millet

[Delta Duck]

jdbuckshot, The millet that fell on the ground should have reseeded. You should not have had to replant in August.

[Greenhead22]

I check on my duckhole today, just about all my jap has headed out and fallen over. Is that good or bad? My milo is coming on strong and has also headed out, and I'm just now seeing some browntop that's headed out....but not much of it.......and I mixed 50/50 jap and brown everytime I threw out seed. I've got a bunch of that nutseed or nutsedge that's headed out all over the place. I guess that's free duck food, just hope it doesn't choke out my young millet.

[riceman]

Hey guys. Haven't posted in awhile but when something comes up that interests me as much as rice I just have to chime in.

hawkeye: I've been working with rice for a long time now and with lots of different growers in all parts of MS Delta (including LA down to about Vidalia) and have never heard of such a fertilizer with silica that's sprayed on to help with straw strength. You might be thinking of ammonium sulfate fertilizer (21-0-0-24). It typically helps the rice to "stool out" or tiller. Also adds a nice deep green color that's asthetically(sp?) pleasing to the eye.

Wingman: You're right for the most part BUT rice water weevil larvae don't feed above ground. They typically "prune" the roots with their feeding and are usually considered an early season (right at permanent flood application) pest.

Lodging in rice can be caused by lots of things, but I guarantee you one thing. If anyone can come up with an idea to stop rice lodging 100% of the time, you'll make millions. Usually over-fertilization in the main culprit. Also once rice matures and the field is drained for harvest, the stalk begins to dry out (loses moisture). Dry brittle stalks are more likely to lodge than greener stalks. The green stalks are much stronger. Weather also plays a large part in most lodging. Get a strong thunderstorm when the rice has been drained and waiting to be harvested and you'll get some down rice. And of course, if you've got a good rice crop (heavy heads as Wingman put it) it can lodge.

As the old timer's will tell you, bad rice don't go down.

[Wingman]

Riceman, thanks for correcting me on that. And to think, I had an A in Field Crop Insects

Wingman

[hawkeye]

Field Crop Insects under Pitre? Yup, I had an A too, but what a nightmare...

Riceman: Seems like I was in a fertility class or something. It's not one of the essential nutrients. He said it was used on some type of grass, but I thought it was rice since it has such lodging problems.

On a side note, in a way, lodging is a good thing. Hey, you gotta have something up there to make it fall over, right? Kinda like cotton, I've always heard it said, if you ain't rottin cotton, you ain't makin cotton.

[riceman]

Wingman and Hawkeye: I was an Agronomy major at State but had plenty of buddies who were APM. Always heard that Pitre's(sp?) Field Crop Insects was TOUGH!!

Wingman: After thinking it through a little bit more, you might have been thinking about stem borers. Those little guys will reek havok on rice at the right time. I know you've seen plenty of rice during heading. Those light grey to white heads that have blanked grains on them are USUALLY caused by stem borers. To check just pull up one of those tillers from the ground and you'll usually see the entry site just above ground level. Sometimes those heads are a product of sheath blight blowing out the top.

Didn't mean to get into an agromony lesson here. Just hoping to answer a few questions.

Hawkeye: You're exactly right. In a way, lodging is a good thing (for hunters especially) because there's plenty of feed left in the field after harvest. BUT in my profession, I could care less if I ever saw another field of rice lodged in my life, if you get my drift. Too much money left there in the field!! By the way, you didn't happen to have that fertility class under Dr. Varco did you?

[hawkeye]

It was under Varco, and I got an A in it too, but had to work my booty off for it if you catch my drift. Then I worked for him for a year. Nice man, but you can tell he's from the north...hehehe.

[riceman]

Hawkeye: What year(s) were you at State? I worked in the Dept. of Plant and Soil Sciences as a student worker for about 3 years and then full time for 2.5 years while in grad school. I worked for Dr. Brian Baldwin on the Kenaf Project. total years there I'm embarassed to say 1994 through 2000.

[SB]

Riceman,

I'm glad to hear your what you have to say along with the others on this subject, waterfowl food. I'm in the process of putting a waterfowl food plot brochure together that will focus on the ag crops. I'll need some help to keep me in line.

I know what you mean about being a little embaressed about telling people how long you were up at State. I was up there from 1991-1997. I had spent 1/4 of my life up there by the time I got out. I have to be quick in telling people that it was for two degrees and not just one. Then the Ole Miss people start up with" it takes two degrees from State to equall one from UM." All in fun though.

[crow]

Like an idiot, I agreed to work in the Soils Lab for two weeks while I was at State back in the Dark Ages ('73). I was helping out a buddy who wanted to go on vacation and I needed money. The only thing I remember is that I dug up perfectly good soy beans just to count the little nodules on the roots. Seem to remember taht they held a bacteria (was it Ryzobium?) that helped with nitrogen fixation or some such nonsense. I'd pick those dang things off th roots, mash them up, then make a culture in a petrie dish. I kept thinking, "What the heck does this have to do with farming?"

So Delta Duck and and all you bean farmers, if you got a good crop this year, you may owe some of it to me and my brilliant stint in agricultural research!

[Delta Duck]

I would like to thank you for your hard work and not really believing in it!

[Wingman]

Yes, it was under Dr. Petri..or however he spells it.

Never will forget the first time I "met" him. About 4 of us were out at the tennis courts one night catching insects for our General Ent class. We were just minding our own business, searching the nets on the fences for bugs, when we entered the court that Petri and 3 other Profs were playing on. We didn't realize they had stopped playing and were just standing there watching us like we were a bunch of idiots. We quickly exited their court and continued our hunt.

I liked his class. Lab was too long, out to the North Farm to dig up corn roots and cut open cotton bolls and stuff. I still have my old notebook; most comprehensive set of field notes I've ever seen.

I didn't have Varco...I weaseled out of Soils at State. I did have Plant Path under Dr. Ammon, though. Whew!

Wingman