Spring weather forecasts can be fickle. Eric Snodgrass of Nutrien Ag Solutions sees a chance of frost during April 17-19, which is within the 30-year average frost date. The National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center’s eight- to 14-day outlook for April 17-23, as updated April 9, calls for likely chances of above-normal temperatures and a moderate chance of above-normal precipitation. The MSU Enviroweather station at Applewood Orchards in Deerfield said in an April 11 report that we have had 80 GDD heat units since March 1, the second highest total in the past six years.
Last year, this site had only 44 GDD, and 43 GDD in 2022. Rainfall since April 1 was 1.84 inches, the highest total in the last six years. Minimum ground temperatures, measured at five centimeters above ground, under bare ground, reached 50.3ºC on April 10, which had slowed the ascent since April 7 due to mild air temperatures.
Insects usually overwinter (some in homes or other buildings or protected areas) or come in from the southern states with warm Gulf air currents. Black cutworms have now been detected in southern Indiana, but no reports in Ohio or Michigan. Potato locusts, armyworms, earwigs and some aphid species are also monitored. Some newly hatched European corn borer larvae may drown during times of heavy rain, or waterlogged soil may wipe out newly hatched corn rootworms.
Corn or soybean planting just started the week of April 7 when the rains returned on April 11. Soil temperatures will cool, delaying seed germination by up to possibly 21 days. Francis Childs, a former world record corn yield holder, spoke at Cabela’s and said he wanted all his corn plants to emerge within 18 hours and look like “soldiers in a row.” Late emerging crops tend to never catch up and become like weeds, consuming only water and nutrients without contributing to yield. Rural Farm Radio had a segment where misaligned planter closing wheels significantly reduced that row’s corn yield.
For wheat, research shows that 60 percent of the yield potential is fixed once the borer leaves the field. I’ve never heard that percentage for corn or soybeans, but this number could include things like: planting date, soil conditions and temperature, seed variety and treatment(s), weather forecast, planter maintenance, soil fertility, field drainage, etc.
Winter wheat needs some nitrogen, and any herbicides, before it reaches the critical growth stage of Feekes. 6. The recommended nitrogen amount for winter wheat based on the formula; nitrogen content = (1.33 x yield potential) – 13. The goal for a wheat yield of 100 bushels would require a total of 120 pounds of N for the entire year (fall + spring).
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Blue flowers are considered the “holy grail” of flower color for the garden. No color is more difficult to find in the plant world than true blue. Presumably only 10 percent of all flowers on Earth are blue. Blue is considered a soothing color, making a garden with blue flowers a great place to unwind after a hectic day. Some plants marketed as blue actually look closer to purple, such as petunias. Some plants that are color options include: grape hyacinths, bachelor’s buttons, borage, some salvias, floss flower, dwarf lobelia, forget-me-not, amsonia, Virginia bluebell, Himalayan blue poppies, delphiniums, balloon flowers, blue cardinal flower, wood phlox, blue false indigo, Jacob’s ladder, clematis, hydrangea and blue spirea. These colors can range from pale to ice blue to cobalt and deep indigo.
— Ned Birkey is an MSU Extension educator emeritus and a regular contributor to The Monroe News.
This article originally appeared in The Monroe News: Agriculture in Monroe County: Blue is the rarest plant color
