Monthly Archives: March 2024
Vegetables and Lawns
Wishing everyone a blessed Easter! While I won’t get to it this year, there are people like me who traditionally plant potatoes on Good Friday. So, that led me to thinking of lawn and garden things. A vegetable planting guide for our area compiled by Emeritus Extension Educator, Gary Zoubek can be found here: https://go.unl.edu/fecq.
Kelly Feehan, Extension horticultural educator shares, “Late March through April is typically the time to plant cool season vegetables. These vegetables germinate and grow in cooler soils and can tolerate light frosts. They include onions, potatoes, radish, lettuce, carrots, beets, peas, broccoli, and cabbage.
A tip for growing large onions that store well is starting from transplants instead of sets. Plants grown from sets may begin blooming in mid-summer. Once this happens, bulbs will not grow larger. Flowering happens because onions are biennials. They grow foliage and a bulb the first season, then bloom and set seed their second season. Growing sets for sale counts as one season and so plants from sets are primed to bloom when growth resumes in our gardens.
When growing onions from seed or transplants, plants are not primed to bloom the year we plant them. Some garden centers and catalogs now sell onion transplants for this reason. If you prefer to start from sets, use dime size or smaller sets as these are less likely to bloom the year of planting.
Potatoes are planted in April, sometimes late March or early May. A tip for increasing potato yields is hilling potatoes after they begin to grow. Once they are 12 to 20 inches tall, carefully scrape soil up around the plant to create a hill.
Potato tubers grow on stolons, underground stems, above the roots. Hilling provides more space for tubers to grow and maintains cooler soil temperatures, especially if hills are mulched. As a cool season crop, cooler soil will increase tuber production.
If potato hills are spaced closer together, tubers grow smaller. If hills are spaced farther apart, tubers grow larger. The recommended spacing is 12 inches between hills and 3 feet between rows. The 12-inch spacing will result in smaller tubers. An 18 to 24 inch spacing will result in larger tubers.”
Soil Temperatures can be found at: https://cropwatch.unl.edu/soiltemperature. This is helpful for knowing when to plant vegetables, when to plant crops, and what the soil temp is when applying fertilizer to fields. It’s also helpful for homeowners to wait to apply crabgrass preventer for lawns until soil temps are at least 50-55F for 5-7 days straight. In spite of the warmer temps, it’s far too early for crabgrass preventers!
Lawn Seedings: For those who didn’t seed or overseed turf grass last August-September due to the dry conditions, aim to seed or overseed as soon as possible. Weed control can be a challenge with spring seedings, but a new product has helped with this. I tried it last year and it worked well for me. Just know that your weeds will turn white in the lawn. “Scotts Turf Builder Triple Action Built for Seeding” (blue bag) contains fertilizer and the herbicide mesotrione which provides PRE and POST control of weeds without affecting the new bluegrass or fescue seeding.
Male birds: To keep male birds from attacking your windows upon seeing their reflection when they’re establishing territories, consider placing a thin layer of liquid dish soap on the outside of the window. It can easily be washed off in late spring but will protect your windows and the male birds.
Cover Crop Termination Timing
Cover Crop Termination Timing Tradeoffs: The warmer spring soil and air temperatures until this weekend have allowed small grains like rye, wheat, and triticale to gain quick growth. A small grain cover crop can impact corn and soybean in several ways including: reducing soil erosion, tying up nitrogen, reducing soil moisture prior to planting, increasing insects (beneficial and pests), reducing weed pressure (either via allelopathy towards small weed seeds or choking out weeds), and reducing soil-borne pathogens that cause soybean diseases. Termination timing is often a question. While I’m a fan of planting green, that doesn’t fit each farmers’ goals or situations. The following are things to consider for termination timing.
Termination prior to planting may be of interest to those who are concerned about soil moisture, who are new to cover crops, who have a subsurface drip irrigation system, or are not allowed to plant seed corn green.
One consideration if terminating prior to corn or soybean planting is to consider using clethodim as it doesn’t die as quickly, allowing for longer-lasting erosion and weed control. We’ve been using 10 oz/ac of clethodim. If you do choose to use clethodim vs. glyphosate prior to corn planting, it needs to be applied at least 7 days prior to planting corn. There are no restrictions with soybean.
Termination at or after planting (planting green) is an option for those who want more cover crop biomass for erosion and for weed and disease suppression. When planting soybeans green, the goal is often to off-set the PRE herbicide cost with the cover crop seed and application cost. Reality is, if you’re going to lie awake anxious about this decision, planting green may not be for you. Often, corn plants will not look as good the month of June, but things often turn around come July.
