Test PB Collection: FTE

It's the Big 4-0 for the Almond Board of California's annual almond industry conference this week. Some 1000 convention-goers are gathering in the Sacramento Convention Center. The 40th annual conference opened Tuesday, Dec. 11 and runs through Thursday, Dec. 13.

When chemical ecologist Walter Leal, professor of entomology at the University of California, Davis, was elected to the prestigious Brazilian Academy of Sciences, his lab members donned matching t-shirts--t-shirts with a touch of humor and a dose of humility. On the front: "I did the work.

Over the past few years, herbicides with the active ingredient glufosinate (Rely, Rely 200, Rely 280) have become very important in California tree nut orchards and grape vineyards.

If you or someone in a household near you can draw a bug, then you need to head over to the Bohart Museum of Entomology on the UC Davis campus on Saturday afternoon, Dec. 15. The Bohart Museum is hosting an open house from 1 to 4 p.m. in Room 1124 Academic Surge on Crocker Lane.

It's that time of the year when I try to update the list of herbicides registered for use in California orchard and vineyard crops. The attached version has all the updates that I have been made aware of by my industry reps during the year.

A UC Cooperative Extension specialist says there isn't enough scientific evidence to warrant consumers making changes to their diets nor to their children's diets based on recent media reports about levels of arsenic in rice.

Fresno State plant science associate professor Anil Shrestha will receive the 2013 Outstanding Reviewer Award from the Weed Science Society of America. The honor will be presented at the annual meeting, Feb. 4-7 in Baltimore, Maryland.

Abstract Non-synthetic herbicides offer a potentially useful addition to the suite of weed management tools available to organic growers, but limited information is available to guide the optimal use of these products.

Ok, I'll admit that I fully intended to do something useful today but got distracted thinking about weed control research, weed science extension, and herbicide-resistant weeds (what do YOU think about on Saturday afternoon?).

Two links to recent BBC news articles on invasive weeds. The first one is about a weed that should be familiar to anyone who has traveled in much of the intermountain west - cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum).