Strawberries and Caneberries

This piece was originally posted in late November, but see updated postscript concerning the identity of the pest at the bottom: Already giving away the punchline in the title, but I was approached yesterday by a grower experiencing an unusual problem on his strawberries.

During a tour yesterday with our new small fruit plant pathologist Akif Eskalen and Tom Gordon we happened into some blackberry canes hollowed out by sphecid wasps, most likely of the genus Pemphredon.

I know I pull too much from the Wall Street Journal, but I just can't not share this beautifully phrased paragraph that distills current political streams and what they could mean for the continuing integration of markets and labor across international borders.

I had a pretty sharp eyed PCA stop by my office just this morning with a sizable sample of what turned out to be Lewis mite from a newly planted field of strawberries.

It's been a long wait for many I know, but the revised UC IPM Guidelines for strawberry are now available. This is a massive job involving a lot of work from many people, but these are the peer reviewed gold standard for pest management and cultural practices in strawberry: https://www2.ipm.ucanr.