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

Last winter, many growers and PCAs contacted me because they were having trouble or were largely unable to control Italian ryegrass (Lolium perenne ssp. multiflorum) in their cereal fields.

Last week, Bruce Maxwell (Professor of Agroecology/Applied Plant Ecology in the Dept. of Land Resources and Environmental Science at Montana State University) visited UC Davis. He gave a seminar entitled Bringing Ecology to Management. Here's a link to view his seminar: http://ucanr.

In March of this year I traveled to Chimoio, Mozambique to provide an Integrated Pest Management training to a group of farmers through the USAID Farmer-to-Farmer program. On my first day at the farm, we toured the farm and discussed their worst pest issues.

This has been a big year for purslane at the UC Davis farm. Common purslane (Portulaca oleracea) is a succulent summer annual weed with fleshy leaves and rubbery-looking stems. Native to Eurasia, or maybe Africa, purslane arrived in the Americas with the first Europeans to settle here.

From the Topics in Subtropics blog A garden can be a competitive environment. Plants and unseen microorganisms in the soil all need precious space to grow. And to gain that space, a microbe might produce and use chemicals that kill its plant competitors.