There’s no shortage of heartache or questions stemming from last week’s extreme frost event across much of Ontario’s growing region. Temps dropped as low as -8 degrees C, if you can believe it, and it wasn’t just corn and soybean crops hit hard by the cold weather — tender fruit, horticulture and vegetable crops have also been damaged; even cold-hardy crops like rye and winter wheat will incur losses.
With that, we jump into this week’s Wheat Pete’s Word — a weekly audio wrap up of what should be top of mind for the week ahead, and where Peter Johnson answers your crop-related questions.
For those with corn and soybeans hard-hit, how do you know if you’ve got enough viable plants to keep the stand or get in there and replant? Most corn is already showing decent signs of regrowth, but soybeans need 1.5 to 2 viable plants per foot of row to keep the stand. (Peter explains further in the audio found below).
The toughest areas were sandy areas, much soils and hollows — if you’re going to replant in areas (which isn’t ideal), Peter suggests getting out there ASAP. For those with high residue or no-till, the damage is likely worse, and that is one knock against no-till, but does a late season frost event like this one mean no-till doesn’t work? Nope. Keep it in context, he says.
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On to wheat — because no crop update is complete without talking about Pete’s favourite crop. Three things of note this week: sulphur, a few things you must NOT do, and one thing you MUST do.
What’s that? Well, yes, there is still time to correct a sulphur deficiency in-crop, so get after it, but the one thing you must NOT do is spray wheat with a herbicide right now. As Wheat Pete says in the audio above, it’s too late. What should you be planning for right now? A fusarium-timed fungicide application. Yes, even in a dry year, and he explains why in this week’s word. Can you throw anything else in the tank at fusarium timing? Absolutely not! Not. One. Thing.
From wheat, Pete moves on to answering questions — from Canada fleabane control options, to residue control and more, it’s all in this week’s Word.
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For last week’s update, click here.
Follow this link for the entire series archive.
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