Research Update (March 6, 2023)
Diligence Technologies Inc., West Tennessee
EVENTS FROM THE PAST MONTH:
We finished off meeting season for the winter with Cotton Focus in Jackson, TN and the Gin Show in Memphis, TN. With the end of meeting season, we know it will not be long before things get serious again. We now begin to put winter behind us and start to focus on the year ahead.
CROPPING SEASONS:
Field activity is beginning to increase as we get closer to spring. Wheat trial maintenance (fertilizing, spraying) is underway as the weather allows (which has not been all that often to this point). It has been a bit wet in a lot of our fields since the middle of February.
Burndown trials are beginning to be sprayed depending on weed species. Trials targeted at ryegrass are out while those that focus on horseweed will come a bit later. Horseweed emergence tends to occur at various times depending on the year, and it looks like this season the horseweed is coming in on the late side. We are holding off on most of our horseweed applications until the weeds reach the desired size.
One benefit to small horseweed this time of year is that you still have time to run a burndown trial if you need one. Give us a call if you have burndown products you would like to test.
We are also cutting out new wheat trials from our existing fields to evaluate spring-applied chemistry (fungicides, fertilizers, etc.). We still have some wheat left if you are looking for a location.
GREENHOUSE ACTIVITIES:
Greenhouse activity seems to be reaching its high point for the season. While we are finishing off some of the early work, we are just getting started on a wide variety of new projects. Good to have some honest (i.e. not office) work to do while we wait for spring to arrive.
We probably still have time to slide in a few quick projects if you need a greenhouse trial this season. Give us a call if we can help.
WEATHER INFO:
Progress on wheat maintenance and burndown trials has been slowed by a weekly rainy period over the past few weeks. We have made a little progress here and there, but could use a nice warm and sunny week to make things go a bit smoother. However, we are still well within our normal trial windows and should be fine in the end.
PEST INFO:
As discussed earlier, we are still waiting to find some larger horseweed for burndown trials. However, we seem to have plenty of everything else (chickweed, cutleaf eveningprimrose, ryegrass, poa, etc.). In the end, I expect this to be a good year for burndown trials.
Most of wheat does not have a lot of weeds since we got it sprayed last fall and we have not encountered a lot of aphid problems to this point.
Thanks again for you continued support of Diligence Technologies. We look forward to working with you all in the coming season. Please let us know if there is anything we can do to support your research program in 2023.
Tim, John Louis, Jake & Jim
Proverbs 12:24
The hand of the diligent shall bear rule, but the slothful shall be put to forced labor.
