Air September 26, 2001

Thank you Mark, and good morning everyone. Boy, the calendar moves us officially into fall and the bottom drops out of the thermometer. Oh well, I don’t think it would hurt anyone’s feelings to have a few less bugs and maybe a little less hay fever pollen.

If you haven’t been out there checking that new alfalfa, please get with the program. We’re getting a few reports about webworms still, and a nice lush stand of new alfalfa would be very attractive. Also getting occasional reports of armyworm type activity so let’s just keep an eye on everything. With some of the wet conditions and slow dry down of beans, there may be some wheat that gets planted a little bit later than desired. Granted, we aren’t even up to the preferred planting date for wheat yet, but I suspect that if this weather holds, there will be some wheat in the ground before the end of the week. If you do have to move your planting date back to later than say the 20th of October, here’s some things to keep in mind. Delayed planting, that is after about October 20th results in slower germination, poorer germination and ultimately a greater risk of winterkill. Each individual plant, from a late planting, will also have fewer tillers per plant come spring time. To help compensate, we need to make some increases. First of all, seeding rate. For every week after the 20th of October, I’d increase seeding rate 10% over your normal rate. If you would normally plant 65 pounds of wheat seed, increase it to about 72 pounds the week after the 20th. Two weeks after the 20th increase it another 7 pounds and so on up to a full two bushel of seed in late November or early December. The goal is to get more plants up next spring to compensate for fewer tillers per plant. You are also going to be planting into cooler soils. Cooler soils have more problems with phosphorus and other nutrient uptake. So use of a starter fertilizer becomes more important and a soil phosphorus level that may be adequate in early October can be deficient in early November. If planting after October 20th I always like to see at least 15 to 20 pound of phosphorus in a starter fertilizer. Ideally, you’re going to get your wheat planted the first half of October. If reality doesn’t let you, make some adjustments and you should still be in a good shape!

This is Chuck Otte, Geary County Extension Agent, with Ag Outlook 2001.

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