Tough start to the week. The storm really wrecked peanut beds and washed out planted fields.
Herbicides:
- Cotton: Any Valor and Diuron are almost certainly gone. Nothing changes. Stick to the program. 2 PREs and timely posts. Add Paraquat with PREs if pigweed is up.
- Peanuts: If you have already applied Prowl and you’re reworking beds or had significant soil movement in the field, I would add an additional 16oz of Prowl in combo with Valor immediately after planting.
- Corn: If the soil washed out of the field so did your atrazine. If it didn’t then you may still get some residual activity but will be probably be reduced. If the atrazine was there for at least 2 hours you will still get the post-emergent effects from it. If you would like some residual insurance you can add some more atrazine (less than 12” tall) but be mindful of the 2.5lb/ai yearly limit.
Fertilizer
- Cotton: If you haven’t planted yet and have the capabilities of putting starter fertilizer in a “2 x 2” (2 inches to the side and 2 inches below the seed), you might consider putting 10 gallons of 10-34-0 in a 2 x 2. Or likely a more economical treatment would be 3-5 gallons of 28-0-0-5(S) in a 2 x 2. Don’t put any fertilizer in-furrow. If you have planted, it may not be economical to replace 30 lb N/a right now, especially on large acreage, so be prepared to sidedress N at on the early side of the window (first square rather than first bloom) and maybe bump up the rate 10-25 % then. Tissue sampling right before sidedressing if possible would be a good idea.
- Corn: If you haven’t finished putting N and S out yet then I would consider replacing about 25 % of your total N rate (include some S too, like with cotton). If you already had all your N and S out, maybe wait a week and take a tissue sample and see where you stand
Pecans are coming along a little slower than usual. There is an easy explanation for this and it relates to heating units. Tifton received approximately 712 chill hours (hrs below 45 degrees) this winter, which is good, however, our heating units (hours above 65 degrees) this spring have been off. So far this year we have only had about 233 heating units. By this time last year, we had 353 heating units and in 2019 we had 631 at this point. Budbreak and crop development are coming along slow but should begin to increase as we get consistently warmer. Right now we’re about 10-14 days behind due to the cooler spring. April 1st is our normal bud break but once the buds broke this year they just sat there. the late start means crop could lag behind some and it’s likely that you’ll have to carry some sprays later in the season to protect against scab.