Wheat Pete's Word, June 23: Fusarium, stunted crops, muck soils, and listening to your crop

The weather continues to deliver some real disappointment but also hope for farmers across Canada.

In Ontario, a late May frost was bad enough, but mid-week saw night time temps dip low enough again to hurt crop on muck soils. Other areas hard up for moisture got perhaps too much rain all at once.

For this week’s episode of Wheat Pete’s Word, host Peter “Wheat Pete” Johnson tackles the latest on fusarium risk in the wheat crop, why it’s important to determine deficiency from disease, and what your crop is telling you about your soil.

Have a question you’d like Johnson to address or some yield results to send in? Disagree with something he’s said? Leave him a message at 1-888-746-3311, send him a tweet (@wheatpete), or email him at [email protected]

• Go Habs Go!
• First week of summer and it’s sunny and not too hot — perfect for the wheat crop
• Last Wednesday evening, some corn died of frost on much soils even when it really only went down to 2 or 3 degrees
• Some areas of dryness: pastures are shut down and the wheat is white. All bad.
• Who is in the Goldilocks zone this year?
• It would seem that even after some good rain fall there are still dry and too-dry conditions in Ontario
• Fusarium showing up in susceptible varieties in trials. Fungicide does make a huge difference, for sure, but those susceptible lines really show the value of updated genetics
• Fusarium hurts quality more so than yield
• Bleached, light kernels will blow out the back of the combine, but will the fungus spread to good kernels and cause DON issues?
• More lodging in the wheat crop than expected, especially with low rainfall
• Maybe it means there’s yield there
• Premature ripening could indicate where the low organic matter areas are. Build them up!
• That’s what your crop is telling you — listen
• 4 kernels per floret, trying to win the YEN competition? Looks promising
• The nutrient value of straw in Ontario and the Great Lakes basin, not the west. Check out the video here.
• It’s all about residue management and living roots, not just organic matter and P and K
• Lots of manganese deficiency showing up. Correct it!
• Soybean cyst nematode showing up. Make sure it’s not a deficiency, first

@WheatPete Hello sir
Rains during flowering delayed my fusarium spray time with 3-4 days. Fusarium usually is not a big problem in my region . Should I expect big yield and quality penalties . Pictures made 26 days after my delayed fusarium spray. pic.twitter.com/54nm1HOLSj

— Marian Dumitru (@Dumitru55090396) June 23, 2021

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