2013 Season at the University of Illinois Plant Clinic
After the extra early season last year, now we are in the midst of an extra late one. Samples have been slowly appearing this spring here at the Clinic in our 38th year of operation. The unusually cool wet weather has kept many out of the field and landscapes. The University of Illinois Plant Clinic began year-round operation in the fall of 2011, when we moved from our facility on St.…
A recent article published in this Bulletin by Dr. Mike Gray (“Soil Insecticide Use on Bt Corn Expected to Increase this Spring Across Much of Illinois”) provides insights and data that suggest the use of at-planting soil-insecticides in corn is likely to increase this season. Many insecticide choices are available to farmers, but several of these could restrict the option to use certain corn herbicides. Specifically, using an organophosphate (OP) insecticide at planting or after corn emergence could restrict the use of herbicides that inhibit either the ALS or HPPD enzymes. …
April 2013 has turned into a “second March”, with wet weather and cool temperatures persisting into the last week of the month, and corn planting progress stuck at 1 percent, with little chance of much additional progress before the calendar turns to May. Nationally, only 4 percent of the corn crop was planted by April 21, and none of the Corn Belt states had more than 1 percent planted. The corn that has been planted is struggling mightily to survive the soil conditions and to emerge.…
UPDATE(4/25): Additional volunteers needed. Kelly Estes, Coordinator of the Illinois Cooperative Agricultural Pest Survey suggests anyone interested in monitoring traps contact her at: kcook8@illinois.edu or 217-333-1005.
Currently, black cutworm moth pheromone traps are active in the University of Illinois insect monitoring program. Traps for other species will be brought online as the season progresses. Extension Educators and volunteers monitor the traps and report the results through the North Central IPM PIPE system,…
The continual evolution of weed species and populations resistant to herbicides from one or more mechanism-of-action families represents one of the most daunting challenges faced by weed management practitioners. Currently in Illinois, biotypes of 12 weed species have been confirmed resistant to one or more herbicide mechanisms of action. Resistance to herbicides that inhibit the ALS enzyme is the most common type of resistance in Illinois. Waterhemp has evolved resistance to more herbicide mechanisms of action than any other Illinois weed species,…
Yes, a year does make a lot of difference – in 2012, we had 5 percent of the Illinois corn crop planted by April 1 and 17 percent planted by April 9. This year, the April 8 issue of Illinois Weather & Crops from the Illinois office of NASS gives no percentage planted as of April 7, which means that less than 1 percent had been planted. There has been some planting this week,…
In late March 2013, an article was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) titled “Potential shortfall of pyramided transgenic cotton for insect resistance management.” The authors of the paper were as follows: Thierry Brévault, Shannon Heuberger, Min Zhang, Christa Ellers-Kirk, Xinzhi Ni, Luke Masson, Xianchiun Li, Bruce E. Tabashnik, and Yves Carrière. The scientists pointed out in their introduction that the first generation of Bt cotton plants,…
Dicamba is a growth regulator herbicide that can be used to control existing weed vegetation prior to crop planting. Several commercially-available products contain dicamba, but not all products are specifically labeled for application prior to crop (especially soybean) planting. Clarity may be applied before planting no-tillage corn at rates ranging from 8 (on coarse soils or medium- and fine-textured soils with less than 2.5% organic matter) to 16 (medium- and fine-textured soils containing 2.5% or greater organic matter) fluid ounces. …
Ideally, soil-residual herbicides should provide several weeks of weed control but not persist long enough in the soil environment to cause damage to rotational crops. Dry soil conditions, similar to what most of Illinois experienced during the 2012 growing season, often slow the rate of herbicide degradation and increase the potential for damage to rotational crops from herbicide carryover. Some remember the dry growing season of 1998 and the problems encountered in 1989 due to the persistence of one or more soil-residual herbicides that did not adequately degrade in the dry soil conditions of 1988. …