Monroe County Agriculture: Watch for 'floppy' corn plants
Weather: June is considered the start of meteorological summer (June, July and August), and the weather of the past two weeks has felt like summer. Eric Snodgrass of Nutrien Ag Solutions calls our weather pattern a “flash drought” that will end by around June 10 or so. The rest of June is forecast to have normal precipitation. Daylight hours have now exceeded 15 hours per day, and of course, the first day of summer on June 21 is the “longest day of the year.”
Alfalfa: The first cutting is over, with some nice, green hay. Therefore the risk of damage from alfalfa weevil also is over. Now is the recommended time to apply two pounds of actual boron per acre to established alfalfa fields, along with potash, as alfalfa is a heavy nutrient user. Being a legume, alfalfa produces its own nitrogen, and our county average soil tests show relatively high levels of phosphorus already. The warm air of the past week means keep an eye out for potato leafhoppers and their characteristic V-shaped yellow feeding (sucking) pattern on alfalfa leaves. Serious hay scouting means to use a sweep net, a new one of which is available for sale. Pest thresholds are largely based on alfalfa height, which can easily be indicated on the sweep net handle using a yard stick and permanent marker to draw a line every three inches to show the additional height of hay.
Corn in the dry weather may have trouble rooting or have what Bob Nielsen of Purdue University calls “rootless corn syndrome.” I expect a number of fields to have “floppy” corn plants due to the dry soil conditions, some of which is a varietal characteristic. Causes of this include later planting, shallow planting and multiple and consecutive days of extreme heat (upper 90s,) which we have not have. Without going into the biology of the corn root system, bone-dry soils, with warm temperatures, can quickly dry up new corn roots, even if the above ground plant appears normal. If we get a windy day, and the partial root system can no longer support the plant, it literally flops over to the ground. “Floppy corn” is more likely to occur in fields of younger, recently planted corn than adjacent fields of older, earlier-planted corn whose nodal root development is farther along. Row cultivation may help if moist soil is thrown up around the base of plants, but the best solution is rain. “Rootless” corn develops more easily with extremely shallow planting, another reason to maintain about 1½-inch planting depth.
Soybeans can and should be planted deeper of shallower according to the soils and soil moisture, even as deep as two inches or as shallow as an inch or less. Since most farmers still overplant soybeans, and because soybeans can compensate with more branching and nodes and pods per node, a less than desirable population due to dry soil conditions is not a good enough reason alone to tear up a stand and replant, especially now that we are into June. As long as gaps, either in the row, or between rows, are relatively uniform, then existing plants will compensate and no gap may be noticed by mid-season and no yield loss should occur. Part of the soybean yield contest counted pods, meaning fewer plants always had more pods, while more plants always had fewer pods.
Wheat is flowering and is considered the optimum time to apply fungicides to suppress Fusarium head blight (scab). However the forecast for generally warm and dry weather means that the pathogen may not be present sufficient to justify spraying. The Penn State Fusarium Head Blight (Scab) Infection computer model disease forecasting projection does not favor disease development at this time. Farmers should remain vigilant for armyworms, an insect pest that can almost literally “march” across wheat fields, eating and clipping heads.
Flowers are an important part of Michigan’s ag economy, with 2022 sales of more than $711 million. Pollinators, some with flower, have a double benefit, even to homeowners. At the Monroe County Community College Student Ag Farm, three varieties of sunflowers have been planted, with more cover crops, some of which are pollinators, scheduled to be planted, hopefully by the time this article is printed! The National Garden Bureau and All America Selections (AAS) has six new AAS winners for 2023, which includes the first seed coleus (Coleus Premium Sun Coral Candy), a Colocasia (Royal Hawaiian Waikiki), Salvia Blue and Snapdragon DoubleShot Bicolor F1.
Ned Birkey is an MSU Extension educator emeritus and a regular contributor to The Monroe News.
This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Monroe County Agriculture: Watch for 'floppy' corn plants
