Melon flies could end up costing California farmers over $4.5 billion if they ever get a toe-hold in the state.


Melon flies (Bactrocera cucurbitae) are a type of fruit fly. Native to India and Asia, melon flies were first seen in Hawaii in the late 1800’s. They have now become a devastating pest on the Islands. Quarantine stations have worked long and hard to prevent this pest from entering the Continental U.S. The melon fly was first seen in California in 1956, and several other times since, but whenever melon flies are identified stateside, eradication programs immediately go into affect. These programs use pheromones to attract male melon flies. These males are then sterilized and released. This messes up melon fly breeding. So far, this method has been effective. So, why would a gardener care, if the pest isn’t even here? Because maybe it is.

White mold (Sclerotinia spp.) can remain dormant in the soil for a very long time. It takes a significant amount of cool moisture to wake one of these fungi up from its dormant sleep, but the underside of a head of lettuce, or a cabbage, provides just the sort of humidity needed to trigger an awakening and the ensuing infection. This disease is also known as Sclerotinia stem and crown rot and it is caused by two different fungi, depending on the host plant.

How to avoid white mold in the garden

Since prolonged moisture is needed for this fungus to come among us [sorry, I couldn’t resist], keeping things dry is a good defensive plan. These specific steps can help you avoid a white mold problem in your garden:

• use raised beds
• irrigate to the side of plants, rather than directly on them
• space plants in such a way as to provide good air flow
• apply only as much nitrogen as is needed
• inspect senescent flowers and leaves for signs of infection
• remove and destroy infected plants immediately
• monitor plants closely after 60° to 70°F days with high relative humidity (95–100%)
• inspect nearby ornamental plants and weeds for signs of infection
• employ crop rotation with non-host plants
• in really bad cases, fungicides and soil solarization may be needed

As prevalent as white mold is, it’s a good idea to know what to look for ahead of time.

How to prevent and control Johnson spot

Moisture is a key ingredient to this fungal growth. If leaves are wet and temperatures are between 77 and 82°F, Johnson spot can quickly take hold. To break this disease triangle, be sure to space plants in such a way that supports good air flow, avoid overhead watering, allow the soil to dry out between waterings (without causing water stress), and only apply the minimum amounts of nitrogen needed by the plants.


Of course, that advice is only partially useful when it comes to lawn care. To help your lawn avoid becoming infected with Johnson spot, water as early in the day as you can. This will allow plants to dry off before evening comes around.


This fungus has developed resistance to chemical treatments, so cultural practices are your only option. These practices include crop rotation, selecting resistant varieties, and disposing of infected plant material in the trash.


Johnson spot is the most significant disease of rice in the world. Experts estimate that this disease destroys enough rice to feed 60 million people every year.

California red scale is a citrus pest found throughout California, except in Coachella Valley, where an eradication program is in place. These insects may be tiny, but California red scale is a serious pest of citrus trees.

Like other armored scale insects, California red scale (Aonidiella aurantii) have piercing, filamentous mouthparts that are inserted into stems, fruit, and leaves, and suck life-giving sap from your tree. These particular scale insects prefer lemons, limes, Valencia and Navel oranges.


Red scale lifecycle

You will probably never see a tiny, flying male red scale. They only live for about 6 hours and have only one purpose. The females, however, attach themselves to your citrus trees, where they feed on your tree and give birth to 100 to 150 crawlers. Two or three crawlers are born every day to each female. These crawlers leave to their own feeding site. They can also be blown to nearby trees by the wind, or move from place to place by catching a ride on a bird in a practice known as phoresy - though I don’t know if they do it on purpose. Once they settle on a new location, both males and females begin to grow a waxy dome over themselves. Male covers are more elongated, while female covers are more round. Females molt two more times, while males molt under their first dome four times before taking to the air.

Damage caused by California red scale

Chlorosis, twig and branch dieback, fruit loss, and, in severe cases, tree death can all result from California red scale infestations. This damage most commonly occurs at the end of summer, when trees are water stressed and scale populations are at their peak.


How to control California red scale

Scale insects are naturally protected from pesticides. And California red scale has developed a resistance to many insecticides, so, unless you are a commercial farmer or city government, you do not have access to chemicals powerful enough to kill off California red scale. [And would you really want to spray that stuff on your food?] Keeping your trees healthy with regular, deep summer irrigation will reduce water stress. And avoiding the use of broad spectrum insecticides will allow natural predators to do their thing against scale populations. Parasitic wasps and several varieties of lady beetles can provide significant control of scale insects. 

