pollen

A reader sent me a question. “We had an arborist trim our apple tree in March and this is the first year in at least 20 years that the tree had no blossoms. Is this situation common or did we do something wrong?” Neither of my apple trees had flowers this year either. I had assumed a late freeze had caused this because often my trees bloom, then there is a freeze and the flowers wither and die. However, this year there weren’t any flowers at all.

Good day Carson City and welcome to Thursday, May 16, 2019. We're looking at showers to continue through the day, which will be a nice change from all that spring pollen flying around. Today we've got the Senior Celebration at Casino Fandango, an afternoon hike, a Carson City CASA open house, art presentations, live music and more. Have a great day.

Senator Keith Pickard of southern Nevada, the man behind the hotly-debated bee bill, is standing behind his legislation in the face of controversy; however, he says, the Legislative Council Bureau of the Nevada State Legislature is at fault for not following his original intention. The bill's original intention was to stop the spread of Africanized Bees in Nevada, he says, which needs to be dealt with on a state level.

The purpose of all living organisms is procreation. In order to survive, creatures must create offspring. One way plants do this by making seeds. Seeds can result when pollen moves from the male anther to the female organ (stigma) of the same flower or a different flower of the same species.

Carson City is a Bee City USA as of October 2018. When I first saw the sign, I didn’t know what it meant.

It is fitting that the state capital should be the first and only (so far) Bee City in Nevada. The city is now the 76th Bee City in the USA.

I like ‘Delicata’ winter squash. With my most recent purchase, I wondered if I saved seeds, would they produce true ‘Delicata’ squash next fall or some cross-bred anomaly.

Recently, I wrote that aphids invaded our ash trees, but I’m pleased to report that a battalion of good little buggers came to the rescue.

I’m referring to the syrphid flies, sometimes called flower flies or hoverflies.

Did you know that approximately one out of every three bites of food you eat depends on the work of a "pollinator?” Bees, butterflies, moths, beetles, flies, and hummingbirds are keystone pollinator species in Nevada, supporting healthy wildlands, ecosystem diversity, and a nutritious food supply.

The next time you see honeybees pollinating the flora in your yard, you may want to thank your neighbor, says Heather Angeloff, owner of The Beekeeper in Carson City.

I’m so excited! I found surprises inside the ‘Fuyu’ persimmons we have been eating: seeds! Perhaps you have discovered seeds when you have eaten a persimmon, but I hadn’t. To non-gardeners, my enthusiasm may seem not only misplaced, but too geeky for words. But to my fellow gardeners, don’t you too sometimes get excited about starting something unusual from seed?

The 4th of July was celebrated earlier this month with all its traditional foods, including watermelon. It’s a good thing that watermelon is a part of this summer holiday’s food mix because its health benefits may have helped counteract the impacts of the assortment of less-than-healthy foods we eat that day.

American’s favorite crop to grow at home is the tomato. Few can resist the delicious flavor of a homegrown tomato.

This weekend, I went to Lake Tahoe with my Little. As a Big, with Big Brothers Big Sisters, beach time is fun time. But it’s also time to connect with my Little and talk.

What a surprise awaited me one morning a week ago as I was watering. I had completely forgotten this wonderful late summer gem, thinking bulb blooming time was over until next spring. However, the fall-flowering crocus amazed me once again.

Whether you scent your linens, buy perfumed soaps, add it as a food flavoring, make essential oils or simply enjoy its flowers, lavender is a garden delight. On a warm summer morning, you will find it covered in bees collecting nectar and pollen. Lavandula angustifolia, commonly known as English lavender, is the hardiest species for our area.

I’m a fan of hummingbirds. They are amazing aerobatic wizards. They can fly in all directions including backwards and upside down at speeds of 30 to 45 mph. They can hover like miniature helicopters. They beat their wings 60 to 200 times per second. These tiny powerhouses weigh about as much as a penny, in some cases, yet they are fierce defenders of their territory.

We just completed National Pollinator Week, a designation that recognizes all that pollinators do for our food supply, environment and economy. Last year the Obama administration released a “National Strategy to Promote the Health of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators” led by U.S. Department of Agriculture.

People are asking about earwigs. Earwigs are easily recognized with rather alarming-looking pincers on their tail ends. These unappealing pests can devastate young vegetables, flowers, soft fruits or corn silks.

In spite of this, earwigs, believe it or not, are also beneficial. Being omnivores, they eat aphids, other insects, mites, nematodes, algae and fungi. They eat and break down organic matter, which includes dying and dead plants or ripened fruits.

Gardeners like to grow tomatoes. There are over 2,000 varieties available worldwide. Many are hybrids. Hybrid tomatoes were initially bred to reduce disease problems and increase yield. Now, breeders focus on developing varieties that not only resist diseases and other problems, but also taste good. Some popular hybrids include Early Girl, Celebrity, Big Boy or Better Boy.

I visited Arizona recently and the desert was blooming. The predominant color of flowers, no matter the type of plant was yellow. I wondered why nature has given us so many early blooming yellow flowers, particularly in the daisy or sunflower family.

My friend Monique asked me to write about shrubs that attract birds. A bird-friendly habitat requires food, water and shelter. Food consists of sap, nectar, pollen, seeds, nuts, berries or fruits. Shrubs should be dense enough to support nests, but also allow birds to move about to escape predators.

Bee populations have been declining with the total number of managed honey bee colonies down from 5 million in the 1940s to 2.5 million in November 2015, according to the USDA Agricultural Research Service.

Mary, a reader from Gardnerville said, “I have a terrible time with earwigs, my most dreaded pest; and the sight of them makes me cringe.” Yes, earwigs do look alarming with pincers at their hind end. They even bother seasoned gardeners who normally have an attitude of “live-and-let-live.”

Hazy skies around Carson City and Carson Valley this afternoon can be attributed to blowing dust and pollen and not prescribed fire operations, fire officials in Carson City and Lake Tahoe confirmed.

State agriculture scientists say northern Nevadans can expect to see more moths over next couple of months. The Nevada Department of Agriculture entomology laboratory has noted an uptick in inquiries about the number of moths flying around. The moths are the adults of the army cutworm, and an insect native to Nevada.

“There were very high populations of the larvae in several areas of the West this year, including Nevada,” said Entomologist Jeff Knight. “We are now seeing the adults from those larvae.”

Here is this week's fishing report for rivers, lakes and streams in Nevada, Northern California and the Sierra. This report is for the week of June 12-19.

Our mild winter has caused many feral honeybee colonies to begin swarming earlier this year.

Swarming is the method that honey bee colonies use to reproduce. A mature overwintered colony splits into two or more colonies by swarming. A new honey bee colony is formed when the mother queen leaves the old hive with roughly 60% of the worker bees. The mother queen will leave the old hive for her daughter to rule.