This is my four-leaf clover

The scurs had the Weather Eye dialed back where they wanted it. Does Mother Nature tap the brakes or hit the gas again this week? Starting Thursday, mostly cloudy with a fair chance of rain. Highs in the mid-70's with lows in the low 60's. Partly sunny Friday with a good chance of rain. Highs in the low 70's with lows in the low 60's. Mostly cloudy Saturday with a good chance of forenoon rain. Highs in the low 70's with lows in the low 60's. Sunday, partly sunny with highs in the low 70's and lows in the upper 50's. Mostly sunny on Monday with highs in the low 70's and lows in the upper 50's. Tuesday, partly sunny with a good chance of rain developing. Highs in the low 80's with lows in the upper 50's. Partly sunny on Wednesday with probable rain. Highs in the upper 70's with lows in the mid-60's. On August 15th we'll slip just below 14 hours of daylight. The normal high for August 15th is 79 and the normal low is 59. The scurs will be getting their recreational firewood ready for the cooler evenings ahead.

 

Lots going on out here in the fields, although none of it is real serious. Much of the corn has dented or is starting to.

 

That means roughly a month until maturity. That doesn't necessarily mean we'll see a lot of corn being picked by then. Moisture at physiological maturity is roughly 32%. Most won't get serious about harvest until the moisture is 28% or less. Likewise with the soybeans. Right now most soybeans are in full blown R5 stage. Some of the earlier planted, early maturing soybean varieties may be crowding R6 stage. However, to reach full maturity (R8) it still takes roughly four weeks. Then it takes another 5 - 10 days for them to dry down to 15%. That's if the weather cooperates. Longer term forecasts seem to indicate seasonal temps and normal rainfall. Stay tuned.

 

Our timely, abundant rainfall has become the hallmark of this growing season. In mid-June, I was convinced we may have a drier summer on our hands. By late June and early July, I'd changed my mind. It made me wonder what kind of impact the change in weather would have on insect and disease pressure. As far as insects go, the increased moisture has played right into our hands. Soybean aphids have struggled to gain a foothold. Between the pathogenic fungi under the canopy and the recent uptick in beneficial insect activity, it hasn't been a good year to be a soybean aphid. Likewise with aphids in the corn. Last week, they had started to make things miserable when scouting corn.

 

Aphids were crawling all over my clothing when exiting the fields. Also present on my clothing were ladybeetle and lacewing larvae. By Monday, it was almost as if the aphids were nonexistent in the corn.

 

From a disease perspective, print media is often a day late and a dollar short. Southern rust was found July 30h in Waseca Co. Last year it was July 19th. Luckily most had delayed their fungicide application this time around. It makes sense when protection only lasts two to three weeks tops. This is especially true with tar spot. Our conditions have been favorable for tar spot development, but here again, going back to the disease triangle, there needs to be a susceptible host, the pathogen must be present, and conditions must be favorable for the disease development. Since tar spot has been found here in south central MN in past years, it's been difficult to document much yield loss from it. Our inoculum has been building, but it has yet to reach the levels seen in my travels to places like IL and IN. Only southeastern MN may rival that.

 

At least we have flying biting insects. Mosquitoes were just starting to make me think perhaps they were starting to wane. The recent rains, still conditions and warm temps reminded me that probably isn't the case. The stable flies were still a force to be reckoned with as well. They seem to nail you when you least expect it. With the heat, I'd been wearing shorts a lot over the past week. There was one in the car last week that kept biting me as I was driving along between fields. There was some good news, however. It seemed everywhere I went out to look at crops, dragonflies suddenly appeared. They love to eat both flies and mosquitoes. They've got their work cut out for them.

 

While pulling weeds Sunday, I mused about my time spent playing with plants. My folks had a great influence of course. As kids, we helped in the garden and later in the fields tilling, planting and harvesting. Other people had a hand as well. I remember Evelyn and Lois Ronken babysat us when I was probably 7 or 8. They found ways to keep us occupied for hours. One of the activities was looking for four-leaf clover. Boring, right? You might be surprised.

 

We had lots of ladino clover in the lawn. It took us a while, but we found some, including a few that had five leaves and even one with six. What sticks in my mind was, once we'd collected the stems, they placed the clover between two sheets of waxed paper. They pressed the wax paper with the clothes iron, laminating and preserving our efforts for all to see. It must've brought us luck. It kept us from being spanked for getting into mischief.

 

Poppy had to make another vet visit, this time to update her Bordetella shot in case we should need to board her sometime. Of course, since she was there I asked if they could give her a pedicure as her toenails were starting to get long again. The kind young lady said sure and in less than 5 minutes I was out the door. When I got Poppy home I couldn't believe the difference it made. When she walked across the laminate floor, it was like she was wearing tennis shoes. No clicking at all when she broke into her patented zoomies. Look out squirrels and turkeys! Poppy can run faster and jump higher! Well, as high as Corgis can jump anyway.

 

See you next week... real good then.