Test PB Collection: FTE

Some tips on grazing for invasive plant control Using livestock for controlling invasive plants has a lot of appeal; the animals seem like a natural, green method; they're cute; and at times they can be a very inexpensive way to do some weed control.

With the proliferation of pests and disease that might appear in mulch used in orchards, it might appear that the practice will become more limited unless the material can be guaranteed to be safe.

The Pride of Maderia (Echium candicans) is blooming in the tiny Sonoma coastal community of Bodega. The purplish-blue spiked flowers attract honey bees, bumble bees and syrphid flies. And visitors. And photographers. The honey bees were buzzing all over the Echium last Sunday, Feb.

Just call them "The Survivors." They made it through the winter: the bitter cold with subfreezing temperatures; the 54-day drought (will it ever rain again?) and the heavy rain that caught us thinking about ark-building.

A trial planted in Oxnard involved eight different pollinizer varieties at three different distances from 'Hass' tree rows. Yield data collected from 2002 2005 suggest that the presence of pollinizer varieties in close proximity enhance the total number of fruit harvested from Hass'.

Prune Orchard Activities to consider for March Prune Fungicide Efficacy Prune Growing in California...

We are starting to do some retrospectives of the SNAMP program. Just to get going, here are our participants visualized from two different angles: in person and online.

Everyone has a favorite almond tree, right? Mine--well, it's not exactly mine!--is on the grounds of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility on Bee Biology Road, University of California, Davis. It's spectacular in bloom.

The weed science program at UC Davis has a long and storied history which set the program on its course to develop practical weed management options for growers. Much of the progress has been built on use of herbicides to control weeds in the wide diversity of California crops.

We know when spring approaches by the number of information requests we receive for bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey's popular queen bee-rearing and instrumental insemination classes. Cobey, former manager of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr.