Cooperative Extension

The ‘Weed Doctor’ is in: Picnic Day includes tomato, strawberry give-aways

Get free tomato and strawberry transplants and fresh popcorn, and have an expert identify your weeds, at the Department of Plant Sciences during UC Davis’ Picnic Day celebration, 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, April 23. Come to the courtyard on the courtyard side of the department’s main building. It’s a block west of the Memorial Union, on North Quad between Howard Way and California Avenue.

UC Davis Research Prepares State’s $3.7 Billion Nursery and Floral Industry for a Drier Future

As California enters a third summer of record drought, farmers who raise nursery and floral crops are looking for ways to grow plants with less water, more efficiently, while fighting new diseases and detecting plagues quicker.

Researchers with the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences are finding ways to help, with support from the Plant California Alliance. The grower-supported organization has granted nearly $400,000 to the department since 2006, according to college records.

Dan Putnam receives the James H. Meyer Distinguished Service Award

“Ice cream in the making” – this is the unusual designation given to alfalfa by Dan Putnam, a Cooperative Extension Specialist in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of California, Davis.

Alfalfa is often overshadowed by California’s more famous vegetable and fruit crops, like nuts and wine, despite the key roles it plays for our food systems. It’s a highly productive crop that serves as the basis for milk, cheese, leather, honey and wool production. In other words, what lies behind the carton of ice cream on the refrigerator shelf is a field of alfalfa.

Giulia Marino: New Plant Sciences Faculty and Cooperative Extension Specialist

Expert on tree physiology in orchard systems

Giulia Marino, a crop physiologist, is the new UC Cooperative Extension (UCCE) Specialist in Orchard Systems, and a faculty member in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis). She is primarily based at the UC Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Parlier, California, and has a second office in Wickson Hall at UC Davis.

Resources for Small Grain Management: UC Small Grains Blog

The annual small grain field day and other field-based activities were cancelled due to COVID-10, so Mark Lundy and colleagues are sharing digital resources related to nitrogen fertilizer management in small grains, small grain variety evaluation, and leaf and canopy meters to measure the N status of crops. Also posted are virtual field tours of small grain variety evaluation plots.