News & Information Outreach

 The problem with being a “Little Game Hunter” is that there are other “Little Game Hunters” lurking around you.Take today. Please. During my “Bug Break” this afternoon, I stepped into our pollinator garden intending to capture a few images of butterflies in flight with my trusty Nikon and zoom…

Invasive species are reshaping California’s natural and urban landscapes. UC IPM’s new Invasive Species Mini-Series explores the many ways invasive species impact our lives, from harmful garden pests and aquatic hitchhikers to destructive tree pests, invasive weeds, and the policies that guide prevention and…

I got a question the other day about the issue of elongated upper internode (EUI). The EUI is a genetic defect where the internode right below the panicle gets unusually long, making the panicle stick up above the canopy. The incidence of this defect varies with year, but it does not have a negative effect…

Blog by Karen MetzI am fortunate to have a friend who is a wonderful vegetable gardener.  She generously shares her bounty with my family.  We have had special deliveries to our front porch over several months. We started with kale, winter squash, and beets, and then moved to herbs, zucchini,…

 "Fuzzy Wuzzy" was not a bear. "Fuzzy Wuzzy" was--and is--a pink pipe cleaner caterpillar. And sometimes it comes in yellow, green, orange, blue, white or red.Pipe cleaners are used to clean smoking pipes, ridding them of residue and moisture. But as chenille stems, they find themselves in a wide…

Branched broomrape hand weeding and heat treatmentPershang Hosseini, Magdalene Burgess, Rohith Vulchi, Ni Tang, Brad Hanson (UC Davis) IntroductionBranched broomrape (Phelipanche ramosa) is an obligate root parasitic weed that can affect a wide range of crops, most notably processing tomato in…

Note: This article was previously published in 2018. We are rerunning it because we are noticing this happening in many gardens right now.Client's Request: Why no tomatoes? Starting to get lots of flowers but almost NO tomatoes? Plants look very healthy. I live in central Contra Costa County.MGCC Help Desk…

Blog by Tina Saravia The last 3 afternoons, I’ve been sitting in a spot in the front garden between the tree collard and the pomegranate (Punica granatum), giving me enough shade so I can hang out with Adeli and Maggie May, our two happy chickens, digging for bugs, a.k.a. pest control. While I watch…

When seeking to make forests more fire resilient, removing fuels from the landscape is a tough task to make cost-effective. Thinning and limbing trees during fuels reduction treatments will sometimes produce marketable timber, but more often will produce small-diameter wood pieces that have traditionally…

Brown Marmorated Stink Bug showed up in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties about 12 years ago. It had been roaming around LA and Orange Counties before that.  There was a small outbreak on avocados at the time, but it was mainly seen on a lot of other plant species, like tomatoes.  We have not seen…

Your Spring garden has been producing a bounty of warm season crops. What to do with all the tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and such you are bringing in from your beds? This week on In the Garden with UCCE Master Gardeners, UC Master Gardener Katrina Kirkeby will talk with the late chef, historian,…

This article provides information about the upcoming UCCE Weedy Rice Meeting.

 How do moths differ from butterflies?Scientists at the Bohart Museum of Entomology at UC Davis answered questions and displayed both moths and butterflies at their recent Moth Night, in observation of National Moth Week, July 19-27. Bohart associates Jeff Smith, curator of the Lepidoptera collection…

Blog by Patricia MattesonYou’re looking at a sorely overgrown, post-bloom pot of freesias, crowded by three years of self-propagation via cormels that sprout from the main corm or develop at the base of leaves. Once the plants in this pot entered summer dormancy, I set out to dig up the corms for replanting…

 In EnglishA menudo, los bancos de alimentos entregan productos que los recipientes desconocen o nunca han comido y pocas veces tienen la suerte de aprender en el mismo lugar cómo preparar platillos saludables, especialmente con las frutas y vegetales que reciben. Esto sucedió recientemente en el…

 Curious minds want to know.How many species of moths did scientists detect in the blacklighting demonstration at the Bohart Museum of Entomology's annual Moth Night, held Saturday, July 12?"We caught a total of 11 moths at the light sheet--five species in five different families," said Bohart Museum…