Weather conditions have led to huge top growth and poor root and tuber development – Arable Farming – Darryl Shailes
The open gardens went well and numbers were pretty strong. With people travelling more than 30 miles to visit, I think anything a bit different is welcome at the moment ...
We’ve let a lot of the garden run a bit wild and the subsequent varied plant species have attracted a host of wild visitors too.
So far this year we’ve seen five different species of raptor – kites, buzzards, sparrow hawks, kestrels and hobbies – a barn owl and, most excitingly, a baby tawny owl was spotted sitting in the long grass with its mother in the tree above.
With all those you would think the songbird population would be low, but no, they are in abundance too as there’s plenty of cover even for the new pheasant chicks hiding in the long grass. It’s a bit like a mini nature reserve.
As another plus, it saves on mowing and trimming at a busy time of year for an agronomist, as the aerial growth of grass and other foliage has been spectacular this year once it got going. The same goes for sugar beet and potatoes and yesterday I looked at some beet for the first sign of disease and the leaves were above my waist. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before.
If all this green leaf can convert the sunshine into sugar, all will be well. However, the sun has often been absent this summer and the weather dominated by rain and dull overcast skies. June has had some of the lowest sunshine hours recorded in recent years.
Tuber development
This has led to huge top growth and poor root and tuber development in many fields. All top and no bottom, as one of my colleagues said after doing some potato digs.
The sun will come out I hope but, in the meantime, to be able to maximise its effect we will need to keep the leaf green and working well for as long as possible.
Harvest may be a bit later than we would have liked in some situations. Tissue tests are showing up some deficiencies, which is to be expected after all the rain we’ve had, so a robust foliar nutrient programme may be needed in crops and disease in beet and potatoes are now starting to show.
Cercospora has been seen in some fields of beet and there is blight and Alternaria showing in potatoes. As we’ve already discussed, cercospora could be a challenge, especially if the weather gets hotter. We must be on our guard and not let the gaps between triazole-based fungicide applications slip too far and keep an eye out for the British Beet Research Organisation cercospora warning. Cereal and rape harvest may be underway and the agronomist may be on holiday, so it’s important that someone is staying alert.
Blight management in potatoes is always a priority and we’ve got some great products available to us.
Most crops should have received some oxathiapiprolin-based product during rapid canopy when the weather was as good for blight as it has been.
Complex
I’m sure that if we’d had this amazing active in some of the previous epidemics, such as in 2007, they wouldn’t have been nearly so bad. Alternaria is a bit more complex and often seen as a bit of an afterthought by many.
The influence of nutrition and variety can play a big part and cause premature senescence – the last thing we want this season.
We will need the haulm to be strong and functioning for as long we can in many fields, so let’s be proactive and manage all the potential issues before they arise.
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