UC Weed Science (weed control, management, ecology, and minutia)

The Spring 2012 edition of UCNFA News, the online newsletter for the UC Nursery and Floriculture Alliance, is now available for viewing. This issue focuses on weeds and weed management for nursery and floricultural operations.

Woolly distaff thistle (Carthamus lanatus L.) is a yellow-flowered, spiny winter annual native to Mediterranean and central Europe. It has become a problem recently in northern California and southern Oregon.

Previously in this blog Brad Hanson discussed some of the research Kent Brittan (UCCE Yolo) and I have done with Roundup Ready canola as a crop and then evaluating it as a weed because of its seed dormancy characteristics.

A video entitled, "Alternative Cultivators for Organic Vegetable Production" is now available on YouTube.

I just read about an interesting development in the methyl iodide (Midas) controversy - the fumigant is being pulled from US use by the manufacturer. While the decision is not altogether surprising in California, I admit that I didn't expect a US-wide registration withdrawel.