Monday Management: weather set to turn on soft crops

As the prolonged spell of settled, warm weather comes to an end this week we return to cooler, wetter conditions. The recent heat has accelerated crop development but both winter and, in particular, spring barley crops are showing signs of stress due to dryness in parts of the country.

Colour variations due to nutrient availability issues in spring crops has been a common sight as of late but the arrival of rain should help with this. Some early sown spring barley crops are showing a lot of yellow leaves again this spring. Most winter crops continue to look well however heavy rainfall may cause damage to softer winter crops.

Spring barley development is mixed. Earlier-sown barley crops are at awns peeping with later sown crops have yet to reach stem extension. Apply final fungicides as the awns emerge, at the paintbrush stage.

Final fungicides can be Bontima, Siltra, Ceriax, Elatus Era, Treoris plus a triazole, or Fandango. Include chlorothalonil or Phoenix in all treatments for ramularia control.

There are yellow leaves appearing in crops around the country and aphids are present in large numbers in some cases.

Spring wheat

Some spring wheat crops are heading towards the flag leaf stage and should be sprayed once flag leaf is full emerged. Crops are generally clean but low levels of Septoria and mildew are present. Treatments could be products like Elatus Era, Adexar, Ascra, Librax or a triazole plus Treoris mix. It might be useful to add chlorothalonil and/or a mildewcide where necessary.

Spring oats

Spring crops are generally between flag leaf emerging and booting. The flag leaf spray could be as simple as straight epoxiconazole or tebuconazole, or something more complex like Elatus Era, Cielex, Jenton, Lumen, Siltra, etc.

Spring oilseed rape

Pollen beetles are present in late-flowering winter rape crops so check spring rape for beetles in the flower buds. Spray if you have a lot of beetles at the green bud stage. Insecticide options include Karate, Karis, Lambda, Markate, Sparviero or a product containing cypermethrin.

Winter wheat

Some headed crops are at the start of flowering, which means T3 fungicide timing. The timing should aimed for early flowering but when the expelled anthers are still yellow. This spray can give a yield response of 0.5 t/ha but this can be low in low disease pressure years. Waiting too long could allow infection in before spraying.

The T3 spray is mainly about triazoles for ear blight control. Some will add a strobilurin like Modem or Amistar, and possibly a contact. The main triazole mixtures for T3 are Prosaro, Gleam and Magnello. Robust to full rates of triazoles are essential to achieve ear blight control.