Yesterday was the 58th Annual Weed Day hosted by the UC Davis Weed Science Program and the UC Weed Research and Information Center.
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I think we had a really good program this year made up of a half-day field tour in the morning followed by lunch and an afternoon program of research presentations. We also had one of the highest number of participants (about 160 total) that we've had in a while. We've maxed out our registration for the past five or so years so this remains a popular event. To make it even better, we had fantastic weather (high of about 90F) for the second year in a row!
We started off in the morning with two field stops addressing research on rangeland weeds. First, Guy Kyser and Joe DiTomaso discussed their research on using aminopyralid and other strategies to increase establishment of perennial grasses in rangeland. We followed that with Valerie Eviner's discussion of her lab's work on climate and management factors that influence the relative proportions of native, invasive, and naturalized grassland species.
At the orchard stop, I discussed some of our work on residual herbicides in tree nut orchards including some impressions of the newest products as well as our crop safety testing (rate-response) work and tree injury symptomology demonstrations. Then Bahar Yildiz Kutman discussed her postdoctoral projects that are designed to address grower and advisor questions about purported interactions between glyphosate herbicides and micronutrients.
At the USDA-ARS Aquatic Weed Research Facility, we enjoyed our morning break and an introduction to John Madsen, who recently joined that group after working in aquatic weed research at Mississippi State University and with the US Corp of Engineers.
Our last field stop included discussions of Lynn Sosnoskie's work on herbicide programs for field bindweed control in processing tomatoes, a field bindweed control comparison with various preemergence herbicides that Lynn, Seth Watkins and I put together, and a demonstration of annual crop injury symptoms from simulated soil carryover.
After a (very good) catered lunch, we had our afternoon session of research presentations by speakers who discussed a range of off-campus or laboratory research.
- Ellen Dean and Jean Sheppard from the UC Davis Center for Plant Diversity went through the weed ID quiz (I believe 15/20 was the high score) while I handed out FABULOUS PRIZES. A group of Fresno State weed science students represented pretty well on this quiz!
- Ran Lati (postdoc working with Steve Fennimore in Salinas) discussed their work on Spin-Aid (phenmedipham) for weed control in spinach.
- Whitney Brim-DeForest (PhD candidate in Albert Fischer's lab) discussed her work on modeling rice weed germination and emergence.
- Marcelo Moretti (PhD candidate in my lab) updated us on his work on glyphosate-paraquat-resistant hairy fleabane and horseweed.
- Jeremy James (CE Specialist and Director of the Sierra Foothills Research and Extension Center) spoke about traits that influence success and failures in rangeland revegetation and weed management efforts.
- During the afternoon break, we had an opportunity to read a few research posters and look at and exhibit of wildlife photography by emeritus CE Specialist Clyde Elmore.
- After break, Rafael Pedroso (PhD candidate in Albert Fisher's lab) discussed his work on the mechanisms of resistance to propanil (Stam) in smallflower umbrellasedge.
- A recently hired UCD postdoc, Sarah Morran, discussed work from her old lab in Australia on the mechanisms of glyphosate resistance in Echinochloa colona (junglerice) and the applications to her current junglerice projects being done in collaboration with the my group and Albert Fischer's lab.
- Libby Karn (PhD candidate in Marie Jasieniuk's lab) discussed her dissertation research on the occurrence and spread of glyphosate and glufosinate resistance in ryegrass populations from Sonoma and Lake counties.
- Finally, Joe DiTomaso talked about work that he and PhD student Christiana Conser have been doing on developing a risk assessment model for the horticultural plant trade in order to more accurately predict potential invasive plants without rejecting non-invasive ornamentals.
I'd like to thank several sponsors for the 2014 Weed Day including: Monsanto, Alligare, Bayer CropScience, Brandt Consolidated, Dupont Crop Protection, FMC Corp., Lyman/Tremont Groups, Syngenta Crop Protection, Agrichem Services, BASF, Blankinship and Associates, Dow AgroSciences, Hedgerow Farms, Marrone BioInnovations, and Target Specialty Crops.
Weed Day 2015 will be on July 16, 2015. Mark your calendars and stay tuned so you can register before it fills up again! Keep up to date at the WeedRIC homepage.
Take care,
Brad
