Olive Trees Diseased

Soka Olive Tree... about 10+ years old

Healthy olive tree about same age:

The slow death of the olive trees on campus is caused by the bacterium Xylella fastidiosa, aka “Pierce’s disease” and “olive scorch”. This is very nasty stuff, and ruined our local wine industry years ago. "There is no known cure…. Pruning out the part of the plant showing symptoms may help the appearance of the … tree or shrub but will not save the plant.” Pictured is 10 year old olive tree on campus: sickly, stunted, dying parts… Valley Crest confirmed this finding last week.
Master Gardeners are required to clean their cutting tools with 10% bleach after contact with any plant with this type of disease. So should be include this in our compost? For more information:
http://www.symbiosis.ucr.edu/symbiotic-control-projects/pierces-disease/
http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7480.html

Compost Day: Kitchen Waste

Leia came out for Sunday’s Compost Day (swimmers can take the rain). We had about 20 gallons of scraps from the kitchen collected Friday. Since it had been overcast and raining, nothing got too ripe. Leia and I did standard practice for kitchen waste: have absorbent material down (shredded paper), cover with compost and keep in wired container from critters. Leia also brought uncooked scraps from her meal and I brought hair from barbershop. So those that are active in our group, feel to bring anything we’ve discussed and add to your compost pile!

Work Day & Carts

Connor & Elizabeth helped on today's work day. The goal was to assemble the 2 new gardening carts. These carts have two wheels, axel under the weight, removable end for dumping, and level surface to haul all sorts of materials... all ideal for garden work.

New fencing

New fencing is looking as good as we thought it would.

Halloween aftermath

Where all good pumpkins belong: at the compost heap.

Fence Installation Begins

The fencing company, A-1 Steel Fence Co, began work today.

Composting Office Paper

Shredded office paper
We are now officially composting shredded office paper, and we got our first batch delivered by Cleaning a few days ago. We'll be posting signage on the 1/2 dozen shredders on campus letting folks know to not add glossy paper and to remove staples.
Also we have 3 team compost piles that we're following the UCCE "hot" method. The teams are tracking the progress on worksheets: temperature, moisture, height, and turning weekly.