Last week was a phenomenal week for planting. Conditions were as near to perfect as we’ve seen in several years.

Because of good planting conditions corn planting progress went from 10% at the beginning to 70% before the weekend rains. And yes, some soybeans were put in the ground too. My guess is 10% of the soybean acres were planted.

The weekend rains did cool soil temperatures back to the upper 40’s or lower 50’s. This should not be a huge problem from corn or soybeans. The bigger problem might be the effect of the rain on the soil in the form of crusting. Keep an eye on things and take action before emergence is slowed.

The rain also had an impact on some of the newly seeded waterways, repaired terraces and other conservation structures. Take a look and make plans to fix the damage or reseed as appropriate.

Check Corn Emergence and Consider Rotary Hoeing if Needed! If you got your corn planted early and it has not yet emerged, go out and take a look at how things are going. The next couple of weeks could be trying times for those corn seedlings. Soil temperatures have dropped and the ground is plenty wet right now. If cool, wet soils persist damping off could be problematic. If warm, dry conditions blow in watch out for soil crusting. Soil crusting can hurt emergence and populations if not caught soon enough. A preventative rotary hoeing, if timed right, can increase emergence compared being left under crusted conditions. However, if things warm up and timely rains come, crusting could be a non-issue.

Keep an Eye on Already Planted Soybeans! There are a couple reasons to keep an eye on those soybean acres planted last week. First, Sudden Death Syndrome (SDS) was bad across Iowa in 2007 and those fields are likely coming back to soybeans this year. Second, new research indicated that soybeans are at greater risk of being infected with the SDS pathogen before emergence of the germinated seed. However, symptoms will not be visible until later in the summer. Because of the two cases above, soybeans planted last week are subject to cooler, wetter conditions with slower germination and emergence. X.B. Yang, ISU plant pathologist, indicates that severe SDS is rare in fields planted after May 15 and more frequent in field planted before the first week of May.

SOURCE: ISU’s Mark Licht