15 May 2016. Last weeks higher temperatures have driven crops forward. However, the stop start nature of the season has meant that many wheat crops have very varied growth within the same field with individual plants ranging from flag leaf just emerging through to full flag. This is making it tricky to determine the right timing for the T2 fungicides. Heavy rain in the south of the country at the beginning of last week has upped the ante on Septoria control. A combination of short crops and heavy rain makes for easy transference of disease up the canopy. Winter barley crops are now mainly at awn to ear emergence and any final fungicide applications are scheduled for the next week. Winter oilseed rape crops are also showing a big variation in growth stages with reports of fields still not at full flower, whilst others are at early petal fall. Check your crops of winter oilseed rape for seed weevil now the suns come out.

Winter Wheat

• T2 applications this week.
• Yellow rust still active.
• Septoria main threat.
• Blackgrass flowering.

Winter Oilseed Rape

• Yellow bud to mid pod set.
• Sclerotinia control.
• Seed Weevil at threshold.

Winter Barley

• Ear emergence.

Winter Wheat

South. Crops now mostly in range GS 32–39. The arrival of warmer days and nights last week has really accelerated crop growth again. T1’s all completed end April/early May with T2 applications just getting underway and most crops looking ready for spraying in next 10 days. Last rain was 25-30 mm between Monday 9th May and Wednesday 11th.
Brown Rust: colder conditions in April together with both T0 and T1 triazoles have slowed any progression of rust to newest leaves.
Yellow Rust: T0 triazole applications appear to be holding disease progression and T1 applications closely followed by T2 sprays should maintain foliar protection
Mildew: cold conditions in April,  has prevented any resurgence to date.
Septoria: with short canopies and Septoria appearing on leaf 4, along with ample rain splash events earlier last week, it will be imperative that T2 applications are well timed and based on new generation SDHIs to prevent significant infection of leaf 2 or leaf 1. Shaping up to be worst Septoria year since 2014
Eyespot: increasingly visible now with cool and damp soils favouring development,  particularly in earlier sown crops of Crusoe, along with second wheats and wheat after oats.
Aphids: BYDV symptoms surprisingly high levels also evident in some fields in sheltered coastal locations.
Slugs: no new damage.
Weed control: blackgrass control looks to be below expectation probably due to very variable temperatures during March applications.

Eastern Counties. Earliest drilled have flag leaf nearly fully emerged on main shoots (Gallant), most have leaf 2 out with flag on the way, latest drilled leaf 2 showing. Warmer weather helped speed up growth this week.
Brown Rust: trace levels only on Crusoe.
Yellow Rust: trace levels on Solstice and Reflection.
Mildew: none seen.
Septoria: low levels on all varieties but some bad hot spots in thicker crops.
Eyespot: some lesions now showing in second or subsequent wheats. Not generally penetrating too far into the stem.
Aphids: None found but patches of BYDV now showing up in crops from winter infection.
Weed control: blackgrass now heading, some flowering! Seems to be worse control this season than last.

East Midlands. Many crops have final leaf 2 out and a few forward crops with flag tip. Later crops after maize have final leaf 2 emerging. Skyfall and Trinity look impressive and clean. Soils are fine for travel but will need a day to dry out on some soils after the recent rain.Skyfall continues to impress with clean crops
Brown rust: none seen.
Yellow Rust: A trace found on KWS Lilli.
Mildew: Remains very low..
Septoria: Leaf 3 and 4 are clear and look good but lower leaves (now dying off) have a good inoculum levels although T0s have held it back well.
Eyespot: generally at low levels and not penetrating outer leave sheaths.
Aphids: none seen.
Weed control: Brome control - good activity from Broadway Star but some brome has not died back as well as expected, but this may be a temperature thing at spraying with up and down temperatures in March.

