Weekly WeatherStation Report – July 17th, 2014
Net drying continued through mid-July. We had just enough rain in June to manage Canola flowering without too many Heat-Blast issues. Temperatures stayed mostly below 28 degrees which was fortunate as many sites would not have had the moisture reserve to hold off against 33+ temperatures without shutting down flowers prematurely. Most crops are just nicely coming out of flowering after about 14-17 days at full flower and should come in around 21-23 days of total flowering. We have built many a 40 bushel crop with this many flowering days. Durum, Lentil and Chickpea are all flowering and typically take the heat better than Canola so no complaints here.
Below you will see a brief summary of what our 1 meter depth probes have picked up for soil reserves, plus a Leaf Disease update via captured Humidity and Leaf Wetness data. Group texts have been sent to customers on how to utilize these developments with regard to Fungicide/Insecticide applications.
Average Station Information (over all 7 stations)
Growing Degree Days (Midge days. Not Crop days.) – 815
10cm Depth: 9% Jul 17th (12% Jul 10th) 25% drop
20cm Depth: 11% Jul 17th (18% Jul 10th) 39% drop
30cm Depth: 13% Jul 17th (23% Jul 10th) 38% drop
50cm Depth: 18% Jul 17th (32% Jul 10th) 44% drop
100cm Depth: 43% Jul 17th (44% Jul 10th) 2% drop
Jul 10 – Jul 17th Rainfall Total – 1.0 mm
Jul 10th Soil Temp – 16.8 degrees
Jul 17th Soil Temp – 17.9 degrees
Dry Leaf Days (<5000 rv’s) – n/a* days
Consecutive Dry Leaf Days – n/a* days
* Leaf wetness sensors not placed properly during this period.
Up to the Minute – Weather Charts
This representative graph of all 7 stations highlights the soil moisture decline. Roots drew mainly from the 50cm depth this week and just started to draw upon the substantial reserve at 100cm. Without another good rain, plants will be drawing heavily on this depth and we are fortunate to have it.
Humidity has held constant in the 90’s again this week, making only two nights this month that didn’t cause heavy dews. Those two nights hit only 75% vs over 90% on the rest – highly disease conducive levels as was illustrated this week with many unsprayed Durum crops taking very big steps backwards. Current weather conditions will be conducive to Fusarium infection if you are in a mod-high risk area.