We are treating for blight on the more forward potato crops – Arable Farming – Darryl Shailes
When I retire, I'm going to enjoy having some time to think in May instead of it always being so manic ...
Hopefully I’ll even be able to enjoy the various bank holidays and sit and listen to the cuckoos which have been echoing across the Waveney valley in the last few days.
This May has been challenging with all the rain leading to delayed planting, drilling and herbicide applications, with lots of changes of recommendations and extra visits to fields. It has been particularly difficult for those with potatoes and beet still to be put into the ground.
The garden has flooded with the last dose of rain and the canoe has been out. At least no grass cutting for a few days, we tend to do ‘no mow May’ in a large area anyway, but now we can’t mow even if we wanted to.
We are having the thatch replaced on our house and it has been fascinating watching the thatchers work with the reed they cut themselves from Butley in Suffolk, and passers-by often stand to watch the work in progress. We booked them five years ago and they’re fully booked until 2029.
While the wet weather has delayed the thatchers on the odd day, they seem to have a pretty good forecast to manage their time.
The weather hasn’t stopped aphids flying between the downpours though and we’ve seen plenty in more advance crops of non-Cruiser SB (thiamethoxam) treated sugar beet. They seem to be attracted to the beet as soon the crop reaches the two true leaf fully expanded stage, when they are strongly visible in the row but not when cotyledon stage. Fields will be sprayed when the one green wingless aphid per four plants threshold is hit.
With the delay in planting, in many fields where crops are not treated with Cruiser they will be susceptible for a long time, so keeping them growing quickly and not hitting them too hard with herbicides to slow the growth will be critical. Getting the crop to the 12-leaf stage as quickly as possible is essential and foliar treatment of nutrients will be even more important this season with the compromised root systems and soils we are seeing.
I am pleased all the crops I am involved with have had a good pre-emergence herbicide, so we should be able to manage the weeds without hurting the beet too much.
We are treating for blight on the more forward crops of potatoes as there has been suitable weather recorded on the various warning systems we have access to. All the recent blight epidemics have been early season and this season is shaping up to be just that, with lots of rain, high humidity and with crops growing rapidly.
Ravaged
The first major epidemic I remember was in 2007 and it was nearly all over by the end of July, but crops were ravaged, with growers treating crops with multiple tank mixes and going every five days just to stop the potatoes melting in the field. I was in Belgium at a field trials event that June and the same was happening across the whole of Europe and product supply was put under great pressure.
It’s more difficult to cover rapidly expanding crops and it is here that product choice is critical with oxathiapiprolin being the best active with its systemic activity and good kickback. We didn’t have oxathiapiprolin in 2007, but it would have been very useful.
If crops get infected early in the season blight becomes very challenging and expensive to manage in an already expensive crop to grow, so we can’t let it get away.
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