Corn is Beginning to Tassel!
I saw corn tasseling in Yates County and even some silking and Ontario County on Monday. Corn looks great across the region with many plants over my head. This is early on average for us in NWNY. These early pollinating fields could be attractive to insects such as Japanese beetles and corn rootworm beetles. Both will be attractive to the silks and could cause pollination issues. We really do not want silks to be clipped shorter than a half inch. Japanese beetles have been out for a couple of weeks, and I am seeing them more in soybean fields right now. I saw my first rootworm adults in a third-year conventional corn field this week. If there are no silks to feed on, rootworm beetles will feed on the green upper layer of the leaves. Severe feeding can cause leaves to look white or “frosted” much like cereal leaf beetles do in wheat. We usually do not consider this damage economic. With both beetles, insecticide treatment is warranted if silks are being severely clipped during pollination.
Crown Rust in Oats
I stopped by a field of oats because it looked like it was maturing earlier than normal. All the leaves looked orange and dried down. Unfortunately, it was crown rust. We have been battling more with this fungus the past couple of years. We have had some varieties that seemed more tolerant and even those don’t seem to escape it now. The humid weather has been perfect for its quick development. There are many fungicides to protect oats but if it moves in late it can be hard to catch it in a timely manner. The plant dries down early and the developing grain can’t fill normally resulting in low test weight and yield reductions. Not all fields I have looked at are affected. The best management practice is to search out oat varieties that have resistance to crown rust.
Potato Leafhopper at Economic Threshold
Potato leafhopper (PLH) numbers have really started to increase now that the first round of eggs hatched, and nymphs are present. Our recent sweeps in alfalfa spring seedings were above the economic threshold of one per sweep at this height and the leaf tips are turning yellow. This “hopper burn” is a telltale sign that PLH are feeding and injuring the plants. It’s time to make a management decision to spray or mow early. Once the plant turns yellow it must be cut to regrow. Many fields are one to two weeks away from being harvested and PLH populations are only going to increase moving forward.
Next report will be July 17.