Wheat entering heading and flowering stage

On May 20th most wheat fields in the Fulton County area were hitting the heading stages. The wheat head is starting to pop open the sheath of the flag leaf with the wheat head emerging. The beginning of pollination or anthesis happens in 3-10 days after heading. The most mature part of the head is the center with flowering proceeding up and down the head florets until complete. For a more detailed description of wheat plant development click here.

As heads emerge farmer may note the anthers getting caught in the sheath and the head is bent or appears stuck. This phenomenon has happened over the years especially with a cool spring. Some time it is accompanied by twisted flag leaves. The picture at the left is from the spring, 2000. Often the continued emergence of the head will cause the head to break free even though it may stay bent until harvest. Pierce Paul, OSU Extension Plant Pathologist recently comment on the issue.

Wheat Heads Trapped in the Boot – Pierce Paul

Wheat in Ohio is between Feekes 9 (full flag leaf emergence) and Feekes 10.5.1 (flowering). Reports are coming in from some field going through the head emergence growth stage (Feekes 10.1-10.5) of a fairly high incidence of heads being trapped in the boot. This is not an entirely unusual occurrence in wheat fields, however, incidence as high as 20 or 50% in some cases is alarming and causing some producers to be concerned. One of the main causes of this is cold temperature. Relatively warm temperatures allow the heads to emerge quickly and easily from the leaf sheath, whereas cold temperatures slow down this process and may even prevent the heads from emerging completely, leaving them trapped by the tip. Since May 1, we have had fairly cool conditions, with an average high of 66F and low of 47F.

Fields planted with varieties that are more sensitive to cold temperatures were the ones most affected. However, this does not necessarily mean that these varieties with automatically suffer a yield reduction. Once the heads remain green and healthy and water and nutrients still travel up the stem to the spikelets, these plants will produce grain. Yield will only be affected if the heads are distorted to the point of blocking or stopping the flow of water and nutrients to the spikelets.

The last issue of the Crop Observation and Recommendation Network had a couple of good articles on head scab potential. If the weather as currently predicted for next week happens we should have a low potential for head scab. Click here for head scab articles.

Hail Damage to Wheat

The storm on May 7 literally mowed off several hundred acres of wheat in southern Henry County and substantially damage the crop in other areas. Area farmers say the air after the storm had the smell of freshly mowed hay. The area of Henry County along and south of State Route 281 and east of Road 8 had some of the greatest crop damage. There was a progression of damage with the severest injury where the hail cut the stem at or below the head, while in other fields a percentage from 5-80 of the stems were bent over to the least injurious situation where only the flag leave was damaged.

Wheat Mowed Off Below Head.













Wheat with Bent stems 80%+













Wheat With Flag Leaf Torn













At this stage of May, the crop has gotten all the herbicide, and pest control inputs invested. Salvaging some value from the crop will be difficult in many cases. The follow are some considerations for farmers with damaged fields.

1) Contact your insurance agent. Hail insurance is an obvious claim to file. If you do not have hail insurance but do have some of the other crop insurance products for production and price still at least make a call to your agent. Replanting to another crop and other questions should be clarified before destroying a crop. You will also want to report to Farm Service Agency with your summer reporting changes in cropping. It is better to ask now rather than after you have destroyed a standing crop and miss out on benefits.

2) Harvest as a grain crop. The following chart was published in the Wisconsin Crop Manager Newsletter May 18, 2000 7(9):52. The chart gives yield potential based on stage of growth and 100% of the stems being bent. Most of the local crop was pre boot to the boot stage so 28-39% is the area of loss we are working in where the main damage was bent stems.











3) Abandon the grain crop and harvest as a forage. This is dependent on there being a livestock producer close enough to harvest as green chop. Another option is harvesting as hay. Some of the worst fields have half the dry matter on the ground plus as the crop continues to mature the feed value is lowering. So before harvesting for hay, some estimation of value should be made to see if it makes economic sense. In addition feed value the labels of products (insecticide, herbicides and fungicides) that have been used in the last 30 days should be consulted for harvest restriction. For example "Harmony and Harmony Extra labels state "do not graze or feed forage or hay from treated areas to livestock". Quilt has a 30-day restriction. Warrior has a 21-day restriction. " The CORN Newsletter Issue 12 has some other consideration for harvesting wheat as a hay crop.

4)Destroy crop and replant to corn or soybeans. Sometimes damaged plants can be very difficult to control. The following recommendations come from Dr. Mark Loux, Ohio State University Extension Weed Scientist, "Definitely plant a RR crop so the option of POST glyphosate applications to finish off the wheat can be made. At this time, use 1.5 lbs ae - 64 oz of generic, 44 oz PowerMax/WeatherMax, or 48 oz of Touchdown. Add AMS and don't mix any residual herbicides with it. Application in 10 gpa may be more effective than higher volumes."

Surrounding corn fields were also sheared off in a similar fashion but were only in a V1 growth stage with the growing point located below ground where it was protected. These plants will recover without difficulty. The only thing growers should remember is that the injury occurred and when staging the plants for future pesticide applications that the growth stage is 1 to 2 stages more advanced depending on how many leaves were destroyed. This is important for some herbicide applications.

A couple of soybean fields were just coming up as well. Plants were broken off below the cotyledon eliminating the only growing points on the plant. Fields where populations are less than 85,000 plants per acre or with large open areas will need to be replanted.

Planting Progress 5/12/2010

Planting in the area has been held up by wet weather. Cool temperature have limited the growth of what has been planted but slowly we have seen crop emerge. It seems we are headed for a repeat of the spring of 2009 with a early window and then the rest of the crop planted around Memorial day.

Planting and crop progress at this point:

Corn around the county seems to be about 60% planted. Planting occurred from April 19- to the 24th. The majority of the fields were up as of May 6th with about half in the V1 stage and the rest just spiking through. Stands are generally good but there is some uneven emergence and in one case no emergence with a crusty compacted soil. In doing some digging where plants are not up no rots were noticed and a little warm weather may yet get the un-emerged crop up. Flea beetle activity was very light but with cool temperatures and slow growth this would be something to monitor fields for. As far as frost or in some cases hail damage, the growing point is still well protected below the soil surface until V5-V6. Plant can be completely cut off and will still survive.

Soybean planting is very limited with less than 10% of the crop in. In travels last I saw just one field planted and it was emerging with a good stand. The crop is vulnerable once emerge to hail and freeze injury if the injury kills the top portion of the plant below the cotyledon.

Wheat is progressing toward the boot stage and head emergence and is generally in Feekes stage 9-10. Overall the crop looks good with little disease presence. There has been some significant hail injury in southern Henry County to fields in the path of the storms Friday night. A followup article on this will be available on May 13th.