In January, the California Weed Science Society held its annual symposium in Sacramento and WOW, what a conference! This year's conference theme was Addressing Diverse and Dynamic Challenges in Weed Management. The program was chuck full of content showcasing the latest research in weed management in many of California's abundant cropping systems as well as aquatics, forestry, range, and natural areas.
This year's student competition was full of cutting edge research that will lead to better weed management. Fifteen students from all over the state representing five different colleges showcased their work in weed science.
In the poster competition, 1st Place went to Whitney Brim-DeForest from UC Davis for her poster titled “Weed Community Dynamics and Agronomic Productivity in Alternative Irrigation Systems in California Rice”. 2nd Place went to Caio Brunharo also from UC Davis for his work on “Preliminary evaluation of suspected paraquat-resistant Italian ryegrass in a California orchard”. 3rd Place went to CSU Fresno student Pahoua Yang for her work titled “Competition between a glyphosate-resistant and –susceptible biotype of junglerice (Echinochloa colona)”.
The paper competition had four students all representing CSU Fresno. 1st Place went to Ryan Cox for his work on “Effect of shade and soil moisture level on the efficacy of selected postemergence herbicides in control of junglerice (Echinochloa colona)”. 2nd Place went to Jorge Angeles for his paper titled “Response of Transplanted Tomatoes to Pre-plant Herbicides”. Coming in 3rd Place we had a tie between Elizabeth Mosqueda for her work on “A Comparison between Automated Thinners and Hand Thinning of Lettuce in the Salinas Valley: Weed Control and Efficacy” and Sarah Parry for her work on “Comparison of Weed Control Methods in Organic Broccoli”.
The society would like thank all the students for participating in this year's conference and we look forward to seeing everyone in 2017 in Monterey, CA.