Last week's soil conservation seminar was very interesting and informative regarding new ways of saving nutrients and our soil. It emphasized even more than I already know about the importance of protecting the soil we have, so that we can continue to feed the world and ourselves. New technologies and further implementation of current technologies is needed to ensure we can continue to feed the growing population. New technologies like no till, cover crop use, and rotational crops have been a huge help to spread soil awareness and to save our soil. We need to continually adapt in order to keep up with and minimize the effect climate change has on agriculture. I do believe this generation and the next generation are up to the task to keep up with these challenges, especially with the advancement of technology that has already been created to help handle such challenges.
The couple days back to work after the holiday have been quite hot and sunny, but Dr. Vollmer and us interns have had to keep up with rating, spraying, and maintaining the trials. So far this week we have rated multiple of Dr. Vollmers Soybean weed management trials along with rating a Snap and Lima Bean Metribuzin rotation trial.
In the heat and bright sun of the day, me, Dr. Vollmer, and his 2 other interns had to take harvest data for an Oat trial at the Wye REC. This oat study is to see the difference between planting the oats with a drill planter versus using a drone to broadcast seed. The two sections are right next to each other, and it's very cool to see the difference between the neat straight rows from the planter, and how different the broadcast seeds came up.
This picture is from a couple of days ago when me, Dr. Vollmer, and the 2 interns were rating and maintaining the Snap and Lima bean trial. There are other plants associated with this specific trial (Watermelon and Sweet Potato), but we only looked at the Beans this day. We took stand counts and injury ratings at each plot for this trial. We then hoed weeds out of the isles to clean it up. This trial consists of planting multiple species of plants commonly grown by farmers in a field that was sprayed with different amounts of Metribuzin last season. The plants being grown are not rated to be rotated into fields recently sprayed with Metribuzin since it is a residual pesticide, so Dr. Vollmer wants to see if they will show signs of damage or loss to then possibly add them to common rotations.
This specific weed is a Lambs Quarter in one of Dr. Vollmers Soybean weed management trials. It was sprayed with a post emergence herbicide, and as you can see, it is showing obvious signs of twisting and splotching. Twisting is a common symptom of a systemic herbicide being applied, this type affects the growth and bodily functions of the plant versus contact herbicides which burn and bleach the plant. Twisting occurs when the herbicide is making the plant continually grow, and pretty much growing the plant to death. It is a pretty cool symptom to see, especially with bigger plants.
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