FC Agronomy Alert from Todd Claussen; The pro's and con's of using a Rotary Hoe

My father would say: “the best place for a rotary hoe is on a farm sale”.  I don’t totally agree with this, though a rotary hoe has a very limited window in any given field.

Yesterday, I was on three separate service calls regarding crusting on farms planted April 29 and 30. We recommended a rotary hoe in all three situations.

Timing is so critical with the size of the corn plants. Plants just  below the soil surface to a 1” spike is the safest and most productive range. Once plants un-furl the coleoptile leaf (round tip), the hoe can easily pull these plants from the soil. This results in pulling as many plants out of the ground as helping those under the ground hindered by a crust.

Point is this…check those farms that were planted the 26^th-1^st, particularly if they were too wet to be running.  103 degrees and wind on Tuesday has complicated the situation.

In addition, there are a few farms around that chilling imbibition is causing some problems. Dig some plants, the signs are:

 

-          Swollen seed with no radicle or shoot eruption

-          Corkscrew mesoctyl

-          Leafing out underground

The photo above was taken yesterday by Sheila Hebenstreit in a low, wet heavy farm planted on April 29.

The mesocotyl is hindered and is growing in a corkscrew fashion, the coleoptile sheath has erupted and the seedling is going to leaf out underground. This is in trouble.