Excessive rainfall over the weekend (5/12 and 5/13) in the North Western river counties has resulted in several calls this week concerning flooding and standing water in corn and to a lesser extent in soybean. Crop response will depend on the length of time the crop remains submerged and varies between corn and soybean. With rain still in the forecast for the next few days, here are a few agronomic considerations to be aware of. Continue reading
Ryegrass infestations still persist in some fields. In cotton and soybeans, clethodim can be used now to push this weed on to maturity. In corn, other than just going out and spraying the typical POST corn premix and hoping that pushes the ryegrass on to maturity there is no real solution to controlling it. Continue reading
This is the first of several installments dealing with commonly observed nutrient deficiencies in corn and soybean. Each week, a new macro or micro nutrient will be posted and discussed. The main objective of this series will be to discuss for each nutrient: (1) visual symptomology of deficiency, (2) plant and leaf tissue deficiency levels, (3) common causes of deficiency, and (4) in-season corrective measures. Continue reading
Soybean replanting decisions are almost always a tough call and a subjective decision. In 2023, favorable planting conditions in late March and early April have resulted in quite a few acres being planted. As we head into the month of May, let’s take a look at some objective factors that can help inform replant decisions. Continue reading
This time of year as we move to burndown behind the planter we typically get some reports of mixing issues when either glyphosate or Gramoxone is added to the tank with residual herbicides like atrazine, metribuzin, Cotoran, Caparol, fomesafen or a pyroxasulfone containing product. What happens is the white herbicides will often clabber up and stop up screens and strainers in the sprayer. Continue reading
Practically every September some growers are dismayed at the vine infestations present at corn harvest. Often, these weed infestations emerged after PRE applied or early POST applied herbicides had played out. They grew very little until August and as the corn dried down and light became more available those established weeds started rapidly growing. Continue reading
There were a number of reports of ryegrass escaping burndown in fields that either will soon be planted to corn or just had been planted to corn. Thankfully this issue seems less of a problem than a year ago. In most cases the ryegrass escaped glyphosate + dicamba early burndown. Paraquat application has the best probability of controlling ryegrass that has escaped early burndown. Continue reading
With the planting season started, many people are thinking about using Gramoxone (paraquat) as a burndown for many weeds present at planting. Gramoxone is a very good broad-spectrum herbicide that has been the go to for burndown of many winter and summer annual broadleaf weeds. With Palmer amaranth starting to emerge, Gramoxone is the only sure thing that will control it. However, it is less consistent controlling some weeds like horseweed (marestail). Continue reading