Cordiale at early flowering.
Photo Farming Online.

South East: Peter Cowlrick. All September/early October sown wheats are now between watery and milky ripe stages. Late October/November sown crops are now generally at early grain fill. Soissons and Cordiale are ready for nitrogen spray applications now, while Xi19 and Solstice will be ready by early next week.

Brown rust: very low level of activity noted on leaf 2 in a few early sown crops Claire and Alchemy, but generally crops are clean following T3 applications.

Yellow rust: none seen.

Mildew: none seen.

Septoria: common on all older leaves, with low levels now expressing on leaf 3 in Xi19, Einstein and Cordiale - perhaps not surprising in view of the intense Septoria pressure this season.

Eyespot: low levels (<1 per m2) of whiteheads now beginning to show in crops which had noticeable levels (20% plus) of stem based browning (combination of sharp and true eyespot) in April.

Fusarium: low levels of Fusarium affected glumes beginning to show up now, with up to 1/3 of glumes affected - worst cases have around 1-5% ears showing symptoms.

East Midlands: Martin Eudall. Crops now at late flowering to early watery ripe. Second wheat showing some stress in areas where lay wet and backward over winter and rooting restricted. Final N for protein as liquid to go on in about 7-10 days when at milky ripe.

Brown rust: none seen.

Yellow rust: none seen.

Septoria tritici: Top 3 leaves on the whole generally clear but can be found easily on leaf 4.

Mildew: Crops quite damp in bottom has led to some mildew on lower leaves, especially on Solstice. Generally top leaves clear although one or two pustules on second leaf of Solstice but nothing to cause any problems. Crops will soon be at watery ripe and ear sprays will hold mildew back until too late to cause any problems.

Eyespot: can still be found but on the whole not penetrating whole stem - some white heads expected even where control good due to high spring levels and wet bases of crops.

Take all: showing on roots and although no real signs in second wheat above ground a prolonged dry spell will put crops under stress.

Aphids: numbers remain very low.

Orange wheat blossom midge: has not been a problem with no more than a handful of fields being sprayed with hardly any found on majority of farms.

West Midlands: Bryce Rham. All crops flowering, some nearing end of flowering. Generally dry with light land crops suffering, some varieties coping better than others eg Oakley and Alchemy.

Mildew: very low levels.

Brown rust: none found.

Yellow rust:: none found.

Eyespot: no further development in treated crops.

Septoria tritici: most crops showing leaves 1,2 and 3 to be clean with the cleaner varieties having leaf 4 clean as well.

BYDV: symptoms becoming obvious in some early sown crops even where clothianidin seed treatments used.

Aphids: first ones being found in odd crop. Assess need for control at ear emergence.

Orange wheat blossom midge: not seen any in cobwebs as yet and with a lot of crops starting to flower problem should be minimal.

Bromes: of all descriptions appearing i.e. rye brome, soft brome, sterile brome on fields where I have never seen brome before. Fields treated with herbicide not very clever either.

Eastern Counties: Brendan Butterworth. Most wheat crops are now at the flowering stage. Majority of ear sprays have been applied for ear disease. Urea applications to Solstice from milky ripe stage of growth.

Eyespot: no further development.

Septoria tritici: very heavy rains have delayed treatments and Septoria pressure increasing.

Yellow rust: some patches in Robigus where the T2 was delayed.

Aphids: low levels.

North East: Phillip Tuplin. Most crops in mid-flower. Cordiale is a bit more forward and is well into grain filling, and a few late sown crops not quite flowering yet. Had 20 mm rain in last 14 days, but 14mm of that was 10 days ago now. Field conditions are excellent and crops showing no drought induced problems. Foliar N planned for Group 1, and a few Group 2 crops of Cordiale at milky ripe stage, say in 14 -21 days.

Brown rust: none seen.

Yellow rust: none seen.

Septoria tritici: incidence increased slightly since earlier rainfall, but infection levels confined to older leaves and crops generally are very clean.

Eyespot: lesions on outer leaf sheaths are common, but still no stem penetrating lesions been seen.

Mildew: none seen.

Aphids: only low numbers seen so far.

Orange wheat blossom midge: well above threshold numbers were caught in pheromone traps as ears were emerging.

Blackgrass: there are a few instances of poor control from Spring applied herbicide to be investigated, and a lot of patches of blackgrass in some fields which had Autumn applications. Poor control from Autumn applications is probably due to the high seed dormancy, which resulted in a very protracted germination period.

Sclerotinia sprays completed.
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South East: All crops now at late pod filling stages, with earliest crops/varieties (Castille and Catalina) beginning to show a few brown/black seeds in lower pods. 1st pre-harvest desiccant applications likely to be made in around 10-14 days time.

South West: Petals virtually all gone. Pod set looks excellent with very few blind pod sites. Canopies are standing very well with slight leaning in fertiliser overlaps.

Eastern Counties: Some crops have lodged on very fertile soils but these are in the minority. Beginning to choose varieties for next season, Castille remains a firm favourite. Hybrids for late drilling and we still like Lioness on light land which receives a dose of turkey manure before the crop, we do not seem to get the MG deficiency and loss of vigour in the spring.

East Midlands: Crops at green seed stage and many look well - some pigeon damaged areas in some crops a bit indifferent and weedy. Some odd plants with Sclerotinia, tend to be related to where pigeon damage made crop flowering uneven - probably crops coming into flower well after Sclerotinia spray has worn off leaving late Sclerotinia to come in.

West Midlands: Crops on light land showing signs of turning.

North East: All flowers gone now, and pod filling well advanced. Pod and seed numbers are very high indicating crops have the potential for excellent yields.

South East: All crops showing first signs of a colour change as maturation and combining approaches.

South West: part from pre harvest treatments the gate is now closed on this crop.

Eastern Counties: Most barley crops are at or beyond the milky ripe stage.

Midlands: Crops at late watery ripe to early milky ripe. All look well. Crops on light land starting to visibly turn. Saffron has the most blind grain sights, Susuka falling over on most farms even with growth regulator.

North East: Crops at milky ripe stage. All operations completed now, except for pre-harvest glyphosate.

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South: All crops now at mid-late flowering with 3-6 trusses of pods now set. Black-bean aphids widespread in crops in South.

Midlands: Now at mid to late flowering with bottom pods just forming. First fungicide has gone on and next spray will be bruchid beetle. Hopefully then second bruchid spray will coincide with second fungicide to keep spray passes down. Black bean aphids now found on headlands but bruchid sprays of lambda cyhalothrin will control them.