Blog

Clinic update

As the time for crop germination approaches, the staff of the Plant and Diagnostic Clinic (PIDC) want to reiterate that while the clinic is running at a reduced capacity, physical samples will still be accepted this season. Staff still request that interactions with the...

Planting occurred at a near record pace in much of Iowa due to lack of rain in late April. This string of dry weather also allowed most herbicide applications to be made in a timely fashion, but now there is concern about herbicide performance after prolonged time on the soil surface.

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The past week provided a big window for fieldwork ranging from tillage and fertilizer applications to spraying and planting across the state. According to the...

Despite the cold weather last week (April 12-18), moths were active throughout Iowa. April 13 had the most reports. Our cooperators around the state reported a total of 24 black cutworm (BCW) and 12 true armyworm (TAW) moths on that day alone. Figures 1 and 2 show the total moth captures in each...

Passage of the 2018 Farm Bill in December of 2018 and passage of Senate File 599 in Iowa have paved the road to the legalization of growing hemp in Iowa. The permitting process is currently open in Iowa. The application deadline for the 2020 outdoor growing season is May 15, 2020.  Listed below...

This week has been the start of planting for many in Iowa. After the recent cold spell, conditions are favorable to start fieldwork back up again. It’s likely a significant portion of crop ground in Iowa will get planted this week, with the majority of the weather forecast being supportive of...

With quite a bit of grain getting put into storage last fall that was wetter than normal, this could lead to some potential issues with quality, handling, and safety issues this spring and summer.

To help address these potential issues, there will be a “Stored Grain Handling and...

The monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) population east of the Rocky Mountains has declined for many reasons, but loss of milkweed (Asclepias spp.), its’ larval host plant, in the U.S. Midwest, is a contributing factor. To help increase the monarch population, an estimated 1.6...

March into early April has been warm enough and dry enough to the point that soil conditions are good for planting. The calendar date is a bit early; after all the crop insurance, replanting is April 11. Regardless, many are pondering if they should be planting corn already, and some maybe...

Spring has sprung! Preparations for planting across the state are in full swing. Conditions over the last 30 days have been unseasonably warm across the Midwest with positive departures of anywhere from two to four degrees. Early March had a good stretch of dry conditions; the second half of the...

In 2019 Iowa had over 460,000 prevented plant acres. As we prepare for the 2020 growing season, one concern we sometimes hear about with prevented plant acres is fallow syndrome. Fallow syndrome happens when the populations of “good fungi” known as vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizae (VAM) are...