Reprinted with permission from David Haviland.  Originally posted on February 8, 2013.

For the last few years citrus growers in the San Joaquin Valley have been nervously watching the establishment of Asian citrus psyllid in southern California and bracing themselves for the day of northward movement.  That day arrived in November 2012 when two psyllids (Strathmore 16 Nov. and Terra Bella 21 Nov.) were caught on yellow sticky card traps, in addition to a third capture back in January 2012.  These captures have now resulted in restrictions on the movement of citrus in the heart of California's principal citrus production region.

Asian citrus psyllid is a small...

Citrus Greening Disease has been moving through California.  We are reaching out to California gardeners and UC Master Gardeners in an effort to slow the spread.  

How can you learn more or help?

1. Watch the California Garden Web for posts related to Asian Citrus Psyllid and Citrus Greening caused by the bacteria known as Huanglongbing.  
2. Help us spread the word by following us on Twitter at @ACPoutreach.  
3. Attend a talk on Citrus Greening near you!  We'll post events...

We have just gone through a couple of weeks of over 100F in northern California on top of being inundated by smoke from all of the wildfires in the mountains surrounding the Sacramento Valley. Nonetheless it really is time to think about that fall vegetable garden. We call this the cool season garden because the plants tolerate colder temperatures...not that they need cold temperatures to grow. Getting your cool season vegetables in this time of year ensures that they grow to an adequate size before the soil temperatures cool to the point that they stop growing until spring. Your plants will be large by the time they come into the harvest period in early to late spring. Some of the things that I intend on planting in the next few weeks...

This year was a tough year for the peaches and nectarines.  It seemed that even though we sprayed with a copper oil spray and with a registered fungicide at the right time, the PLC was very noticeable on the trees this spring.  Treating now is useless as is pulling off the infected leaves.  Never the less, many peolple do it because it makes them feel better and they don't see the infected leaves anymore.  Chuck Ingels on the other hand is trying to do something about it!  He has been working on methods that home gardeners may use to thwart PCL without the use of the chemical recently removed from sale to home gardeners, specifically Lime Sulfur and Copper Fungicide Microcop.  The only fungicide products left for treating peach leaf...