UC Blogs
And Life Goes On...
The tender shoots of fava bean blossoms are attracting scores of aphids, which suits the ladybugs just fine. Nothing like an all-you-can-eat aphid...
Ladybugs in the fava beans at the Haagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, UC Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Note the scores of aphids behind the ladybugs. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Ladybug crawls past some aphids. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Freeze!
It's been so nice to be out in the garden. Buds are starting to swell on some shrubs, weeds are growing like gangbusters. I'm so ready for spring; I just want to clean everything up and plant away. But this time of year I have to stop myself from doing one particular garden chore. Some of my plants are looking a little, okay a lot, bedraggled because of frost damage. I could make them look so much better with just a few snips here and there.
For example, here is my avocado Persea americana. I started it from seed. It lives out on my back patio just under a patio cover. On nights I anticipate frost, I cover it with a sheet along with my dwarf citrus that also live on the patio. It's not looking very happy right about now. I think most of this is frost damage, but some might also be damage from the weight of the sheet on the little tree. I'm itching to cut all that brown damage off. However in Solano County on average, our last frost date is March 15th. We may get a few more frosts, yet. Those ugly damaged parts are protecting leaves and stem lower on the plant. If I cut the damaged parts off now that will just expose more of the plant to any remaining frosts. So for right now, I just need to... step away... from the pruners.
Low temperature injury on avocado. (photo by Karen Metz)
UCR scientists continue release of psyllid enemies in SoCal
An exotic species in California, psyllids feed on citrus or close relatives of citrus and can spread a bacterium that causes Huanglongbing (HLB) disease.
"It's a death sentence for a citrus tree," said CDFA spokesman Steve Lyle. "The only thing left to do with the trees is to cut them down and burn them, and that would be devastating to the citrus industry."
To date, HLB has not been found in California. However, Lyle said its arrival is "not a matter of if, but when."
New CSUF projects help in fight against obesity
Danny Chau, The Daily Titan
Cal State Fullerton received more than $800,000 in grants from USDA to fund three new projgrams on campus that will promote nutrition education and the fight against childhood obesity.
The project will train 80 diverse students in nutrition and childhood obesity.
“The nice thing about it is the students will get exposure to leading scientists in the field and by our collaboration with UC Davis,” said Archana J. McEligot, associate professor of health science at CSUF.
/span>/span>/div>Everything Is Connected; Even the Bees
"When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe."--John Muir, My First Summer in the...
Honey bee heading for an almond blossom on Bee Biology Road at UC Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Honey bee foraging in almond blossoms. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Gardening Games
As if gardening isn’t enough fun there are actually people out there that have made computer games for us to play too! I’ve been playing a couple that I thought you might be interested in trying yourself. You can download them to your desktop or laptop, I have them on my iPad, and they have Smartphone versions too. These review are my own opinion and do not reflect the views or policies of the UC System or Master Gardeners (even if I am an Aggie).
The first one and my personal favorite is called Gardenscapes. It’s put out by a company called Playrix. It is a no pressure game (unless you set it to timed mode). The story goes that you’ve inherited a mansion from your late uncle and want to rejuvenate the gardens to their once former glory. In order to do so, you must find things within the house to sell and earn enough money to upgrade the garden. You are given choices of what to buy, and there is pressure from the garden club to update it in order to become a member. The musical score in the garden is peaceful and relaxing and the butler that comes with the property keeps you on track. I opted to upgrade to the paid version for this one.
The second one is called GardenDash. Made by the same folks, Playfirst, that makes the now infamous DinerDash. This one is a lot of fun, but make sure you’ve had your dose of caffeine for the day! In this one, you play “Barbara” who has been told she needs to take a vacation and de-stress. To make a long story short, Barb begins a business and you have to plant the plants, water, prune, harvest and fill the customer’s orders. You earn money selling your produce and can buy things to fix up your garden or things to help Barbara get things done more effectively. I’ve only been playing the free version, but I have plans to shell out the 1.99 for the full version.
The last one I’ve been working at conquering is Garden Panic! This one you are in charge of a patch of strawberries and Sgt. Strawberry walks you through how to defend it by planting cornstalks that shoot kernels and tomatoes that through grenades. There are various attackers. Grubs, ants and caterpillars come at a regular rate and the more you shoot the more sun ray energy you get to power you up. The graphics on this one are really nice, but the print that you have to read to get the instructions is small and I wasn’t able to enlarge it on my iPad. It’s also a bit difficult to figure out, and even though you get more lives at the push of a button it’s probably not one I’ll be upgrading to the paid version.
So gardeners, treat yourself. Try one or try them all. It’s just fun to find out that gardening has hit the gaming world. Just look out for those bugs and worms.
GardenDash Screenshot
Gardenscapes Screenshot