Ph.D. candidate Deniz Inci is the Weed Science Society of America graduate student of the month. Here, he offers some background on his passion for finding solutions to the problem of weeds in agriculture.
Matthew Fatino, a Ph.D. candidate in UC Davis' Department of Plant Sciences, was named WSSA graduate student of the month. Passionate about weed science, his research focuses on in-season management of branched broomrape, a threat to California's tomato and seed industries.
A cartoon character that looks suspiciously like a Department of Plant Sciences professor leads an animated, online tutorial that recently won a 2022 Gold Award from the Association for Communication Excellence.
Steve Fennimore, UC Davis Plant Sciences faculty member and UC Cooperative Extension weed specialist, and colleagues received the 2020 EurAgEng Outstanding Paper Award for the paper, “Crop Signalling: A Novel Crop Recognition Technique for Robotic Control,” which was published in Biosystems Engineering.
A driverless, autonomous weed cultivator is being tested at UC Davis, uprooting weeds with wheels of fingers as it travels. Steve Fennimore, Plant Sciences, is working with Simon Belin at Naio Technologies. The goal is to reduce labor, costs, and herbicide use.
Steve Fennimore, faculty in the Dept. of Plant Sciences, UC Davis, has received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program award to conduct research and teaching at the INIA Las Brujas horticultural field station in Uruguay as part of a project to develop sustainable weed management systems in specialty crops.
The USDA will allow the release of a weevil (Ceratapion basicorne) in the United States to help control yellow starthistle, an invasive weed found in 40 of the lower 48 states. The weevils will initially be released in California. Brad Hanson, weed specialist in Plant Sciences, addresses management of yellow starthistle.
Three factors drive automation in vegetable crops: Employee shortages, availability of technology, and fewer new herbicides. Weed specialist Steve Fennimore, Plant Sciences, UC Davis and UC ANR, explains the importance of mechanization and robotic weeders, due, in part, to labor shortages and fewer herbicides.
Control of branched broomrape, a parasitic weed that can badly infest tomato and other crop fields, was addressed by UC Davis, UC ANR researchers — Brad Hanson, Mohsen Mesgaran, and Matt Fatino — at the annual Weed Day field day at UC Davis.
Weeds can result in yield losses in California’s specialty crops. They also harbor pests and diseases. In this video, weed specialist Steve Fennimore (Plant Sciences, UC Davis, and UC ANR) addresses the use of herbicides and hand labor, along with the cost of weed control.