Because ants, dust, and poor air flow all make it more difficult for these beneficial predators to find and catch their prey, be sure to prune for good air flow, wrap tree trunks with sticky barriers to block ants, and give your trees an occasional rinse with the hose during the dustier parts of summer. In winter, apply dormant oils.


The next time you go water your citrus trees, take a closer look to see if California red scale has made an appearance.

There are three different bean mosaic diseases that occur here in California: bean common mosaic, cucumber mosaic, and bean yellow mosaic. These are all viral diseases that cause downward cupping and wrinkling of leaves, especially as leaves get older, along with the telltale mosaic pattern. Bean leaves that develop a bright yellow mosaic pattern may be infected with the bean yellow mosaic virus. There are several strains of bean yellow mosaic (BYM). In addition to beans, bean yellow mosaic can infect peas, peanuts, soybeans, black locust, and fenugreek.


Bean yellow mosaic symptoms

You can differentiate between bean yellow and the other mosaic infections because bean yellow has a yellow mosaic, rather than a light or dark green mosaic. Bean yellow mosaic also exhibits as bright yellow spots on leaves. Plants infected at an early stage of development can become severely stunted and should be removed from the garden and tossed in the trash.


Bean yellow mosaic lifecycle

The bean yellow mosaic pathogen is called, very unimaginatively, bean yellow mosaic virus, or BYMV, for short. This poorly named virus commonly overwinters in legume crops, such as fava beans, alfalfa, clovers, and vetch, as well as in certain weeds and gladiolus. The virus moves from plant to plant in aphids. When an aphid feeds on an infected plant, it becomes a carrier, transporting the disease to every plant it feeds on from that point forward.


Since resistant cultivars are not yet available, these tips may help prevent bean yellow mosaic in your garden:

• buy disease-free seeds from reputable suppliers [Do not use grocery store dried beans!]
• avoid using broad spectrum insecticides that kill aphid predators
• start seeds early enough that they reach flowering stage before aphids become a problem
• heavy aphid populations can be treated with insecticidal soap or neem oil
• plant different legume crops as far away from each other as possible
• remove legume weeds from the area
• reflective mulches may reduce the number of aphids attracted to your plants

Finally, if you see an infected plant, trash it.

Preventing and controlling pink root

Keeping plants healthy and employing crop rotation are the two best ways to avoid pink root from causing too many problems. A note on crop rotation: do not follow a cereal crop with onions, as it creates conditions that promote this particular pathogen. Severe infestations can be eliminated with soil solarization, but that’s a pretty drastic measure for the home gardener.


If you see pink, purple, or black shriveled roots on your onions, try growing them in a different area, in fresh soil, and be sure to feed, weed, and water them properly, and protect them from insects, to ensure that they stay healthy enough to protect themselves.

Symptoms of lower limb dieback

This disease normally appears in late April or May, on trees that are 7 or 8 years old. It starts out with the leaves on lower limbs yellowing, and then turning brown. Eventually, the entire branch becomes girdled by cankers and dies, right up to where it attaches to larger, scaffold branches, or the trunk. If you scrape the bark off of an affected limb, you will see brown spots in the wood. [Sorry, but I couldn't find an image I could use.]


Susceptible varieties

Some almond varieties are more susceptible to lower limb dieback than others. Padre almonds are the most likely to get this disease, with Butte being a close second. Almond varieties that show some resistance to lower limb dieback include Aldrich, Carmel, Fritz, Mission, NePlus Ultra, Nonpareil, Sonora, and Wood Colony. If you are shopping for an almond bare root tree, you might consider one of these more resilient varieties.


Preventing lower limb dieback

While research is currently underway, it is believed that overly wet soil, low light levels, and root exposure to herbicides or excessive fertilizer may weaken trees, making them vulnerable to whatever it is that causes this problem. This is just the opposite of shade tree decline, in which severe drought slowly kills a mature tree, with the early symptoms being a lack of leaf cover in the upper canopy, or crown, of the tree.


Lower limb dieback occurs most often in years with a cool, wet spring, followed by high temperatures. Soil compaction and low infiltration rates are also believed to play a role in lower leaf dieback. Trees with hull rot also appear to be more likely to develop this condition. In this case, fumaric acid and other toxins are believed to accumulate in larger branches when multiple spurs are infected. In this weakened state, these trees are also more likely to be infected by fungal opportunists, such as Botryosphaeria dothidea and Phomopsis amygdali. Phomopsis amygdali causes the stoma to stay open, desiccating the tree. Botryosphaeria dothidea causes cankers on a wide variety of plants.


