By Alyssa Collins and Adriana Murillo-Williams et.al
Our increasingly volatile climate has led to some challenging situations for our corn and bean crops in 2024. Now that silage is being chopped and fields of grain corn and soybeans are being evaluated for harvest, we may recognize some opportunities to plant wheat, barley, triticale, and other grass forages earlier than usual.
Exercise caution when determining planting date goals for these fall-seeded crops. Early planting can leave your new stands vulnerable to insects and diseases that would otherwise be controlled by the cool temperatures of fall. This is especially true regarding the spread of virus diseases like Barley Yellow Dwarf (BYDV) and Wheat Streak Mosaic Virus (WSMV). Our small grain crops are typically infected in the fall, even though most symptoms are not visible until months later. This is because the vectors (organisms that transmit the virus) are abundant, active, and able to pick up viruses from grassy weeds, volunteer grains, and small grain cover crops and transmit the virus(es) to freshly emerged fall-planted seedlings. The earlier a new grain crop is planted, the greater the chance that vectors can move the virus from infected plants to your emerging crop. This is called the "green bridge" and allows the virus (which cannot survive outside a host or vector) to be transmitted from infected mature crops to newly emerged plants. Breaking the green bridge is critical to slowing the spread of BYDV and WSMV, particularly because of their insect vectors. Delays in fall planting (corresponding to the Hessian fly-free date) are recommended to prevent the transmission of viruses, and the elimination of grassy weeds and volunteer plants nearby is critical.
Source : psu.edu