New articles in the ICM Newsletter for the week of 4/21/2008 – 4/27/2008.
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Hi everyone – Here is the next issue of the Pest&Crop Newsletter for the
2008 season!
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With only 1% of the Illinois corn crop planted as of April 20, it is clear that we are off to a slow start in 2008.
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Issue no. 5 of the Bulletin—pest management and crop development information for Illinois is now available on the Web.
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Shawn Conley and Paul Esker recently developed and launched The Soy Report.
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Considering the cost of nitrogen, we can ill afford to allow weeds to use this expensive input.
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The 2007-2008 winter, and the early portions of the spring season, has brought substantial moisture into many parts of the state.

With further rain forecasted throughout the state over the next few days and weeks, it is important to understand how early season soybean development may be compromised by several plant pathogenic fungi that cause seed rot, seedling mortality, and root and stem decay. Frequently seedling health is ignored because plant populations are acceptable and stem and leaves do not express symptoms during early vegetative growth. Phytophthora sojae, Pythium sp., and Rhizoctonia solani are believed to be most important seedling pathogens, but others, such as Phomopsis and Fusarium sp. are actively invading plants from growth stages VE to V4 (Table 1). Infection may cause chronic symptoms, or remain latent and cause symptoms of plant decline during the reproductive growth stages.

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SOURCE: Nancy Koval, Paul Esker, and Craig Grau, Department of Plant Pathology, UW-Madison

The alfalfa is finally greening up enough to do adequate stand assessments in most of the state.
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Starter fertilizers can be an effective way to supply early nutrients to your corn crop and may be used to supplement broadcast applications, but is there use warranted and what concerns should you have.
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A large roller/crimper is being tested for its ability to roll down heavy cover crops to create a substantial layer of surface mulch into which corn or soybean can be planted or drilled.
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