The Bulletin Archives - Page 68 of 80

Be Alert for Potato Leafhoppers in Alfalfa: New Pest Profile Published Recently

May 27, 2014
Michael Gray

Reports of potato leafhoppers in alfalfa typically begin to increase in late May and early June. Many entomologists consider potato leafhoppers to be the most significant economic insect threat to profitable alfalfa production. Recently a team of entomologists from the University of Wisconsin, the Illinois Natural History Survey, and the USDA ARS authored a peer-reviewed pest profile of potato leafhoppers. This profile offers up-to-date information on the biology, life cycle, injury, hosts, and management options for this key pest in alfalfa.…

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Soybean Injury from Soil-Applied Herbicides

May 20, 2014
Aaron Hager

Integrated weed management programs offer the greatest potential for long-term, sustainable solutions to weed populations demonstrating resistance to herbicides from multiple families. Soil-residual herbicides are important components of integrated weed management programs and provide several benefits, including reducing the intensity of selection for resistance to foliar-applied herbicides. Recent survey data indicate the percentage of Illinois soybean acres treated with soil-residual herbicides has increased during the past few years.
In the vast majority of instances, soil-applied herbicides control target weed species with little to no adverse effect on the crop. …

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Scattered Reports of Armyworms in Wheat Across Southern Illinois

May 20, 2014
Michael Gray

There have been scattered reports of armyworm infestations in southern Illinois wheat with some fields receiving an insecticide treatment. I encourage producers to review the biology, life cycle, and management information in the University of Illinois fact sheet on armyworms. With respect to economic thresholds, there is some variation from state to state. Provided below are thresholds from four land grant universities for consideration. They share some common features. If an insecticide rescue treatment is warranted,…

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Another Look at Soybean Planting Date

May 18, 2014
Emerson Nafziger

Soybean planting is off to a mediocre start in Illinois, with 26% of the crop planted by May 11, and limited progress with the rain of this past week. Planting will resume in some places this week, but other areas remain wet and it will take some time for soils to dry out. In comparison with recent history this is not yet a serious delay, but as time passes the delay will become a bigger concern.…

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It’s not too early to scout for Palmer amaranth

May 16, 2014
Aaron Hager

Planting progress may have been slowed by the recent precipitation, but weed emergence continues despite wet field conditions. Be aware that Palmer amaranth has begun to emerge. We scouted our Palmer amaranth field location west of Kankakee on May 8 and observed emerged Palmer amaranth plants (Figure 1).

We returned to the field on May 15 to find a very robust Palmer amaranth population (Figure 2). The largest Palmer amaranth plants found on May 15 were approximately 2 inches tall with 6 to 8 true leaves.…

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University of Illinois Weed Science Field Research Tours

May 12, 2014
Aaron Hager

We invite you to attend the 2014 University of Illinois Weed Science Field Day on Wednesday, June 25th at the University of Illinois Crop Sciences Research and Education Center, located immediately south of the main campus. Coffee and refreshments will be available under the shade trees near the Seed House beginning at 8:00 a.m.
Similar to past years, we will car pool to the fields where participants can join in a guided (but informal) tour format. …

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Considerations for fungicide management of Fusarium head blight of wheat

May 9, 2014
Aaron Hager

Wheat plants are now beginning to head out and flower in parts of southern Illinois. During this critical time of wheat development, wheat becomes susceptible to infection by Fusarium graminearum, the causal agent of Fusarium head blight (FHB; also known as scab) (Fig. 1). This disease can cause reduced grain yield, test weight, and quality. In addition, the fungus can produce toxins that will contaminate grain such as deoxynivalenol (DON; also known as vomitoxin).…

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Palmer amaranth management recommendations

May 5, 2014
Aaron Hager

A few weeks ago we published recommendations for the management of Palmer amaranth in Illinois agronomic crops. Those recommendations are now available in a file format that can be downloaded and printed. Please don’t hesitate contact me if you have any questions or problems with the file.
Palmer Amaranth 2014 HI…

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Another Look at Corn Planting Date Response

May 2, 2014
Emerson Nafziger

As we head into May, Illinois is ahead of most of the rest of the Corn Belt, with 32% of the corn crop planted here by April 27, close to the 33% that was planted by that date averaged over the past 5 years. Only 19% of the US corn crop was planted by April 27, and states to the north and east of Illinois were in single digits. It is wet in much of the Corn Belt now,…

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Running On-Farm Strip Trials

May 1, 2014
Emerson Nafziger

On April 16 I posted an article http://bulletin.ipm.illinois.edu/?p=1966 on the use of nitrogen fertilizer on soybean, mentioning at the end of the article that this would be a good thing to test in on-farm trials. Here I’ll provide a little background and a brief description of how to go about doing such a trial.
Background: dealing with variability
If there were no variability in yields (or soils) going across a field, a single strip of N fertilizer (or without N while applying N to the rest of the field) would measure the effect.…

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