Keeping your trees healthy is the best way to prevent lower limb dieback.  This means proper irrigation, reasonable applications of fertilizer (only after a soil test shows a need for it), and control of scale insects, which may play a role in the spread of this disease. Fixed copper, sulfur, and fungicide treatments have not been shown to be effective.

Native to China, Japan, and Korea, these invasive, wood boring beetles love to hitch overseas rides on wood-related packing materials: shavings, pallets, that sort of thing. In 1996, an infestation of Asian longhorned beetles (Anoplophora glabripennis) was discovered in Brooklyn. Two years later, a second sighting occurred in Chicago. Then, they were found in New York, New Jersey, and Illinois, where they are responsible for the removal of thousands of trees. These pests have already cost state and federal government (our tax dollars) over $168 million and that number looks to rise exponentially, now that they have expanded their range into California and Washington. 


​The potential economic impact was first estimated to be more than $41 billion. That number has increased to nearly $700 billion, and that’s before you factor in the damage to breakfast morale when the northeast’s sugar maples are attacked! Eradication efforts got into affect each time these invasive pests are found, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. The U.S. Customs Department is working hard to halt the importation of these pests. Eradication in the U.S. is still possible, but it’s an uphill battle. And they need our help.

Trees susceptible to ALB

Many popular hardwood trees are vulnerable to ALB infestation. These trees include alder, ash, beech, birch, boxelder, elm, hackberry, hornbeam, horse chestnut, mimosa, planes, poplar, sycamore, and willow. And blueberries! And members of the Prunus family, which includes apricots, peaches, nectarines, cherries, and almonds! We do not yet know what the impact will be on California’s native hardwood trees.


Experts predict that this pest could cause more damage than gypsy moths, Dutch elm disease, and chestnut blight combined, destroyed millions of acres of trees across the country, in parks, along streets, in backyards, and in agriculture. Dead and dying trees are more likely to cause fires and they are unable to support the biodiversity that keeps a region healthy. If you consider all the wood-based products we use every day, ALB could cause many prices to increase significantly. All because of an insect.


If you see it, catch it! Report it!

If you see an Asian longhorned beetle, catch it. Period. Just do it. They don't bite or sting. While they can fly, they don’t do it very well and only for short distances. You can do this.


Your efforts could save millions of trees and billions of dollars. Seriously.

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Put your captive in a glass jar [they chew through trees, remember?] and place it in the freezer. Be sure to label the jar with where you found it (GPS position, if possible), the date you found it, and your contact information. These reports are critical if we are to protect our trees. Using this information, experts can create quarantine zones and implement eradication programs most effectively.


If you live in California, call the CDFA hotline at 1-800-491-1899. In fact, put the number in your phone now, so you’ll have it if you ever need it. I did. If you live outside of California, report it to your state’s Department of Agriculture. Together, we can save millions of trees.

Pierce’s disease control and prevention

This disease triangle consists of the host plant, the feeding insect carrier, and the disease-causing bacteria. Break the connection between any one of those three and you can reduce the chances of disease. The easiest ways to prevent Pierce’s disease is to keep host weeds out of the area and treat for the sap-sucking insect pests. Since insect-eating birds, such as bluebirds, along with several predatory insects, love to eat sharpshooters, keep your garden welcoming to these natural helpers.


Monitor your plants for signs of Pierce’s disease so that you can act quickly, reducing the spread of the disease. Most of the vector insects are low fliers, so physical barriers can be used to quarantine potentially infected plants. During the dormant season, remove any vines that have been infected for more than one year. They will not recover and they will spread the disease to other plants as vector insects feed on them and then move to nearby plants for more feeding.

Mole management

If you cannot tolerate moles in your garden or landscape, trapping will be necessary. While there are dozens of repellants, scaring devices, home remedies, and plants that claim to offend moles, research has not shown that any of these methods actually work. The only exception is castor oil solutions, which have been shown effective on eastern moles. Flooding tunnels wastes water and does not rid an area of moles. [They’ve dealt with floods for far longer than we have been gardening.]


