f PENNSYLVANIA MASTER CORN GROWERS ASSOC., INC.
Corn Talk, Lancaster Farming, Saturday, October 12, 1996
ANDY ANDREWS
Lancaster Farming Staff
LANDISVDLLE (Lancaster Co.)
Burcucumber also known as “wild
pickle” —has been “exploding” in many
Pennsylvania com fields, said a Penn
State weed specialist.
According to Dr. Bill Curran, Penn
State associate professor of weed science,
the cumbersome weed can cause heavy
damage in com and soybean fields with
potential significant loss of yields.
To make matters worse, the weed is
extremely difficult and can be expensive
to control. However, the alternatives of
using no control or not changing control
strategies could prove catastrophic for
com growers.
Curran said the vine-type weed, which
looks just like a cucumber plant with
broad, five-sided leaves, can branch out
through fields of com and soybeans for
great distances. The plants can choke off
com stalks and envelope soybean stands
quickly if left untreated.
Worse, the plant produces clusters of
seed with 16-20 seeds per cluster. “There
could be hundreds of clusters on a plant,”
Curran said.
In one field near the Penn Suite South
eastern Field Research and fiSeiilion
Center, Curran recently counted 14 clus
ters of seed on four feet of vine. “That’s
about 250 seeds in four feet alone.” he
said. Vines can spread 30-40 feet in a sea
son, choking off com stalks and soybean
plants and significantly reducing yield.
A single plant per season can bear up to
10,000 seeds per plant. The seeds can
A STRANGE BUT
GENERALLY
GOOD YEAR
Another growing season is
passing by and I have to con
clude that it was another unusu
al one in many ways.
Unusual weather seems to be
the norm these days rather than
the exception. As one of my
colleagues, Lynn Hoffman,
often puts it: This year we had
our 2Sth abnormal season in a
row here at Rockspring.
Lynn’s probably right that, in
the long run, there is no such
thing as an average year.
On the other hand, many
meteorologists have noted that
weather variations and crop
production recently have
become more extreme, so we
need to team to manage around
weather like this.
mber Busts Out In Pa. Corn Fields
overwinter. In addition, the clusters can
attach themselves readily to clothing or
fur cover and can be spread easily by
rodents or man.
“This is a bottom-ground, wet and
heavy soil type of vine weed,” said Cur
ran. But in a growing season that was as
continuously wet as this past one, any
type of field could fall victim. Growers
realized, according to the weed specialist,
that “no herbicides provided residual con
trol good enough to control the weed all
season long.”
The problem is made worse by the fact
that the vines and seeds pose real hazards
at harvest.
“Burcucumber clogs up combines,
wraps up in the reels, and clogs up silage
choppers,” said Curran.
The seed, when it germinates, is very*
competitive, can reduce yield on crops
significantly, and spreads quickly.
Some fields can get so infested with the
weed that they simply cannot be chopped
for silage or combined.
For com fields that are past treatment
and to be used for silage, there is hope:
preliminary research by Curran shows
that ensiling kills the seed germination.
So when a field is chopped, many of the
seeds are taken off and the ensiling pro
cess appears to kill the seed.
Some strategies that growers can use if
the fields are heavily infested with butcu
cumber are;
• Designate fields previously in
shelled or high moisture com to be used
as silage
YLVANIA MASTER
RN GROWERS
ASSOCIATION
Between The Rows
Dr. Greg Roth
Penn State Agronomy
Associate Professor
Some of the weather
extremes encountered this year
were cool temperatures during
the middle of May followed by
high temperatures in late May
(96 degrees in Williamsport on
5/19), heavy precipitation in
July and in some areas, excep
tionally heavy precipitation in
September.
The early season weather
delayed planting' for many
growers around the state and
this continues to have implica
tions on yield and maturity this
fall.
Many of these later planted
fields-arc showing poor tip fill
that is characteristic of late
planted or exceptionally long
season hybrids. The cool wet
conditions in May also contri
buted to less than ideal stands in
some areas.
(Turn to Page 3)
In some cases, these
reductions were related to seed
quality problems. In other
cases, deeper planting, planting
in wet soils and the hot, 90-de
gree temperatures that occurred
in late May contributed to more
than the usual number of cases
of soil crusting this spring.
I saw several examples of
fields planted one day that had a
stand problem and adjacent
fields planted two days later
that were just fine. Several of
these wet planted fields not
only had a stand problem but
they also lagged in develop
ment all season.
The take-home message
from these fields is that if soil
conditions are not right, it is
usually better to wait the extra
day of two until they dry out.
(Turn to Pago 11)
Dr. Bill Curran, Penn State weed specialist, holds up the vine
that’s a real threat to corn fields burcucumber, also called “wild
pickle.” The weed has been "exploding” in many Pennsylvania corn
fields, he said.
Producers Try
Narrow Row Corn
ANDY ANDREWS
Lancaster Farming Staff
HOLTWOOD (Lancaster
Co.) What do dairy fanners
in western New York know that
some Pennsylvania dairy far
mers don’t?
For one thing. New York
producers have tried narrow
row com with success. For
another, they’ve been so suc
cessful with it that there are
between 5,000-10,000 acres
Farm Calendar
Tuesday, October 22
Solanco Young Farmers Silage
Cr Mi
planted this year, according to
Greg Roth, Penn State associate
professor and com expert.
Roth spoke to about 100 pro
ducers and agri-industry rep
resentatives at a no-till field day
at Steve and Cheri Groff’s farm
near Holtwood in July.
Narrow row com can be
viable in Pennsylvania, even in
southeastern counties. Accord
ing to Roth, diverse farm opera
(Turn to P«fle 12)
tau:
Grain Management meeting,
Solanco High School, 7 p.m.
Mid-Atlantic Crop Manage
ment School, Dover, Del.,
Ttlnkhannock
(Turn to Page 6)