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June 30, 2006
Dear fellow garb growers,
I want to thank everyone for taking the time to show me
around your farms as I toured the area. I would also like to
compliment all the growers on their planting and early stages
of the garb crop. I thought the overall crop looked excellent
and the growers are to be commended. It’s a little dry in
some areas, so we'll hope for some timely rains here on out.
I assume everyone has done a preventative spraying for ascochyta
blight by now. If you haven't and you’re waiting to see what your
moisture situation is and if any disease develops you need to be
scouting your fields on a daily basis. I’d hate to see the
disease get in the field and then the rains come and we've
let the disease get out of control where we can't take advantage
of the moisture. It’s a tough decision to make when you are
in a drought. Most growers used Manex at a rate of 1.2 quarts/acre
for their initial spraying. This should protect the crop for 10-14
days providing there wasn't any disease in the field. Another
follow up treatment of Manex will be warranted if we get some
more moisture and conditions are favorable for the development
of the blight. Moist, cool, 80 degree days are ideal for disease
and ascochyta blight is no exception. Keep an eye on the weather,
scout your fields regularly, and lets hope for some additional moisture
to take this crop to harvest. An 8 oz. application of Headline may
be necessary if blight is found in the field. Please feel free to
call me with any questions you have about managing your crop for
ascochyta blight or any other problems that might arise with your
garbanzo bean crop. Good luck during your farming season and let’s
hope for some rain.
Thanks,
Mark Watson
May 16, 2006
Dear fellow chickpea/garbanzo bean growers
Now that planting is over and the crop is beginning to
emerge its a good time to scout your fields for any cutworm
problems. In the past we have had some problem with
cutworms in isolated parts of the growing region. I have
received one call from a grower around the Wall, S.D. area
who has seen some cutworm damage. The garbanzo bean will
come back from the cutworm damage provided the cutworms are
eradicated. Treat the fields with Mustang insecticide if a
problem is detected. Check the label for rates in your area
and judging your cutworm population.
I'm glad we all had good moisture to plant the crop into,
and with the warming temperatures, we should have emergence
of all fields within the next week-10 days. Good luck with
the remainder of the growing season and lets hope for some
timely rains.
Take care,
Mark Watson
April 7, 2006
Dear fellow chickpea/garbanzo bean growers,
Our planting season is fast approaching so I thought this
would be a good time to go over some of the significant points
in planting our crop. By now all the seed has been either
delivered to your farm, or will be in next week. Innoculants
is furnished with the seed unless other arrangements have been
made. Soil temperatures need to be 42 degrees for chickpeas
to germinate. Typical planting dates are from the 10th of
April until the 10th of May.
On our farm we sprayed our Spartan earlier this week and had
nice rain, snow this morning, to get the moisture we needed to
activate the Spartan. If you haven't sprayed your Spartan
yet, please do so as soon as possible, if you are no-till
farming your fields. For those of you who will work the
ground before you plant, do not spray the Spartan until after
planting. Any soil disturbance greatly reduces the
effectiveness of Spartan, so do not work the ground after you
have sprayed Spartan. We used a rate of 4.5 ounces/acre of
the liquid Spartan, which is equivalent to 3 ounces of the old
granular rate.
There are two new herbicides I found out about for grass weed
control in chickpeas. The herbicides are Brawl and Outlook.
These herbicides are labeled in Nebraska, so check with your
local dealer to see about labeling in your area. Both
herbicides are pre-emergence herbicides which could be applied
with Roundup after planting, but before the garbs emerge.
Brawl is a generic Dual if you are familiar with Dual. Each
of these herbicides give some broadleaf control, mainly
pigweed and suppression of Lambsquarter. The Brawl runs about
$9.00/acre, and the Outlook is $12-14/acre depending upon the
rate you choose. Both herbicides will give 6-8 weeks on
control. I'm not sure this is really good enough residual to
control grasses effectively during the growing season. They
may run out of control by the middle of June and a flush of
grasses may still come in later. I still think our best bet
for the money is to use an over the top spraying of Select if
a grass weed problem exists in the growing beans. These
herbicides are an option for you to consider in your herbicide
program.
As far as innoculating the beans when you plant on our farm we
sprinkle the inoculants on the seed as we are filling our air
drill. As we auger the beans in the top of the cart, we stand
up there and sprinkle the innoculant in. If your drill has
seed boxes on top, fill the drill half full and sprinkle half
of the innoculant on top, then stir it in with a metal rod,
then fill the remainder of the drill and the rest of the
innoulant. You will have to determine how much seed your
drill holds to figure out how much innoulant to put in the
drill each time.
As far as planting depth is concerned the general rule of
thumb is to plant them 1 1/2 to 2 inches deep into good
moisture. These are large seeds that can be drilled deeper if
you need to get to moisture. Dave Baltsenberger, researcher
with the University of Nebraska Panhandle Research center, was
on a trip to Australia with other researchers. Part of their
agenda was to spend time with garb researchers down under.
The researchers in Australia were doing planting depth
research on garbs at 4, 8, and 12 inches deep. They were
seeing if deeper planted seed could grow under their herbicide
layers, thus avoiding any herbicide damage to the crop. They
found that garbs don't experience any loss of population until
they are planted more than 8 inches deep, so garbs can be
drilled deep into moisture.
I wouldn't suggest trying this in your planting, but I do find
this rather interesting that this crop can be planted 8 inches
deep without any population loss.
After planting your crop be sure to scout the fields for weeds
before the crop emerges. This is a time when we spray
glyphosphate herbicide to clean the fields of any weeds before
the beans emerge. Generally 24 ounces of 4 lb. glyphosphate
is what we use. This really helps start the crop off nice and
clean and is money well spent.
If you have any questions, please give me a call at
308-760-5259, or e-mail me at garbanzobeanfarmer_mark@hotmail.com
Good luck with your planting season!
Thanks,
Mark Watson
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