Trapping always works. Underground harpoon traps and scissor-jaw traps are the most effective methods. Of course, this means dealing with a dead mole and a messy trap. Some new mole baits are showing limited effectiveness, but then you have to worry about children, pets, and local wildlife also suffering a horrible death. Plus, if your landscape was appealing to a mole before, it probably will be again, to a different mole. If you have valuable plants that need protection against moles, you can install a hardware cloth barrier 2-feet into the ground, with a 6-inch lip bent at a 90° angle away from the plant to thwart mole digging.


Mole trivia

Moles are fascinating creatures. Some of the more interesting mole facts include:

• A mole placed on the ground can burrow out of sight in 10 seconds.
• Moles have a special type of blood that allows them to breath in low oxygen environments.
• Moles have an extra thumb, called a prepollex.
• Female moles have a set of male genitals.
• Moles squeeze the dirt out of earthworms before eating them.
• Star-nosed moles can find, catch, and eat food faster than the human eye can see.
• Moles are the only animal known to smell things in stereo.

If you can tolerate moles, they actually provide many benefits to the garden and landscape.


Did you know that mole saliva contains toxins that paralyze earthworms? Researchers have found underground storage spaces filled with thousands of paralyzed earthworms, for later eating.


Now you know.

Kuno scale control

Since ants protect Kuno scale from natural predators, blocking ants from getting up in your trees is the easiest control measure. To do this, simply wrap the tree trunk with a sticky barrier. You can also apply horticultural oil to twigs and the ends of branches just as buds are swelling, in spring. You can also try drenching the undersides of leaves in early summer, but this is tricky, because it’s not a good idea to spray dormant plum or walnut trees with oil, especially during periods of drought.


​And, let’s face it, spraying the underside of leaves is a royal pain.

Because these viruses can spread rapidly, over relatively great distances, close monitoring and control are in everyone’s best interest. Once a plant is infected with one of the leafroll viruses, it should be removed and destroyed. There is no cure or treatment. When shopping for plants, choose resistant varieties, and be sure to control carrier pests, to reduce the likelihood of leafroll affecting your garden.

'Ants will actively protect and farm scale insects. You can remove that protection by attaching sticky barriers around the trunks of trees. Chemical controls are not generally effective against cottony cushion scale insects (regardless of what they say on the label).


Take a look at your trees on a regular basis to see if cottony cushion or other scale insects have set up shop in your garden or foodscape.

With a name like bottom rot, you just know it isn’t going to end well.


Bottom rot is a fungal disease of lettuce and other leaf vegetables, caused by the Rhizoctonia solani fungi. This is the same fungi that causes damping off disease. These fungi live in the soil and are a big problem in warm, moist conditions.


Plants affected by bottom rot

In addition to lettuce, bottom rot can wipe out your Chinese cabbage, escarole, broccoli, radish, collards, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and turnip crops. The Rhizoctonia solani fungus also attacks potatoes, onions, beans, and corn.

Bacterial head rot prevention and control

Cool winter and spring temperatures combined with prolonged periods of rain, fog, and dew provide the perfect medium for bacterial head rot pathogens. This means good air circulation between plants can go a long way toward preventing this disease. That’s a good thing, because chemical sprays and other treatments have not been consistently effective in preventing bacterial head rot.


The best way to prevent this problem in your garden is to start with resistant cultivars, such as broccoli with dome-shaped heads, space plants properly, and avoid overhead watering.

Junebug damage

Adult Junebugs feed on leaves. They fly in from weedy areas to feed at night. During the day, they tend to hunker down in a shady spot or burrow into the soil until dusk. The damage they cause is similar to Fuller rose beetles, earwigs, and snails. Grasshoppers and caterpillars may also cause similar damage. The only way to be sure is to catch them in the act.


The more insidious damage occurs underground as Junebug grubs feed on the roots of your lawn, especially ryegrass and bluegrass. Symptoms of infestation include brown, dying patches. If things get really bad, you can actually roll up patches of turf because it is no longer attached to the ground! Large numbers of Junebugs can defoliate a young tree in a matter of days. This is especially true for avocado trees, which may need to be protected with netting.

