Monroe County agriculture: Blue is the rarest plant color
Weather forecasting in spring can be fickle. Eric Snodgrass of Nutrien Ag Solutions sees a chance of frost in the April 17-19 window, which is within the 30-year average frost date. The National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center’s eight-to-14-day outlook for April 17-23, as updated on April 9, is calling for likely chances of above normal temperatures and a moderate chance of above normal precipitation. The MSU Enviroweather station located at Applewood Orchards in Deerfield, for a report issued on April 11, said we have had 80 growing degree day (GDD) heat units since March 1, the second highest total of the past six years.
Last year this site had recorded only 44 GDD, and 43 GDD in 2022. Rainfall since April 1 has been 1.84 inches, the highest total of the past six years. Minimum soil temperatures, as measured at the two inch level, under bare soil, reached 50.3ºF on April 10, which had been slowing climbing since April 7, with the mild air temperatures.
Insects mostly either overwinter (some inside houses or other buildings or protected areas) or come in from the southern states on warm gulf air streams. Black cutworms have now been detected in southern Indiana, but no reports in Ohio or Michigan. Potato leafhoppers, armyworms, earworms and some aphid species are also being monitored. Some newly hatched European corn borer larvae may drown in times of heavy rains or waterlogged soils can wipe out newly hatched corn rootworms.
Corn or soybean planting just got started the week of April 7, when rains returned on April 11. Soil temperatures will cool off, slowing seed germination to possibly 21 days. Francis Childs, former world record corn yield holder, spoke at Cabela’s and said he wanted all his corn plants emerging within 18 hours and looking like “soldiers in a row.” Late emerging crops tend to never catch up and become like a weed, just using up water and nutrients without contributing to yield. Rural Farm Radio had a segment where poorly aligned planter closing wheels significantly reduced the corn yield of that row.
For wheat research says that 60 percent of the yield potential is set once the drill leaves the field. I have never heard that percentage for corn or soybeans, but this number could include things like: planting date, soil conditions and temperature, seed variety and treatment(s), weather forecast, planter maintenance, soil fertility, field drainage, etc.
Winter wheat should have some nitrogen, and any herbicide needed, before it reaches the critical Feekes’ growth stage 6. The recommended nitrogen rate for winter wheat based upon the formula; nitrogen rate = (1.33 x yield potential) – 13. 100-bushel wheat yield goal would need a total of 120 pounds of N for the entire year (fall + spring).
Subscribe Now: For all the latest local developments, breaking news and high school sports content.
Blue flowers are considered the “holy grail” of flower color for the garden. No color is more challenging to find in the plant world than true blue. Supposedly only 10 percent of all flowers on Earth are blue. Blue is considered a calming color, making a garden with blue flowers a great place to unwind after a hectic day. Some plants marketed as blue are actually closer to purple, such as petunias. Some plants that have been color options includes: grape hyacinths, bachelor’s buttons, borage, some salvias, floss flower, dwarf lobelia, forget-me-not, amsonia, Virginia bluebell, himalayan blue poppies, delphiniums, balloon flowers, blue cardinal flower, woodland phlox, blue false indigo, Jacob’s ladder, clematis, hydrangea and blue spirea. These colors can range from pale to icy blue to cobalt and deep indigo.
— Ned Birkey is an MSU Extension educator emeritus and a regular contributor to The Monroe News.
This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Monroe County agriculture: Blue is the rarest plant color
