Differences in soil structure and inherent nutrition are evident in variable crops – Arable Farming – Darryl Shailes

While I’ve been writing recommendations in the early morning, an old country proverb came to life before my eyes. We’ve got an oak tree and ash tree in the garden, and the old rhyme ‘oak before the ash we’re in for a splash and ash before oak we’re in for a soak’ came into play. Last year, the oak came much earlier, and this year, it was the ash which got me to thinking it was worth checking the sense behind the saying.

According to the Royal Meteorological Society, both trees come into leaf around the same time of year, between late March and May, with oak mainly determined by temperature, while ash is governed by the number of daylight hours.

If spring arrives early, with high temperatures in February and March, oak trees will likely leaf first; if cold conditions persist into April, ash will probably have the advantage.

So, it is nothing to do with the rain, but accurate nonetheless.

Another farming saying is that for a good crop of beet the canopy needs to be ‘down the row by the Suffolk Show and across the row by the Norfolk Show”. Well, my beet is a bit like the curate’s egg – partly good, partly not so good.

We know why we have this saying. It is all about ground coverage around the longest day on June 21, which falls between the Suffolk Show, which normally takes place in the last week of May, and the Norfolk Show in the last week of June, but crops are very variable this season.

All the rain followed by dry weather has meant that differences in soil structure and inherent nutrition have had a huge effect on how the crop has grown so far this season. I have got fields that are flying, mostly because they have had some form of organic amendment and the soil is in good heart.

Others, especially on thin, sandy soils, are struggling, and free-living nematode and beet cyst nematode grazing has added to the problem of washed out, slumped soils. The poor root structures are not getting the water and nutrition they need, so foliar feeding is required in many cases. This has led to canopies that are slow to close, and continuing flushes of fat hen.

We will have to keep these crops green well into the autumn, so the addition of anew fungicide from BASF, based on mefentrifluconazole + fluxapyroxad, which offers better control than current standards on cercospora, is good news.

But what about potatoes? Again, it has been a very challenging start; lots of rain at the wrong time then none when we need it won’t help yields.

There have been a lot of slumped and capped soils and again, nematodes of various descriptions have loved the wet weather in April and early May.

There is blight reported around the country so we must be alert when the weather does break. Also, where crops are struggling nutritionally, it can open them up to further damage from alternaria.

Foliar feeding can help struggling crops but the decision needs to be made early when the canopy is still expanding, and not late, as once they start to stall it is difficult to get them going again.

We will be looking at nematode control at our potato demo on July 13 at A. H. Worth’s Manor Farm, Holbeach, along with wireworm, cover crops, foliar nutrition and soil management – all very relevant to this season and many others.

We hope to see some of you there.