Wet weather, weeds and planting

Despite the heavy rains in some areas there’s lots to talk about. At the top of the list is weed control in winter wheat. Peter Johnson tells us the wheat has advanced far enough in the south that the optimum time is “right now”. Ragweed, lamb's-quarters, dandelions, chickweed, you name it, it's there. Areas to the north are further behind, but “not as far as you might think.” Keep the sprayers on stand-by.

Ever wonder just how much time you have to plant? Pat Lynch says he’s kept track over 25 years and figures there’s about 100 hours of good planting time in an average spring. By the middle of last week, eight to 10 of those hours were already gone. That means when the weather is right again “you go as fast as possible.” The only thing on which you can’t skimp is checking planter performance. Keep checking the seed depth. And if you run out of starter? Keep planting and broadcast the rest later, Lynch says.

As the wheat starts to green up, some growers have been eager to apply a fungicide. Johnson isn’t sold on the economics. Ontario trials have produced an average payback of two bushels, although some years the payback is better. Johnson says he’s not opposed to the idea but with this year’s lower yield potential an average payback may be all you’ll get. If that’s good enough, go for it, he says.

You have to feel sorry for those guys who had the field just nicely worked before that three-inch rainfall hit last week. The problem is, these fields tend to stay wet longer than ones that weren’t worked. So, if you’re waiting to plant corn on one of those fields, Johnson says you may be better off planting no-till soybeans in an unworked field first and come back to the corn ground a day or two later.

And the latest update on the split nitrogen on canola idea: John Heard in Manitoba advises against it. They don’t have any problem with soil moisture in his part of the province so the best advice is to fertilize up front to the crop’s full yield potential. Growers in Saskatchewan, where it’s notoriously dry, will use a split application because some years there is so little moisture that the crop will never be able to utilize the additional N. I guess the trick is to figure which of those two scenarios best fits the typical Ontario growing season.