Wheat Pete’s Word, June 2: Frost, drought, replants, and more than one insect alert

Huge areas of Ontario saw frost over the weekend, in some cases as low as -7 degrees C. The full impact of the lighter frost in other areas is still being assessed, but there are replants already happening on plenty of soybean acres.

Wheat Pete’s Word host Peter Johnson talks about that this week, and also has some cautions about double cropping annual forage ahead of beans, why farmers need to be scouting alfalfa now, and why and when two fusarium fungicide passes might make sense (cents?).

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].

SUMMARY

  • Alert! Southwestern Ontario is set to hit 31 degrees C for Saturday. Remember that over 28 degrees C is a full stop on dicamba, even on Xtend beans. Do not screw up the technology, please
  • Minus 7 °C on the 28th of May at Earlton, -3 °C on the 29th of May, other areas had three nights of hard frost
  • Winter wheat frozen to the ground, spring oats needing replant
  • Not all of northern Ontario, but nearly all. It’s all bad
  • Even established hay fields have full-on frost damage
  • Read more on replants here
  • Seed access is not a huge issue so far, but there will be so much replanting happening this week and weekend
  • Why do muck soils frost so hard? What about planted green? Thermodynamics at work
  • Residue causes microclimate differences, as does topography
  • Bleached wheat heads could be frost damage as the florets are most susceptible at flowering
  • -2.4 on the 28th of May, whole head is bleached means it could just be forage
  • Eastern Ontario three nights of frost in a row…will the corn come back? Watch the corn closely, as it might seem OK at first, but after three to five days you should know for sure
  • Soybeans wait five to seven days for the axillary buds to start regrowing
  • Sun scald showing up (because of the cool temps) on the corn, but already looks better
  • Shake it off, corn!
  • It’s dry in the west, of course, but Ontario is getting there too, May was d-r-y especially for the east
  • Replant with no moisture? This is a tough call
  • Listowel area might be the Goldilocks area this year
  • Rye time! 7.84 tonnes per acre of rye just harvested, soybeans went in and got half-inch of rain. That’s some great double cropping!
  • BUT when you move east of Toronto, and tried to grow rye for weed control and you’re short moisture…rye uses up that water. Ouch.
  • Alert! Watch the alfalfa regrowth for weevil! Get scouting
  • High winds of May 22 and 23 was an insect transport event: ladybugs in the wheat crop which means there are aphids in the wheat crop. Could have brought leafhopper, too
  • Northern Ontario and Western Canada are under huge flea beetle pressure. Perimeter spraying still effective? Cool, slow growth
  • Stripe rust in the wheat crop near Aylmer, also at Seaforth. Spray those susceptible varieties (GoCereals.net)
  • Get the T3 fungicide on, please
  • After fusarium timing, should you target a “stay green” spray, too?
  • Watch those pre-harvest intervals! But it can work, so do a plot!
  • Wheat is moving so fast now after a stall out, this weekend could be fungicide timing for many. Scout daily, please

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