Host plants

Nearly all fruit and nut trees, including cherries and kiwifruit, are susceptible to Phytophthora root and crown rot. But so are alfalfa, and members of the nightshade and cabbage families. This means tomatoes, eggplant, and potatoes are vulnerable, as are kale, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, kohlrabi, horseradish, cabbage, collards, turnips, rutabagas, radishes, bok choy, and mustard. And all because of too much water.
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Symptoms of Phytophthora root and crown rot

Plants affected by Phytophthora root and crown rot look drought stressed. This is particularly unfortunate because the natural response is to provide more water - the last thing you want to do when Phytophthora is present. Symptoms normally start in just one branch or area of the tree or shrub before spreading to the rest of the plant. Leaves may turn purple or reddish. Sudden wilting and plant death may occur when the basal stem or crown are attacked, or the mold may attack the root system, causing plants to linger poorly for years before dying.

Preventing Phytophthora root and crown rot infestation

Proper water management is the best way to prevent and control Phytophthora root and crown rot. Never allow standing water to remain around tree and shrub trunks. Also, don’t let sprinklers hit tree trunks. These other tips can help you manage Phytophthora in your garden or landscape:

• Only install healthy-looking plants
• Do not plant plants too deeply or water excessively
• Allow soil to dry out between waterings
• Ensure proper drainage
• Quarantine all new plants for 4 to 6 weeks, including water that may drip from the containers
• Wash tools, boots, and hands after handling potentially contaminated plants
• Sanitize shoes with bathroom cleaner after walking through an infected area
• Do not add contaminated plants to the compost pile
• Use crop rotation to interrupt the disease triangle

You may be able to maintain an infected plant, with proper irrigation and good cultural practices, but it will never be the same. Phytophthora can stay in the soil for many years, so prevention is far easier than control.

If older leaves on cucumber, melon, or squash are turning yellow and leathery, the plants may be infected with cucurbit aphid-borne yellows.


This viral disease is transmitted by the cucurbit aphid-borne yellows luteovirus (CABYV). Luteoviruses are a genus of viruses that use plants as hosts, and are transmitted by aphids.

Symptoms of aphid borne yellow virus

Early symptoms are chlorotic (yellow) areas on lower leaves. These spots expand to include the entire leaf, leaving the larger veins bright green. The affected areas become leathery and brittle. Stunting and fruit drop are common as the plant struggles. Before genetic testing, this condition was attributed to plant aging (senescence), nutrient deficiencies, or other diseases, such as cucurbit yellow stunting disorder.


How the disease is spread

As the name suggests, this disease is spread by aphids. As aphids pierce plant tissue to feed on sap in the xylem, they infect the plants they eat. Once infected, the aphid will continue to spread the disease as it feeds. This disease can also be spread to lettuces, beets, and several weeds.


Controlling cucurbit aphid borne yellows

There is no way to control the virus, but you can reduce the presence of aphids in your garden with these tips:

• install silver reflective mulch at planting time to repel aphids (remove it as temperatures rise)
• install row covers to exclude aphids
• fertilize and irrigate plants properly, to keep them healthy
• avoid using broad-spectrum pesticides, which kill off beneficial predators that eat aphids
• clear aphid-bearing weeds from the immediate area

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Infected plants should be removed and destroyed, to prevent the disease from spreading to nearby plants.

Damage caused by citricola scale

Underneath those tiny domes of protection, citricola scale attach themselves to stems and leaves of citrus and pomegranate. They pierce the surface to reach the phloem, to siphon away valuable nutrients and sugary sap, weakening the tree. And they poop. This poop, called honeydew, contains a lot of sugar, and it creates the perfect growing medium for sooty mold fungus. Sooty mold blocks photosynthesis, further reducing your tree’s vigor. Citricola scale can reduce flowering and fruit production. During heavy infestations, twigs can be killed by citricola scale.


How to control citricola scale

Regularly monitoring citrus and pomegranate trees for these pests is your first line of defense. If you notice ant trails or sooty mold, take a closer look at twigs and leaves for signs of scale. Since ants protect these pests, you can eliminate that protection, making the citricola scale more vulnerable, by wrapping the tree’s trunk with a sticky barrier. Also, there are naturally occurring parasitic wasps that will control citricola scale insects (as long as you do not apply broad spectrum pesticides). Applying dormant oil in winter can also help reduce citricola scale populations.


Research has shown that 40% of citricola scale in San Joaquin Valley are resistant to organophosphates. It is believed that there is also a cross-resistance to malathion and carbaryl. This looks to be yet another example of chemical pesticides actually making the pests stronger, as we add more poisons to the environment and our food chain.


Bottom line, to control citricola scale on your pomegranate and citrus trees, inspect twigs very closely in April through June, and then look at the underside of leaves in late July. These pests can then be flicked off the leaf or stem with your fingernail.