Maize eyespot - it's about!

29/07/2010 near Bridgrule.

The recent cooler, wet weather has brought about the emergence of this distructive disease again, the difference being that most maize is now chest or shoulder height, some taller, making spraying difficult. Still, better to be preventative whilst you can, rather than sorry later, so if you see anyting looking like this in your maize, get it protected.

Well established in maize near Holsworthy. 23/07/2010

Early symptoms - 22/07/2010

In a field near Exeter Airport- 22/07/2010

Maize 2010 so far.

Cold, dry and a late start for many, although fortune so far has favoured the brave who planted early, got the crop started with the moisture that was already in the soil and then got rain just when needed to push the crops on. The predicted frost damage on early drilled fields has not yet materialised down here, even where drilled on the 16th of April when we had a week of hard frosts at the beginning of May.

16th April, Petrockstowe.

Beethoven with it's fantastic early vigour has lead the pack in the trials right from the start, although Lorado in the last ten days has really started a serious growth spurt and has caught it up in terms of stature.

24th May, Pertockstowe

3rd June, Bude.

A lot of crops with average vigour have needed a trace element/foliar spray to get them growing in the very dry conditions, especially those planted in May which weren't able to get a big enough root area before the sun and dry weather started to make life difficult for the small plants.

Contrary to MGA advice about cloddy seedbeds being OK, this has proved to be bad advice on heavier ground this year with very poor germination and plant counts where these types of seedbeds have been found. This may be OK on light loams and sands, but not on heavier clay loams in Devon and Cornwall. Compaction too has been a real issue on ground that was compacted in the wet last autumn with the tracks stil being visible this year, even after numerous passes with subsoilers and cultivators.

Compaction.....!

Going on growth stages, this year the crop on average is about 10 days ahead of where it was at the same time last year with a crop of Beethoven near Bude over 6ft tall at the end of June!

25th June, Petrockstowe.

Beethoven 30th June, Bude!

Frost heave/lift on winter corn.

Above is Nickerson Original Alchemy in very heavy claggy clays at Whitstone, near Launceston which came through the winter without much suffereing, even though there was standing water that froze here. Below is Original Istabraq at Ashwater, again no issues with the very hard frost and wet this last winter.


Contrast this above with this below of other seed, with the effects seen though in later growth stages.

Seen a lot of this this year after the very cold winter, following a very wet Autumn where late drilled wheat suffered badly.

Yellow rust in Devon

Yellow Rust is very active in the untreated variety trial site run by Nickerson at Silverton near Exeter.

For those who thought this was not a disease of concern in the south west, please be aware this is no longer the case. On the back of growing susceptable varieties in this area, the disease has migrated southwards into the region and growers must appreciate that all untreated areas (those around field corners, hedgerows, pylons, electricity poles etc) will be hot spots for the disease to flourish in and spread from making the risk greater in future.

Full details can be seen at the Farmers Weekly Rust Watch page.