Research Update (April 7, 2025)
Diligence Technologies Inc., West Tennessee
EVENTS FROM THE PAST MONTH:
Meeting season for this winter is almost in the books. We spent most of March in the greenhouse, working on wheat and burndown trials, and getting ready for spring planting. Field season is right around the corner, and we are already getting excited to be outside enjoying the warm weather.
UPCOMING EVENTS:
We do have one event planned for later this spring:
CPDA, May 5-7, Cape Coral, FL
Let us know if you plan to be there. We would love to hear what you have going on this year.
CROPPING SEASONS:
We have cut out winter wheat trials and preparing for spring applications. In case you are not familiar, we generally plant extra wheat in the fall that can be used for wheat trials with spring application timings such as fungicide trials, nutritional studies, and postemergence herbicide trials. We still have some wheat available if need it.
Burndown season is here with more to come depending on the desired weed size. We have an excellent winter annual weed population this year.
Of special note, we have locations to test herbicides on horseweed and other locations that contain ryegrass. We tend to get requests for those two weeds most often in burndown trials. Just let us know if you need a site before we kill them off to make room for other trials.
GREENHOUSE ACTIVITIES:
We had a strong push on greenhouse trials in March, so the greenhouse is still active and going strong. It is getting late in our normal greenhouse cycle, but we might still be able to squeeze in a trial if it does not go out too long. Also note that we keep soybeans, corn, and cotton along with a few weed species growing in the greenhouse all winter. If you are looking for a trial that involves postemergence applications to any of these plants, we may be able to knock them out in short order.
Also note that we still have cotton infested with cotton aphids at present. We would be happy to do an aphid evaluation if you have the need.
UPCOMING TRIAL REMINDERS:
SOYBEAN INSECT TRIALS
We typically plant soybeans for insect trials late in our production window. By doing this, we seem to have increased insect pressure as other crops and earlier planted soybeans begin to mature making the soybeans the last good thing to eat on the farm. We can typically get good populations of soybean loopers and stinkbugs (our most requested pests). We can also get things like hoppers and kudzu bugs if you need them.
Let us know if you are looking for some soybean insecticide evaluations and we will get them planted a little later in the season.
WEATHER INFO:
What a difference a month makes. While we still have a cool day on occasion, most of the days the past few weeks have been warm and sunny. However, this past weekend brought 14 inches of rain and flooding at some of our locations. While we avoided any major damage, the start to our planting season has been pushed back a few days.
PEST INFO:
Not too much out of the ordinary in reference to pests at present. As noted above, we do have some horseweed and ryegrass sites if you need a burndown trial. We also have cotton aphids in the greenhouse for a little while longer.
Many thanks to those who have sent protocols. We are working on getting those started at the appropriate time. For those who still have work to place, let us know what we can do to help.
We look forward to seeing you around the farm soon.
Tim, Jackson, Jake, Will, Jim, & JT
Proverbs 12:27
… the substance of the diligent man is precious.