The following are things to consider as there’s more risk involved. Apply nitrogen as a starter or 2X2 with corn when planting green to help with nitrogen tie-up. Some prefer to wait for the corn or soybean seed to germinate before terminating the cover crop while others terminate the same day as planting. If irrigation is available, have the irrigation system ready to go prior to planting in the event you need to add some moisture into a dry seedbed. Upon planting the field, observe if any adult wheat stem maggot flies are present, and also for the presence of beneficial insects before automatically adding any insecticides in with the herbicide.
Termination of rye occurred closer to heading when wanting greatest biomass in soybean. Roller crimping for termination occurs around pollination. When rye is greater than 12”, consider 15-20 gal/ac of carrier for better coverage. A residual herbicide is helpful at some point. Plan on 0.5-1” of irrigation or rainfall to get the residual to the ground, especially on rye taller than 12”. Some add the residual in with the product used for termination, while others prefer to spray the residual in a second pass once the cover starts dying. Those applying a residual at termination time had irrigated fields and planned on 0.5” irrigation after the rain-fast period. If no rainfall was received in 7 days, they often planned on another 0.5” of irrigation to help move residual down to the soil.
With the quick growth this year, it may be wise to have a Plan A and Plan B in mind if you plan on planting green but the cover crop is getting taller than you are comfortable with, especially for corn. For example, Plan A may be that you’re planning on planting green unless the cover is X inches tall by a certain date (ex. April 5-15), upon which you will choose to terminate pre-plant instead (Plan B). There’s no one size fits all approach, so feel free to call and talk through this if you prefer.
Additional Resources:
Photo gallery from farmers’ fields: https://jenreesources.com/2022/04/03/cover-crop-termination-including-planting-green/
Cover Crop Termination Tradeoffs: https://cropwatch.unl.edu/2021/cover-crop-termination-tradeoffs
2024 National Ag Week
Happy National Ag Week! What happens in ag impacts all Nebraskans as 1 in 4 Nebraska jobs are connected to ag. A strong ag economy (Nebraska ranks #1 in farm cash receipts of all commodities/capita) helps Nebraska’s overall economy. “In 2021, every dollar in agricultural exports generated $1.07 in economic activities such as transportation, financing, warehousing and production. Nebraska’s $9.98 billion in agricultural exports in 2022 translates into $10.68 billion in additional economic activity.” Also, 92% of Nebraska’s land is used for farming and ranching to grow the food, fiber, and fuel we rely on each day. In 2023, Nebraska had 44,400 farms and ranches, the average size of which was 991 acres. The following are from the 2024 Ag Facts card: https://nda.nebraska.gov/facts.pdf. Thank you to all who are involved ag-related careers and there’s numerous opportunities for youth to pursue ag-related careers!
#1: Nebraska’s largest ag sector is beef production with Nebraska leading the nation in commercial cattle slaughter at 6.8 million head. We moved up to #1 in beef and veal exports. We also have the most irrigated acres in the nation. #2 in all cattle and calves, all cattle on feed, and commercial red meat production.
#1: Nebraska also ranks 1st in Great Northern bean production, 2nd for pinto bean production and 4th in the nation for all dry edible bean, dry edible peas, and light red kidney bean production.
#2: Nebraska is #2 in ethanol production capacity. Nebraska produces 2.3 billion gallons of ethanol annually from 24 ethanol plants. Distillers grains, a co-product of ethanol production, is an important livestock feed. Nebraska is also #2 in bison production. We fell to #2 in popcorn production in 2023. We are also #2 in no-till cropland acres.
#3: Nebraska is #3 in corn production and exports; also, in cash receipts of all farm commodities.
#4-7: Nebraska is ranked #4 in hay production, land in farms and ranches, and for cover crop acres. We rank 5th in soybean exports and 6th in soybean production. We also rank 5th in grain sorghum, alfalfa hay, and sunflower production and 5th in the nation for production of sugar beets, with half of U.S. sugar production coming from sugar beets. Nebraska is 6th for all hogs and pigs on farms and in commercial hog slaughter. Nebraska ranks 7th in pastureland acres.
Nebraska is the 14th largest winter wheat producing state. We are ranked 14th for organic cropland acres.
