Corn and soybean plants “Standing Still”... for now

By Chad Lee and Carrie Knott, University of Kentucky

Corn and Soybean planting progress is ahead of schedule in Kentucky, according to the USDA NASS Crop Progress & Condition Reports. We normally think about that being a good occurrence. But many farmers and crop consultants have reported that the corn and soybeans appear to be standing still. The forecast suggests that will change in a few days.

Both April and May have been colder than normal for Kentucky. We have had dry windows for planting sporadically during both months. Some fields were even planted in the warm spell during March. Following nearly all these planting windows, the temperatures were cool (even freezing), cloudy, and wet. For periods of time, these seeds were trying to germinate, emerge and grow in refrigerator conditions. Those conditions favor extremely slow growth of the young plants.

For example, we planted soybeans on April 9 in Lexington, KY. As of May 17, they were just at the VC stage (unifoliates emerged). For over a week, they stayed at the VE (emergence, cotyledons open) stage. In Princeton, soybeans planted March 10 did not emerge until April 9 and have just now reached V3 (and are being mercilessly consumed by slugs and bean leaf beetles).

For plants that survive this long, slow growth, they will be fine. However, these slow-growing seedlings are sitting ducks for slugs and insects, especially bean leaf beetles in soybean. Farmers have asked if they can spray something that will help these plants grow faster. Nothing sprayed will overcome the cooler temperatures to help plants grow faster. For example, we planted corn and included nitrogen in the furrow.

Normally, that in-furrow nitrogen will make for green seedlings. However, with this cold and cloudy weather, those poor corn seedlings are yellow and have taken several weeks to reach the V2 stage. You would never know we put anything in the furrow.

Farmers are doers. They want to do “something”. The best thing to do is to scout the fields, look for insects and spray a foliar insecticide if insects are at threshold populations. If there is insect activity, the insecticide will protect the young seedlings. If there are not insects, then do not apply the insecticide and simply wait for the warmer weather. That warmer weather is only a couple days away.

With the warm weather very close, the following is what I suspect will happen in many fields. Some farmers will spray “something” this week to try to get the plants to grow faster. Once the weather warms up, those plants will grow faster... but only after the weather warms up! The farmer is happy because he/she did “something and the plants are growing faster (with the warmer weather). The lo-cal sales team is happy because they sold “something”. The plants are happy because the weather is warmer, regardless of the “something” applied. So, everyone is happy.

Being happy is a good thing.