Don't Punt: Proactive Wet Weather Management | Beck's Agronomy Update

Añadido: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]Hello everybody, Luke Schulte. Field agronomist for Beck's Hybrids. It's now been two, three, some cases even four weeks where we've been pretty well inundated with rain. And I believe there are about three main watch-outs or concerns for the current crop that's in the ground. One of those is what we call post-emerge damping-off. So, up to about V4, the corn plant is supplied by the seed energy. Okay? And about in V4, that plant transitions. That's why it oftentimes goes through that funky yellow stage and it transitions to being supplied by that nodal root system. Much of the corn that was planted in April is now transitioning to that nodal root system. But damping-off or Pythium is an infection that takes place in corn like where we're in here today, early, V1, V2. The seed treatments have kind of worn down cuz they've kind of got overrun by water and then that infection sets in. For our April planted corn that is now transitioned to that nodal root system, Pythium can no longer take it out. And that is actually my concern cuz there's still a cost to that infection.

[00:00:58]Even though it's being supported by that nodal root system, Pythium is still going to have a negative impact. In fact, I'll revert to a study that was done by the University of Delaware. What they did is they examined those plants that were infected by Pythium, but won the race or they established the the nodal root system before the plant was actually taken out versus plants that were healthy. And when they looked at the individual yield as if every plant was infected with Pythium versus healthy, there was over 100 bushel yield hit.

[00:01:30]Now, there's not a 100 bushel yield hit overall because not every plant is infected, but it is substantial. Now, we can't do anything about Pythium infected plants now, even if they are going to live. But what we can do is be a proactive with managing the compounding stresses that we're currently experiencing, these wet conditions. And what we've seen through PFR, I've seen in field scenarios that is helpful specific to anaerobic stress is any foliar nutrition that contains manganese, sulfur, and or kelp. Those are the three compounds that we've seen that are specifically helpful at reducing anaerobic stress. And then those April planted acres, if Pythium is a concern, if they've been wet for quite some time, I would highly consider being proactive to help narrow that gap that I that I referred to you earlier there from the University of Delaware.

[00:02:20]My case second concern due to these wet conditions is what we call crown rot or pre-emergent or plant death. And that's that infection that comes in after the seed treatment has kind of started to wear down, V2 V3, up to about V6 V7 when we continue to stay saturated, when we continue to stay damp high mag soils.

[00:02:37]And what happens is the infection comes in through the root system and then it infects that crown area. So, as we zoom in here, you can see the discoloration of the crown area. And I want you to think about the crown as the highway.

[00:02:49]Essentially, when crown rot comes in, it takes that four-lane highway down to a single lane or two-lane. But, it doesn't actually kill the plant here now. What it does do though is it takes a say 109-day corn in this case and it ends up acting like say a 100 105-day. It actually never reaches maturity and it prematurely dies, which reduces that ear size and potential for stand ability if we don't do anything about it.

[00:03:15]Now, identification is kind of difficult. We've got this plant split, so it's pretty easy to identify. One of the other tells that isn't 100% but I've seen to be highly comparable or highly correlated is when we look at the lower portion of the plant.

[00:03:31]You can see normally we want these lower leaves to look, you know, green, healthy, vigorous. But, as we move down the line, you can see a number of plants. That one actually looks pretty decent. But, as we move to this next plant, you could see that coleoptile leaf doesn't look as healthy as it should be. I would bet that as we move down the plant, several of these plants have actually been infected with Aphanomyces in splitting the stem. I think it's a fairly confident um realization that crown rot infection has invaded those plants. Now, unlike Pythium where we really can't do anything to kind of reverse those effects, we do have some options when it comes to crown rot. But, it takes proactive management with a fungicide now, V5, V6, V7 as opposed to waiting till say R1. Now, we won't restore that that discolored tissue, but we can kind of stop it in its tracks. Like you see in front of you, I've got a Priaxor trial that we did a couple years ago that really shows the differential and that healthy green, white, fleshy look that we're looking for. But, here's the key, too. If we're going to be proactive with that fungicide management, it's product selection. I think the tendency in these type of times is to just use like a generic say azoxystrobin. But, what we've learned is we need dual modes of action. Specifically, not just a strobilurin because the strobilurin chemistry is not highly effective on crown rot that's that has the causal pathogen uh say Pythium. So, dual mode of action, also at full rates. A demonstration trial that we had here a couple years ago showed that partial rates or reduced rates, even though we have a small plant, aren't highly effective. We want to stay at full rates or more of our typical rates when it comes to that dual mode of action fungicide, proactively.

[00:05:13]And the third of those concerns or watch outs that I want to make you aware of is goes back to that wet weather. Many of our residual herbicides on those April planted crops have been in the ground four, five, even six weeks. It's time to start making our post-emerge herbicide passes. And the one thing that we learned throughout the last two years of utilizing CN Spray or more prescription-based uh herbicide rec uh applications is even the the metabolic process of detoxifying and metabolizing enlist one or glyphosate on enlist soybeans is an energy draw. And it's energy that's stealing away from yield. If we think about the situation we're about to go into, these beans have been under compounding stress, I would highly consider utilizing a stress mitigation product. Even though the Enlist soybeans are tolerant to those two herbicides I mentioned, there's still an energy requirement and right now the plant doesn't have an overabundance of vigor.

[00:06:01]So, the inclusion of one of these stress mitigation products I'd advise. They're a minimal investment, you could see the overall return on investment, and the consistency of making us money is pretty strong as well with minimal dollars of exposure. So, as we think about the next week, forecast looks pretty good, but it's the end of May, 1st of June.

[00:06:20]Feels like the weather has been kind of a broken record of wet followed by a day or two of dry and we just can't get out of that cycle. Forecast now looks pretty favorable, but as recently as 2019 we learned it's way too early to give up on this crop. And if we continue to proactively, wisely invest in the managing this crop through this wet weather stress, we're going to be happiest with our return on investment at the end of year and come harvest. So, as always, if you have any questions around what to do in these wet situations and these anaerobic prolonged conditions, please give us a call.

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