When it comes to our natural resources, the aquifer below us is a blessing for irrigated agriculture. “If it was poured over the surface of the state, the water in those aquifers would have a depth of 37.9 feet”. Nebraska has nearly 80,000 miles of rivers and streams and 22 million acres of range and pasture, half of which are in the Sandhills.
There’s so much to be proud of regarding agriculture in Nebraska! As we’re seeing throughout the world, we can’t take farming and food production for granted. May we seek to celebrate and support ag now and in the future! Happy National Ag Week!
Earliness of Spring: Several have commented the tree buds and flowering bulbs seem early. According to the USA National Phenological Network, Omaha, NE is 20 days ahead for spring leaf out of lilacs and honeysuckles compared to the 1991-2020 long-term average, which means we’re currently earlier than 2012 at this point. We’ll have to watch what happens.
Sprayer Drone Conference March 28th at the Leadership Center in Aurora from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. More info. and registration at: https://go.unl.edu/8pam.
Soybean Seed Treatments
Appreciated everyone who attended and shared at our on-farm research update in York last week! I’m so grateful to all the farmer-cooperators who have worked with me through the years and who continue to do so! We wouldn’t have as much innovative and practical research without them!
Soybean Seed Treatment Comparison: This week sharing on a soybean seed treatment study. Some producers are interested in alternative methods of protecting seed from insects and disease beyond traditional insecticide/fungicide seed treatments. This can be due to cost, impacts to pollinators, soil microbes and the environment, and/or human safety.
The grower tested three fields in York, Seward, and Hamilton counties via a split planter design for a total of 21 reps. The biological seed treatment consisted of a blend of: 2 oz PhycoTerra® ST, 1 oz Heads Up®, 1 oz N-Gage Ultra ST, 0.75 oz Bio ST VPH in 100 gal solution. In a second tank, 2 oz of Exceed Soybean inoculant was used per 100 gal. The biological seed treatment was applied by the grower. Cost was $9.20/ac for the full biological seed treatment.
The biological seed treatment was compared to Pioneer’s full seed treatment on two fields and Golden Harvest’s full seed treatment on one field. These treatments were applied by the seed dealers. Cost was $28/ac for Pioneer’s seed treatment and $16.63 for Golden Harvest’s seed treatment.
Field 1: Pioneer’s full seed treatment (62 bu/ac) vs. biological seed treatment (61 bu/ac) No difference. Field 2: Pioneer’s full seed treatment (65.7 bu/ac) vs. biological seed treatment (67.1 bu/ac) Significant difference. Field 3: Golden Harvest’s full seed treatment (69 bu/ac) vs. biological seed treatment (68 bu/ac) No difference. Combining the three locations, the standard seed treatment yielded 65.6 bu/ac vs. 65.4 for the biological seed treatment.
Soybeans were planted green into rye in all three fields. The original plan was to roller crimp the rye, but the soybeans were too elongated due to stretching for sunlight in the tall rye and we were concerned about them being damaged with a roller crimper. Irrigation was also necessary to get the soybeans out of the ground and growing with the tall rye in Fields 1 and 2. However, it was interesting for me to see these fields in the summer in a high white mold pressure year, especially in the fields with previous white mold pressure. I never saw white mold impact the soybeans. Any fungal structures on the ground that germinated seemed to be trapped by the rye mat. Biological products like Heads Up® have been shown by other Universities to help reduce white mold and SDS incidence while ILeVO® and Saltro® have been shown to reduce SDS and soybean cyst nematode incidence.
Hopefully this information is helpful for those who are rotating fields to soybeans this year that have had incidence of disease in the past or who are interested in seed treatment options. If you’re interested in trying a seed treatment study for on-farm research, please let me know.
Also, if you didn’t plant rye due to the dry fall, you can consider planting oats this month if you’re growing soybeans this year in a field with SDS and SCN pressure. Oats was the best small grain to reduce the pathogens causing those diseases according to Iowa State research.
Tree Care and Fruit Tree Basics Workshop will be held Sat. March 9 from 10 a.m. to Noon at the 4-H Building in York. Extension Educator Sarah Browning is joining us again! Refreshments will be provided and there is no cost to attend, but registration is requested to Upper Big Blue NRD at 402-362-6601. Bring your questions! For those interested in gardening but don’t have the space at home, check out the Project GROW community garden in York. Plots are available for the 2024 growing season. You can reserve your space now or come to the Tree Care and Fruit Tree Basics Workshop and sign up in person.
Wildfire Resources and Donation Options: https://go.unl.edu/dpar.
JenREESources's Extension Blog 