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Despite the fact that there has been no significant rainfall for 60 days and only events of 10-20 millimetres, plus dew, the wheat crops are developing reasonably well in the core area, although with a lot of spatial heterogeneity. “Most of the cultivars resisted frost well and rooted correctly during June and July,” observes a Rufino technician.
The earliest crops are finishing tillering and are moving towards internode elongation, and need significant rain in the coming weeks to maintain their yield potential. Going forward, producers have two issues to focus on: on the one hand, monitoring attacks by cryptogamic diseases and, on the other, supplementing crop nutrition. In some plots, the presence of yellow spot is already visible and the climatic conditions for the development of rust are present. Therefore, in the coming weeks, the plots will have to be checked frequently and action taken.
“Yellow spot is seen on the last leaf, especially in the poorest plots. The presence of rust has not yet been observed, but there are predisposing conditions for it to appear and many of the varieties used massively are susceptible,” he warns.
For treatment there are products based on strubiruline and triazole, and carboxamides. The control of fungi is particularly important in barley, which is attacked by net spot, which is also beginning to appear in some batches. It must be controlled “because barley is very sensitive to net spot and its short cycle requires that the fungicide pave the way for it to reach the harvest with all the leaves,” recommends the professional.
The other issue to watch is crop nutrition. At this stage, urea fertilization should be completed if there is sufficient humidity during August. And the second step could be foliar fertilization on the flag leaf, before flowering, with strategic applications of nitrogen.
In this operation, boron can be added, which fixes flowering and can increase the number of grains. Another possibility is to apply nitrogen later to strengthen grain filling. All this can be done if there is rain in the next few weeks, because wheat remains valued at around 220 dollars per tonne and a good harvest is needed to capture resources soon.
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