Backyard Orchard News
The Lavender Blossom Special
If you want to take photos of honey bees in flight, do so early in the morning. They don't move as...
Honey bee in flight, heading toward a lavender blossom. Note the varroa mite on her head.(Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Blueberry open house attracts farmers to Kearney
Manuel Jimenez, University of California Cooperative Extension advisor in Tulare County, hosted the annual spring blueberry open house at the UC Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center May 23.
The event featured a tasting tour of dozens of blueberry varieties, review of an ongoing mulch variety trial, information about hoop houses and a first look at a new research project in which the most commonly grown commercial blueberries are grafted on a rootstock with greater tolerance for California's alkaline soils. Read more about the blueberry rootstock trial on the UC Food Blog.
Now That's a Pollinator!
Remember the news published several years ago about a scientist who discovered a two-inch-long bat...
Nectar-feeding bat with a record-long tongue sips sugar-water from a tube. (Photo by Murray Cooper; photo courtesy of Nathan Muchhala)
Nathan Muchhala is a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Biological Sciences, University of Nebraska, Lincoln.
Young scholars from overseas intern at KARE
Five students from Central America and the Caribbean who recently graduated from Reedley College with associate's degrees in agriculture business are undertaking a four-week internship at the UC Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center.
The students are part of Reedley College's Scholarships for Education and Economic Development (SEED) program, a cooperative agreement between the U.S. Agency for International Development and Georgetown University's Center for Intercultural Education and Development.
After their four-week research stint at Kearney ends, the students will be traveling back to their homes to share the knowledge and skills they acquired during their two years in America to produce a positive impact in their communities and countries.
The five scholars working at Kearney are:
- Kenia Ruiz, 22, of Santa Ana, El Salvador
- Lucas Bartolón, 25, of San Marcos, Guatemala
- Pierre Marescot, 26, of Cayes, Haiti
- Gricelda Sánchez, 21, of Managua, Nicaragua
- Gabriela Nicolas López, 23, of Santa María, Honduras
Ruiz and Bartolón are working in the lab of plant pathologist Themis Michailides. Marescot, Sanchez and Lopez are assisting with a variety of projects with KARE researchers and staff.
Left to right, interns Lucas Bartolón and Kenia Ruiz with Herve Avenot, an assistant project scientist working in the Michailides lab.
Gabriela Nicolas López (left) and Gricelda Sánchez.
Pierre Marescot.
The Hostest with the Mostest
You're sitting in your back yard or at a park and a mosquito bites you. You're the host whether you...
Tara Thiemann is researching bloodfeeding patterns of Culex mosquitoes. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Tara Thiemann working in the lab. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)