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Lapel, In | When given a lemon, make lemonade. And in a bad year, look for the lessons it affords.Almost never had to replant any corn of any magnitude before( did it all this year),but the thingsI learned is when replanting corn it to ALWAYS use row starter. I didn't. I was thinking the fertilizer would still be there if I could stay on the old row.I couldn't do it very well.And by the time the replant came up the Foxtail had beaten the corn to the punch.It was like a cow on June grass,just munching away at MY fertilizer! Atrazine doesn't stick around in a monsoon.
If you want to make the neighbors wonder about you, replant with Liberty Link and spray the Clearfield survivors with Liberty.It turns the survivors into the most brilliant yellow you ever saw and it only takes 2 days for it to happen.Looks like a field of minature sunflowers in bloom!
I think the whole field approach is better that just "spotting in" a field.That just creates too many corn weeds out there that will be munching on My fertilizer again with little chance of making me any profit! Just created a bunch of little doggies---corn doggies, I guess.
And now for your bonus: A landlord called me on May 31 and said go ahead and put the 51 acres in beans.Like I had nothing else to do?The construction people can't get there until October 15 at the earliest.Decided I would just go ahead and drill the beans and hit it with a mega dose of generic RU. He did say ,you can get them out by the 15th,can't you?I think I can -I think I can,I think I can.toot-toot-toot.Thats me the old fat farmer that always thinks he can.Then I get out in the field and see all the Marestail and Giant Ragweed that I couldn't see from the pick up.Now I am not so sure I can! What do I do now.2-4- D is out of the question since it rains every fourth hour now. Don't want to turn those little beans into bubblegum.Take AIM at the problem! Generic Aim???,I never heard of it before.Contact broadleaf weed (AND soybean)killer with very little residual?Hmmm? Is it safe in a situation like this,I ask???NOBODY KNOWS! Hey, its now June 7th.Drill and HOPE it works! Yep, it rains me out.Finish on the 9th.Spray the phony RU and phony AIM on the 12th maybe?Close my eyes and pray.Little beanies sprouting already.At least it ain't so cold now. Well anyway the heavens open up that night.So whats new in Indiana ,June ,2006? Those sprouting little gems!!! Don't die!don't die!!! Like 3 of the 4 -4H pigs did,but that's another story. Don't unload the drill! Don't give the left over treated seed away to a neighbor that had lots of beans to drill even yet! You may need them! I can't look!
June 16 update : I crossed my eyes and looked today.------------------- All I see is fried Marestail and even more fried Giant (not now!) Ragweed! AND ---- little soybeans poking their heads out of the soil! It WORKED!
Think that is all I learned? Nope.I learned that 2-4-D doesn't work very good in 2006 in Indiana. Just too cold! I also learned that this is the year of the nasty POKEWEED to cause havoc and that other nasty that we don't see very often-- Climbing Milkweed. plus lots of Marestail that didn't lay down and go to sleep like it always does in the past!
Hmmm? Maybe we should just go out and drill beans early then come later with RU and AIM?1 ounce=6 bucks.1/2 ounce might do it at 3 bucks? If we drill the beans early then we usually have a 2 or 3 week window before the beans stick their heads above ground, time enough to get the spraying done.Since Aim is a contact killer maybe it isn't so temperature sensitive like 2-4-D?
Now all I gotta do is get the 4 wheeler running. Big Bear has been in hibernation too long.It hasn't been started in 10 years and then I'll go out and give those pesky Pokeweeds a whiff of Distinct.Thats all it takes.I just love to watch those guys fall over almost as soon as they are hit.Like ducks in a shooting gallery! LOL.
I also learn a neighbor took the 40 ounce RU route after he drilled early.Wound up with a lot of Marestail. Glad I didn't try that approachj.I hate the smell of that stuff when it goes through a combine!
What did you learn this spring?Older ,but wiser,bob | |
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Observations in a year of a terrible start
