Having seen so many clean crops in recent weeks, I was somewhat surprised to see significant levels of net blotch and rhyncho in some spring barley crops in east Cork earlier this week. Uneven growth was a feature in many spring crops, with wheel tracking and fertiliser incorporation among the most likely causes.

There was also leaf discolouration evident on emerging leaves of spring crops. This looked most like magnesium deficiency but in some plants it looked more like possible potash deficiency.

Mildew

Mildew certainly did not go away when spring came. It was evident in all the winter barley crops I walked into and was particularly bad in patches missed with fungicide. It was also present in some winter wheat crops and was just starting in some spring barley fields. While it can appear to be worse than the damage it does, it is not a good tenant and is better dealt with early.

On wheat it was mainly on the stems close to the base of the crop but old pustules were also evident on some lower leaves.

Net blotch and rhyncho

It’s been a while since I saw so much net blotch in a young crop of spring barley. One crop coming up to second node had three to five lesions on many leaves intermingled with rhyncho infection. Another crop at a similar stage had less disease overall and rhyncho was its main problem but there were still a few net blotch lesions evident.

Both of these diseases were also showing in nearby winter barley corps but whether they were the source of infection or not, I do not know. There were other spring barley crops adjacent to winter barley which had no infection.

Septoria

Winter wheat crops differed slightly in terms of the level of septoria present. Some were relatively clean, even down in the crop, while others had quite a bit of septoria up on leaf three. At this point one could not say if septoria will be a serious problem in those crops.

BYDV

This is evident in barley, winter and spring, but less so in other crops. I saw nothing that was a definite problem. One winter wheat crop had an occasional yellow top on the flag leaf but it was a different colour and shading to BYDV. There were signs of the usual prominent yellow leaves in spring barley but nothing that looked serious.

Winter wheat

Most winter wheat crops were at the point of heading out but a few were well headed, probably Cellule. Crops look to have a good density and also seem to have good heads as they head out. One crop I walked into felt a bit soft and heavy on top while most others seemed very stiff. Crops seem to have good potential.

Spring barley

There was a big spread on growth stages from mid-tillering through to flag leaf emerging. Crops seem promising but they probably need a good dash of rain to help hold on to tillers. Many crops look like they had been quite uneven during tillering and this may yet show in yield.

Winter barley

Crops were fully eared out and into grain fill. Some crops were very short and stiff and one might wonder if they had been hit too hard with growth regulator. Crops differed somewhat in head density and that may have an effect on grain yield.

Spring oats

I only saw one crop and that was clean. It was at GS32. As with spring barley, it was variable in density and leaf colour.

Spring beans

This crop was at five to six pair of true leaves exposed and flowers were beginning to appear. Yellow patches were visible on many leaves and it felt like this could be the start of downy mildew. But there was no sign of fungal growth on the underside of the lesions.