Strawberries and Caneberries

As part of the addition of the Santa Cruz County Behavioral Health facility next to our Cooperative Extension office in Watsonville, a big mural was added to the exterior wall of our auditorium. As you can see, this mural painted by local artist Bruce Harman, is really nice.

As part of a larger meeting on October 22 (next week Tuesday), I am giving an update on my SWD research - bait and kill, food source reduction and oviposition inhibition - at the Elk's Lodge in Watsonville.

Eye catching headline aside, the grass fly depicted in the first photo below has caught the attention of sharp eyed observers in area bathrooms. I've seen one too, and, yes, you guessed it, in a bathroom next to a fruit field.

So they don't infest neighboring areas with loads and loads of flies. Remember that time from egg to adult vinegar or spotted wing drosophila fly is something over two weeks when the conditions are right, so big piles of culls like these need to disappear fast.

Just a head's up to everyone on a brief education event concerning nitrogen management in strawberry on the Central Coast. Good content featuring discussion on nitrogen use, especially the the utility of preplant fertilizer, in the field.