The roots run deep

It’s not surprising that UC Davis is a powerhouse in weed science research, since the field was born here over 70 years ago. The late Professor W.W. Robbins, chair of both the botany and truck crops department from 1936 to 1942, developed a weed research program in the late 1930s and initiated the first courses in weed science taught in the United States. Robbins and his colleagues produced the first college textbook on weed control in 1942.

Botany to “Doc Robbins” (as he was affectionately known) was not a theoretical subject to be unsullied by practical applications. He believed all real knowledge must impact human lives, and he devoted his career to applying botanical knowledge to controlling weeds and improving plant production. He loved research and he loved sharing what he discovered with farmers, students and others.

“That’s still central to weed science research to this day,” says newly hired Assistant CE Specialist Brad Hanson, the most recent weed specialist to join the plant sciences faculty. “That’s one of the reasons I was attracted to weed science. We seek practical solutions to agricultural and environmental problems and work to bridge the gap that sometimes occurs between basic research and the end users of the technology.”

Drop by the UC Davis Weed Science Program and you will see what Hanson means. For starters, many of the “weeders” won’t be on campus. They will be out talking to homeowners, landowners, farmers or ranchers, inspecting injury on a grape vine, maybe, (“Is that from herbicide drift or disease? Or maybe heat?”) or researching a tenacious weed infestation. They might be conducting tests in a rice field or fumigating soil in a cut flower field or testing the invasive potential of a possible biofuel. Extension is central to weed science.

So who makes up this band of traveling weed whackers?  The short list and their specialties include:

CE Specialist Joe DiTomaso, biology, ecology, and management of non-crop weeds in rangelands and wildlands

CE Specialist Tom Lanini, weed control in vegetable and agronomic crops

CE Specialist Steve Fennimore, weed control in coastal crops like strawberries, lettuce and cut flowers; sustainable weed management in high value crops

CE Specialist Kassim Al-Khatib, director of the UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program (IPM)

Associate Professor Marie Jasieniuk, evolution and spread of weeds and weed resistance to herbicides

Associate Professor Albert Fischer, ecophysiology and competition of weeds in rice

Assistant CE Specialist Brad Hanson, weed control in perennial crops like grapes and fruit and nut trees

Research Specialist Guy Kyser, invasive plants of non-crop environments

Extensions of that team include CE farm advisors and affiliates like Plant Physiologist Lars Anderson and Ecologists David Spencer and Brenda Grewell who conduct exotic and invasive weed research with the USDA Agricultural Research Service at a station just west of campus and John Randall, wildland invasive species team director with The Nature Conservancy. Also included are hundreds of faculty, researchers, students, postdocs, ranchers, growers, biologists, foresters, regulators, ecologists and others who team with the weeders to keep invasive plants in check.

Indeed, Robbins would be impressed with the system spawned from his initial class. And he would be happy that, in addition to outreach, his other core principal is very much in tact: Use all your tools. Robbins spoke often to farmers over the years, presenting remarkable results with new chemical and mechanical means of weed mitigation. But year after year, he would also display a time-honored solution: a simple garden hoe.

“That is still what we stress, that you need to consider all the tools in your tool box,” says UC IPM Director Al-Khatib. “You get into trouble when you overuse one solution. We encourage a holistic approach that deals with the target organism while minimizing risk to human health, beneficial and non-target organisms and the environment.”

When it comes to fighting weeds, one size does not fit all. With that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the wide-ranging weed work underway in both agricultural and non-crop environments.

Next: The weed-crop connection