Bruce Sundeen 0:00
This is the sugarbeet report, bringing you the latest information from NDSU throughout the sugarbeet growing season. This year cool temps and excess moisture prevents farmers from accessing their sugarbeet fields. So what about weed control strategies? Tom Peters NDSU and University of Minnesota Extension. sugarbeet agronomist joins us to talk about weed control options. Tom, how does delayed field access affect weed management?
Tom Peters 0:29
Well, first of all, Bruce, it's interesting. We do this every year. And a year ago, we were talking about how dry it was and how our drought conditions are going to affect weeds. A year later now we're talking about delayed planting and effects the weather has on weeds. So I think there's two messages that I want to make here. So first of all weeds germinate and emerge at different times. And the second point is, when our temperatures start to warm up and the calendar date start to move into May, the biggest difference Bruce's is there's more days when the temperature is higher. And that means higher or greater soil temperatures. So the combination of both the types of weeds and the temperatures of soils is really what's going on right now for us.
Bruce Sundeen 1:30
Let's focus on sugarbeet. Can you give us some kind of example.
Tom Peters 1:34
Okay, so let's go back to those principles that we were visiting about. Let's overlay four important weeds. So we're gonna start with common lambsquarters and Kosha. Common lambsquarters and Kosha, germinate and emerge early in the season. They're the first ones we see. And they're hard to tell apart back in May and April. In many years, we eliminate them with tillage. In a year where we plant early, maybe not so much, maybe those weeds avoid tillage. But certainly in 2022, with our late planting season, we're going to be telling a lot of those weeds out. So that's a good news story. Now for the other side of it waterhemp and common ragweed, they germinate a little later. And matter of fact, with waterhemp, it's going to be germinating and emerging at the same time, we're going to be planting sugar beets. So the combination of doing the tillage to disturb the soil. And all of that moisture means that we're going to have to be really timely about how we apply herbicides. Since we have a lot of weed resistance, we're going to need to be using soil applied herbicides at planning time, and I'm encouraging our producers to incorporate them just to be sure they're activated for when the weeds germinate and emerge.
Bruce Sundeen 3:07
Some of our producers use fall seated cover crops to protect the soil over winter. What is the status of cover crops? Could they potentially get too big?
Tom Peters 3:15
Again, several messages here. On the positive side, our producers have embraced the use of cover crops. And that's good. Because again, back to 2021, we had a number of days where the dry soil blew around. So Cover crops are helping about that. But here's the thing, Bruce, in a normal year, we would be terminating those cover crops right now. And guess what the winter rye is actively growing, it's enjoying these cool wet temperatures that we've been having. So it's starting to get big. My message is is that we have to actively manage them. Don't turn your back on winter, I actively manage it. And remember that at least for a while, our sugar beets are going to have to coexist with the cover crop. So don't allow it to get too big. If it is getting big. We may want to terminate it even before we plant which is different than the way it usually is. But it's a consequence again of our later planting season.
Bruce Sundeen 4:29
Thanks, Tom. Our guest today was Tom Peters NDSU and University of Minnesota Extension sugarbeet agronomist This is the sugarbeet report, bringing you the latest information from NDSU throughout the sugarbeet growing season
Transcribed by https://otter.ai