Southwest Michigan Field Crops Update – June 12, 2025

Jun 16, 2025

By Nicolle Ritchie and Angie Gradiz

Weather

This last week saw a gradual increase in temperature. Pop up storms resulted in precipitation and hail in some parts of Michigan. Smoke from the wildfires in Canada resulted in hazy skies and slightly cooler temperatures. Temperatures are expected to remain consistently at highs around 80 degrees Fahrenheit and lows around 60 F over the next week. Cloudy and hazy conditions will most likely continue, and scattered storms will bring significant precipitation in the middle of next week.

Ten-day Weather Underground forecast as of June 12, 2025.

Crops and pests

Soybean and corn planting is almost wrapped up for the season. Soybeans range from barely emerging to V5. Corn is up to V6 in some places, but it is mostly between V2 and V4. Nutrient uptake is highest during V6 to V10, so sidedress nitrogen will go out soon. Most of the seed corn delayed plantings have been planted by now, and some male rows underwent flaming this week. Tar spot has been found in northern Indiana and Kansas. Even so, best timing for application is still VT to early R1 stages, and higher temperatures coming up will slow down tar spot progress.

Source : msu.edu

Video: LALEXPERT: Sclerotinia cycle and prophylactic methods

White rot, also known as sclerotinia, is a common agricultural fungal disease caused by various virulent species of Sclerotinia. It initially affects the root system (mycelium) before spreading to the aerial parts through the dissemination of spores.

Sclerotinia is undoubtedly a disease of major economic importance, and very damaging in the event of a heavy attack.

All these attacks come from the primary inoculum stored in the soil: sclerotia. These forms of resistance can survive in the soil for over 10 years, maintaining constant contamination of susceptible host crops, causing symptoms on the crop and replenishing the soil inoculum with new sclerotia.