Leaf miner becomes vine connoisseur
Leaf miners have an eclectic palate between them, enjoying everything from sweet potatoes to coconuts and cashews. It appears that at some point they decided that something was missing – perhaps a fine wine to wash it all down? After intensive studying of diet, morphology and DNA barcoding, it has been revealed that a mystery moth…
Update: New Pest & Disease Records (21 Feb 12)
We’ve selected a few of the latest new geographic, host and species records for plant pests and diseases from CAB Abstracts. Records this fortnight include a new, unnamed virus infecting tomatoes and Euphorbia species in Venezuela; first reports of watermelon viruses in Palestine and Serbia; and a phytoplasma that infects prickly pear being found in…
Update: Plant Health News (16 Feb 12)
Here’s a taste of some of the latest plant health news stories, including plants that resist pests by telling the time, the fly that’s endangering German fruit crops, and why less snow has led to more yellow-cedar trees freezing this year. Click on the link to read more of the latest plant health news!
Update: New Pest & Disease Records (09 Feb 12)
We’ve selected a few of the latest new geographic, host and species records for plant pests and diseases from CAB Abstracts. Records this fortnight include a new phytoplasma infecting soybean in Costa Rica, a parasitic nematode causing damage to several plant species in Brazil, and the Mediterranean fruit fly spreading and widening its host preference…
Agricultural Super Ducks
Agricultural super ducks? You may think that the entire phrase is flawed. Ducks waddle around in parks, not on farms. You probably have never thought of them as being particularly ‘super’ as they paddle around the park pond, searching for scraps of bread. However, you’d be mistaken, as I was, for the humble duck is…
Update: Plant Health News (01 Feb 12)
Here’s a taste of some of the latest news stories about plant health, including the return of potato blackleg, new research on zebra chip disease, and an unexpected locust deterrent. Click on the link to read more of the latest plant health news.
Update: New Pest & Disease Records (25 Jan 12)
We’ve selected a few of the latest new geographic, host and species records for plant pests and diseases from CAB Abstracts. Records this fortnight include the most devastating coffee pest, the coffee berry borer, being found in Hawaii; a new fungal disease of citrus plants in the Philippines; and insects causing damage to amaranth crops…
Update: Plant Health News (18 Jan 12)
Here’s a taste of some of the latest news stories about plant health, including apple troubles in Brazil, strawberries suffering from resistant moulds, and pests hitching a ride in Australia. Click on the link to read more of the latest plant health news.
The future might be bright, but it’s not looking so orange
Oranges – from Flickr by Rosino I start this week’s blog with a challenge for you: You are a smallholder farmer living in a remote village in Brazil. You have decided to grow oranges, a crop that has done well in neighbouring farms and provided a good income. It’s November and your crop is growing well,…
Bad date?
Date palm with Bayoud disease, Image from J. Louvet, Bugwood.org A bad date usually involves awkward conversation or an unfortunate incident with a hot cup of coffee, but for Algerian and Moroccan farmers there is a much fruitier issue at hand. Date palms (Phoenix dactylifera) have long-suffered the effects of the Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. albedinis fungus, which…