It’s been a growing season with highly variable conditions. In some areas, that’s leading to unusual crop development as harvest approaches.
Drought, flood and hail have each been a crop nemesis in various locations at various times this growing season.
Some producers have actually had drought, flood and hail all within the same year. In dry regions that have recently turned wet, some crops that were shutting down are now trying to regrow.
This week, I heard a producer refer to zombie peas – peas that don’t know they’re supposed to be dead.
The nearly ripe plants are generating new shoots and some ripe seeds in pods are germinating and bursting the pods. It’s a poor stand of peas due to early dry conditions and the producer had planned to combine without the need for desiccation, but now a desiccant will be applied to terminate the new growth.
Another result of late rains is accelerated weed growth. Some pulse crops that appeared to have only minor infestations of kochia and / or wild mustard now look increasingly weedy.
