Published at the Chat 'n Chew Cafe, 7 March 2002
URL: http://www.kingcorn.org/news/articles.02/Crop_Diag-0307.html

Gearing Up for Crop Diagnostics 2002

R.L. (Bob) Nielsen
Agronomy Dept., Purdue Univ.
West Lafayette, IN 47907-1150
Email address: rnielsen@purdue.edu
 

he 2002 crop season is rapidly approaching. For some, it has already begun with topdress fertilizing of wheat, pre-plant anhydrous application for corn, and general fieldwork as days become warmer and soils dry sufficiently for tillage operations. For those of us who regularly work with producers in diagnosing crop problems, now is a good time to gear up for the coming season by replenishing our minds with crop production knowledge that may have been flushed out over the winter months.

Good crop diagnostic skills begin with serious pre-season homework that reduces the chance of being caught by surprise when crop problems subsequently occur and that may allow you to better fearmonger (predict) about impending calamities. Take the time to refresh yourself on the basics of crop growth & development, current crop varieties, important insect and disease pests of crops in your geographic area, nutrient deficiencies, weed identification, herbicide modes of action, herbicide crop injury symptoms, and herbicide label restrictions. Become familiar with new pesticides, genetics and other emerging technologies. Pay special attention to those early season aspects of crop production since that is the part of the growing season that is approaching.

Sources of information are plentiful and you probably already have your personal library of useful crop production references. Take the time to pull them off the bookshelf and browse through their contents. A few of my favorite references include:

• Modern Corn & Soybean Production, a good all-purpose reference book available for ordering on the Web at www.mcsp-pubs.com/ .
• Purdue’s Corn & Soybean Field Guide (Extension publication ID-179), a widely popular pocket-sized crop diagnostic reference. Field guide copies are $4 each.
• Purdue’s Crop Management CD Series, including CD-AY-1 Corn Growth & Development and Diagnostics – Germination to Knee High; CD-AY-2 Corn Growth & Development and Diagnostics – Knee High to Maturity; and CD-AY-3 Broadleaf Weed Seedling Identification. Each of these titles is $80 per copy.
• Purdue’s Field Crops Pest Management Manual (IPM-1), a large notebook of all sorts of pest-related information on Indiana’s major crops. The pest manual costs $80.
• Purdue’s Seed Corn Pest Management Manual for the Midwest (IPM-2) is a newly revised reference that aids in the identification, evaluation, and management of pest problems in seed corn fields. Purchase price is $50.

(To order the Purdue Extension publications mentioned in this article, call Purdue Extension toll-free at (888) 398-4636 (EXT-INFO) and ask for the Media Distribution Center. Orders also may be placed online at www.agcom.purdue.edu/AgCom/mdc/distrib.html .)

Don’t forget about the wealth of information available directly on the Web. You can search for and wade through the overwhelming amount of crop production information on the Web yourself with a search engine like www.google.com, or ‘surf the Web’ more efficiently by visiting one of the following sites that offer compilations of the best agricultural information that the Web offers.

• www.kingcorn.org
  (Simply the World’s Best Corn Site!)
• www.kingcorn.org/cafe
  (Timely crop production information from throughout the Midwest)
• www.kingcorn.org/news/index-cnn.html
  (Archive of my articles)
• www.kingcorn.org/cgg6.htm
  (Compilation of useful crop production references and Web sites)
• www.agry.purdue.edu/ext
  (Purdue Agronomy Extension)

The better prepared you become prior to the season, the better enabled you will be to diagnose those challenging crop problems that will most certainly arise as they always do every year.

For other information about corn, take a look at the Corn Growers Guidebook on the World Wide Web at http://www.kingcorn.org

Past articles by RL (Bob) Nielsen may be found at the CNN Archives at http://www.kingcorn.org/news/index-cnn.html.

It is the policy of the Purdue Agronomy Department that all persons shall have equal opportunity and access to its programs and facilities without regard to race, color, sex, religion, national origin, age, or disability. Purdue University is an Affirmative Action employer. This material may be available in alternative formats.

© 2002, Purdue University

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