UC Blogs
UC researchers discuss oak health in LA
The goldspotted oak borer continues to threaten oak trees, Tom Scott, area natural resource specialist located at UC Riverside, told participants at conference on sustaining native oak woodlands in Los Angeles, the Monrovia Patch reported.
Scott said there is still a quarantine on moving firewood out of San Diego County to prevent the spread of the damaging insect.
Reporter Sandy Gillis wrote that Larry Costello, UC Cooperative Extension environmental horticulture advisor emeritus, described the power of oaks to access water deep in the soil.
UC adds 4,584 acres of forest to its research lands
The Los Angeles Times and San Francisco Chronicle reported on UC's acquisition of 4,584 acres of Northern California mixed-conifer forest as part of a PG&E bankruptcy settlement.
Debra Levi Holtz, who wrote the article for the Chronicle, quoted Keith Gilless, dean of the UC Berkeley College of Natural Resources, which houses the UC Center for Forestry, as saying, "For us, this is a dream come true to have a network of research sites on a north-south transection through the Sierra Nevada and Cascade ranges that will dramatically improve our capacity to do work on forest ecosystems that is responsive to the questions we all have about the impacts of climate change on those regions."
The Inbetween Time
This is a time when the garden should be calling to me, because it’s that ‘in-between’ time, when the hills are golden–hued with crisping grasses and the ticks are nearly gone, and the apples are ready for picking. This year my crop of an as-yet-unidentified ‘Delicious’-type variety was bounteous, but since I did not protect against codling moth infestation, and I did not thin the crop, I have too many apples, many of them small, and many of them with an exit hole besmirched with frass. They are edible, but it’s simpler to just cut the apple in half and find the tunnel from the center and cut out the damage. I’ve never enjoyed the apples, but they are very flavorful this year.
With the winter rains about to start, I need to clean up the beds. This involves raking up dead leaves and fallen petals. I wish I could leave it to rot, and add organic material to my soil. But this cool, moist mulch would provide a wonderful cradle for fungal infections. The roses, hollyhocks and peach tree are particularly vulnerable. The roses are susceptible to black spot and rust, and the hollyhocks, which really don’t belong here in California (but I love their tall stalks and bunches of large open blossoms) develop rust so easily. Cleaning up fallen leaves is just plain sensible.
As for my peach tree, it is highly susceptible to peach leaf curl. I will clean up fallen leaves and I’ll be spraying the entire tree with a copper-based fungicide in early December, when all the leaves are gone. I’ll be mixing up a new batch (or rather my husband will…). Depending on what I can find, it will be a Bordeaux mixture, or an off-the-shelf product. Either way, I hope it will work. I’ll be replacing this tree in the next few years with a resistant variety, because it seems to be a never-ending battle, it is a very old tree and I do love peaches!
Apple hit with coddling moth. (photo by Riva Flexer)
A Blue Ribbon Day and a Sense of Humor
It's important to have a sense of humor, especially in the academic world when seriousness almost always shades levity. But wait...Take chemical...
UC Davis professor Walter Leal (right) receives the Nan-Yao Su Award from ESA President Ernest Delfosse. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Walter Leal's academic humor. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Protecting the Pollinators
It's good to see so many publications focusing on the pollinator crisis--because that's exactly what it is, a crisis. Writing for the Nature...
Assistant professor Neal Williams and Kimiora Ward, research associate from the Williams lab, collect bees. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Neal Williams (right) and colleague Rufus Isaacs confer at the Entomological Society of America meeting Wednesday, Nov. 16 in Reno. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Green Tomato What?
So it’s the end of the summer garden, and you still have tomatoes on the vine; however, they are not ripening. Being Dutch, I cannot stand to waste anything, so what to do? Green Tomato Pie. It’s easy, it’s tasty, and it’s thrifty.
You can use any kind of tomato: yellow, red, purple; so long as they are green. I pulled the plants to make way for a winter garden and then pulled off the green tomatoes, trying to get the medium sized ones. You will need four cups of thinly sliced tomatoes for one pie. Green tomato pie tastes like a cross between apple and mince pie so it might
make an interesting, surprising substitute for traditional Thanksgiving pie.
Green Tomato Pie
Pastry for 9 inch pie (top and bottom)
½ c. sugar
½ c. brown sugar
5 tbsp. Flour
1 tsp. Nutmeg
¼ tsp. Cinnamon
4 c. thinly sliced green tomatoes
1 tbs. lemon juice
1 tsp. Grated lemon peel
1 tbsp. Butter
Mix sugars, flour and spices. Arrange a layer of tomato slices on the bottom of pie shell. Sprinkle with 3 to 4 tablespoons of the sugar mixture. Continue alternating layers until the pie shell is full. Sprinkle any remaining sugar mixture on top and dot with butter. Sprinkle lemon juice and rind on top. Put top crust on and bake at 400 degrees F for 40 minutes or until brown.