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…
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,…
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.…
Fields days organized by Crop Sciences and Extension at the University of Illinois and by other institutions will focus on crops and pests, with speakers talking about current crop issues along with information from previous research. Each event will offer CEUs for CCAs.
Following is the schedule of crop-related 2014 field days organized by University of Illinois Crop Sciences and by several other institutions.
Event
Date – start time
Food
Contact
Urbana – Weeds
June 25 –…
Recently, the weed science program at the University of Illinois published recommendations for the management of Palmer amaranth in Illinois agronomic crops. One particular recommendation emphasizes the need for timely application of foliar-applied herbicides; in particular, foliar-applied herbicides must be applied before Palmer amaranth plants are taller than four inches. Most weed management practitioners are very familiar with the growth rates of waterhemp and many other weed species, but perhaps are less familiar with the growth rate of Palmer amaranth.…
Significant flights of black cutworm moths were reported in several counties of Illinois during mid-April. Based upon these captures of moths in pheromone traps, projected cutting dates are offered for the following counties: Champaign (May 20), Fayette (May 11), Logan (May 14), Madison (May 11), Pike (May 17), and Warren (May 18). Fields most at risk to economic infestations include those that are planted late and infested with winter annuals. Weedy fields are often targeted for egg laying by these strong migratory moths.…
Welcome to another Diagnostics season! Samples have been steadily appearing this spring here at the Clinic in our 39th year of operation. On the field front, there have been concerns with virus disease diagnosis in wheat. On the home landscape front, there is a mountain of winter kill and windburn injury from the harsh winter just past.
The University of Illinois Plant Clinic began year-round operation in the fall of 2011. Our new location is in Jonathan Baldwin Turner Hall on the south end of the Urbana campus.…
There has been a great deal of interest in recent months in the idea of using nitrogen fertilizer during the growing season to increase soybean yields. This is somewhat surprising given that there has been so little evidence from published and unpublished reports showing that this practice increases yields, let alone provides a return on the cost of doing this.
Soybean plants in virtually every Illinois field produce nodules when roots are infected by Bradyrhizobium bacteria,…
The number of acres in Illinois seeded with various cover crops has increased during the past few seasons. Those cover crops that do not winter kill are usually controlled the following spring with herbicides. Dr. Bob Hartzler, extension weed scientist at Iowa State University, recently published an excellent article in which he describes several factors that can impact the performance of spring-applied herbicides used to terminate cover crops. We sincerely appreciate Dr. Hartzler’s willingness to allow us to reproduce his article which follows.…