With maps of moisture extremes popping up across the prairies, and predictions of another dry year, it’s hard to know what to make of seeding. But, as Murray Hartman, oilseed specialist with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry points out, there isn’t much sense in panicking. Not yet.
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“I think one of the big points is that it’s still really early,” says Hartman, “so to be worried about putting seed into dry ground…it’s less of a concern right now than say middle to late May.”
At this point, if soil moisture is below an inch, there isn’t much sense chasing it.
“If you go deep, you’re predisposing that seed to colder soil, you get a longer hypocotyl, and we know that when there’s a long hypocotyl — the stem under the ground — it predisposes it to more seedling blight diseases.”
“If you put too much fertilizer with the seed — even if you’re banding away from the seed, but your separation isn’t good — in a dry year, that will hurt emergence and germination.” But, if you think you should do a separate pass, that’ll dry the soil out even further. Both situations could aggravate an already dry soilbed.
Source : Albertacanola