July, 24 2013

                What a spring and summer we have had so far this year. With the spraying season slowing down and summer finally here we cannot forget a few important agronomic topics, fungicide and insect scouting.

                 With corn in the area starting to tassel an important topic to discuss is a fungicide treatment at the VT stage. There are some questions we must ask ourselves when making this management decision. First, what was the previous crop? Many of the foliar pathogens survive in corn residue. With this being said the risk for foliar diseases increases when corn is planted into a field following corn. Next question is what has the weather been like? Rainy and/or humid weather is most favorable to foliar diseases. In growing seasons when these conditions prevail, the risk for disease development increases. The last question is what is the disease history in the field? Have the past years corn crops been prone or shown a heavy disease pressure. We also have to take into consideration what the weather forecast looks like for the grain fill period. For disease to happen, or continue to develop, certain environmental conditions need to occur. Below is a table of what weather conditions favor certain disease development.

 

               

              Along with scouting disease in the corn we are also keeping a close eye on the soybean crop. Are main concern on the insect front as of now would be aphids. We have not seen much of an infestation as of yet but there are a few out there. There have been some reports of heavy pressure where treatment was necessary around the Burr Oak area. A good place to start to scout for aphids would be in any bean fields where a seed treatment was not used. Aphids start on the bottom of the bean plant and work their way up. The first place you will find them is on the lower canopy on the plants new growth. With the outbreak of spider mites last year people have also been concerned about them. What we can say is spider mites like hot and dry weather. Something we have not really experienced recently. We have not seen any this year and the probability of them showing up this year is very slim.

                With all this being said these next few weeks scouting corn and beans will be critical for optimum yield this fall. Thanks for stopping by.