Agriculture

If you've ever reared a butterfly--from an egg to a caterpillar to a chrysalis to an adult--you know what it feels like. Like a miracle, to see life unfolding.

The 2019 Rice Weed Course will take place: Friday, September 6, 2019 from 8:00AM to 4:10PM (Registration begins at 7:30AM) at the Hamilton Road Field (on West Hamilton Rd. between Hwy. 99 & Riceton Hwy.

The 2019 Rice Weed Course will take place: Friday, September 6, 2019 from 8:00AM to 4:10PM (Registration begins at 7:30AM) at the Hamilton Road Field (on West Hamilton Rd. between Hwy. 99 & Riceton Hwy.

The late Robbin Thorp, distinguished emeritus professor of entomology at the University of California, Davis, and a global authority on bees, worked tirelessly to try to include Franklin's bumble bee (Bombus franklini) as an endangered species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA).

You know you have reached the Imperial Valley, located on the southeastern bottom corner of California, when you begin to smell (not carne asada, but you're close) the distinct aroma of cow manure.

A pollinator garden is a study in diversity--and of inclusion and exclusion. The residents, the immigrants, the fly-bys, the crawlers, the wigglers, the jumpers. The big, bad and bugly. The prey and the predators. The vegetarians and carnivores.

Smutgrass (Sporobolus indicus) is a warm-season perennial grass native to the tropics. Since it is well-adapted to warm summer temperatures, we seem to be seeing more of it on foothill and Sacramento Valley irrigated pastures.

A strawberry field in Nipomo (Photo by Surendra Dara) The traditional Integrated Pest Management (IPM) model is focused on maintaining ecological balance in the cropping system with some attention to the economics of pest management related to the yield losses.

Good nutrient management is essential not only for optimal plant growth, but also for maintaining good plant health and the ability of the plant to withstand biotic and abiotic stressors. Strawberry, a $3.

We never thought we'd see one this year. And then it arrived. The first monarch sighting of the year.