Pest Management & Plant Health

When I began gardening, many moons ago, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I had this idealized picture in my head of what gardening was all about. A picture of a smiling woman, straw hat on her head, garden trowel in hand, a cute little apron tied around her waist.

Your customers want their lawns to be beautiful and functional (Figure 1) but dead patches or other problems sometimes occur. Figuring out the cause of turfgrass damage can be a challenge since many plant pathogens affect grasses as well as numerous abiotic (non-living) disorders.

From the Small and Organic Farm Advisor Blog ************** The Heat is On: Soil Solarization The days are long and the temperatures are high. This is a great time to solarize the soil in the Central Valley as a way to manage annual weeds and improve the growth of fall crops.

Upcoming online meeting on July 30th 2020 from 8:30am to 12pm. Register for this ZOOM event at: https://ucanr.edu/survey/survey.cfm?surveynumber=30593 You will receive the ZOOM link for the meeting by email after the registration. Agenda for this meeting is below.

In order to stay healthy and keep our spaces clean during the COVID-19 pandemic, many people are using disinfectants and sanitizers more than they may have before.

Italian ryegrass is a major weed in orchards, vineyards, field crops, and fallow fields of California (Figure 1).

The Beatles rocked the music world, drawing millions of fans. Other beetles--cucumber beetles--ravage agricultural crops, drawing millions of foes.

If you like melons, you won't like these beetles. But if you're Jasmin Ramirez Bonilla, a UC Davis graduate student in entomology, you're seeking to control these agricultural pests through more effective integrated pest management (IPM) strategies.

From the Small and Organic Farm Advisor Blog Johnsongrass in organics: Mow it? Yes, mow it! Mowing works to at least prevent seed spread and regular mowing will weaken rhizomes. Seed establishment has the greatest potential for the establishment and spread of johnsongrass and must be prevented.

The governing board of the 7000-member Entomological Society of America (ESA) announced July 6 that it has changed the name of the student trivia contest from "Linnaean Games" to "Entomology Games." And rightfully so.