Nees Avenue and I-5) and continues at 11 a.m.

Consider the lady beetle, aka ladybug. It's not a bug, but a beetle. It belong to the family Coccinellidae, and scientists have described about 5000 species worldwide, and about 450 in North America. Some quick facts... Ladybugs are not always red with black spots.

"For many years, beekeepers and environmentally interested individuals have expressed the opinion that the use of neonicotinoid insecticides ("neonics") have interfered with the ability of honey bees and native bees to conduct their life activities properly," begins Extension apicuturist Eric Mussen...

Don't ever call the European wool carder bee (Anthidium manicatum) a slow poke. It's not "as fast as a speeding bullet" (Superman), but close. The males, quite territorial, chase away other pollinators, including honey bees, sweat bees and butterflies.

Here's an article from the UCCE San Joaquin County Field Notes newsletter (May 2013.) Medusahead has been invading our rangelands for years. The Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) has photo documentation from the early 1980s with large stands of medusahead on the east side of the county.

Reminder! Nickels Soil Lab Annual Field Day Wednesday, May 15, 2013 Green Bay Avenue, Arbuckle, CA 8:30am - 12:15pm Just added: After lunch a demonstration of modified airblast sprayer for better pest control in tree tops!!...

(Editor's Note: This luncheon has been postponed until October 2013. Details forthcoming) The buzz around the UC Davis campus is a June luncheon. Not just any luncheon, but "A Luncheon in the Garden.

Seeing yellow these days? As inthose brightly-blooming yellow-flowering shrubs along roads and hillsides from the Bay Area to the Sierra Nevada foothills. BroomFrench, Spanish, and Scotchis in full spring bloom, even at higher elevations.