West Midlands. Majority of wheat crops now have flag leaf emerging (still seeing vast disparities within the same field, i.e. flag leaf tips visible to flag leaf 50% out) . KWS Lili has most definitely put the brakes on whilst Grafton is on its normal mission to get to harvest as quickly as possible. Interestingly Crusoe is about the same along with Skyfall rapidly catching up. Later sown crops have put on 1.5 leaves in the last week.
Yellow Rust: Reflection is a horrible mess with very few crops with leaf 4 left.
Mildew: now virtually non existent.
Septoria: is under control at the moment. All T2 applications scheduled to start this week..
Aphids: BYDV patches keep appearing and growing ever larger
Weed control: Broadway Star, Spitfire and Axial taking an age to work but hopefully due to mainly dry cold conditions death will be a slow painful one rather than a quick and painless one. 

North East. Late drilled at GS 32, September drilled up to flag 50% out on early varieties. Warm, dry week 1mm rain.  Average temperature 10.1 degrees.
Yellow Rust : pressure high on susceptible varieties and still present on KWS Lili, and Reflection.
Brown Rust: none seen.
Mildew: low levels in variety Leeds.
Septoria: T1 complete, Septoria levels high if T0 was not applied, very high levels on old leaves.
Weed control: blackgrass remaining populations well established, early drillings worst, up to 28 tillers. Few heads emerging.

Winter Oilseed Rape

South. Almost all crops are now in full flower with up to 20-30 pods set, though there are still some backward crops/pigeon grazed fields that are only just getting to early flowering.  Many crops likely to flower for another 2 weeks unless conditions turn hot.
Light Leaf Spot: effectively dried up by recent fungicide applications.
Sclerotinia: most crops here in the South have been sprayed in the last 14-21 days at early flower and will be re-sprayed again this week if likely to continue flowering for another 10-14 days.
Club root: severe symptoms found in only two fields so far.
Pollen beetle: still a potential problem on the more backward and pigeon grazed crops.
Seed Weevil: plenty of adults seen this week as warmer weather encourages migration and many crops are approaching thresholds for spraying (1 weevil/plant).

Eastern Counties. Many varied growth stages in fields. Some are now at approximately late flowers with varying levels of pods set, some are still only just showing signs of flowering in parts of the field. Mainly linked to wet, pest damage and weed burden. Warm sunny weather helped this week.
Light Leaf Spot: under control.
Sclerotinia: first flowering sprays have gone on but varied growth stages making timings a guess. Some growers are applying a second spray where flowering is protracted.
Aphids: none seen.
Seed Weevil: non seen yet.

East Midlands. Many crops at mid flower with a few just past mid flower. All crops look well.
Light Leaf Spot: a few new spots found last week in Arazzo but with late Sclerotinia sprays going on now this should be sorted.
Sclerotinia: many crops have had a late Sclerotinia spray as a one hit policy with the low risk up to now.
Seed Weevil: No weevil seen yet in crops.

West Midlands. Flowering within some crops is still patchy despite the recent warm spell. However, many crops are at full flower to early pod set and Sclerotinia sprays are now either on or scheduled to go on this week.
Light Leaf Spot: crops now treated.
Pollen Beetle: low levels especially in backward areas of crops.
Seed Weevil: none seen.

North East. Crops now range from yellow bud to early petal fall.
Light Leaf Spot: noticeable on all varieties.
Pollen beetle : low levels.
Cabbage stem flea beetle larvae: causing some damage in few rape crops.
Seed Weevil : none seen.
Weed control : cleaver control has not worked well due to cold conditions at time of application.

Winter Barley.

South. Most crops have now raced along to awns/ears emerging and T2 fungicide applications will be imminent.
Eastern. Awns emerging common. Furthest forwards have 50% + ears emerged. BYDV patches evident even where insecticides used. Crops remain short with little straw, very patchy across most fields. Warmer weather helped move barleys on last week.
West Midlands. Awns emerging. Final fungicide applications now going on.
East Midlands. Awns emerging in most crops. Disease levels remain low.
North East. Ear emergence in hybrids. Rhynchosporium and Net-blotch developing in crops of Saffron and Glacier.

Spring Barley

South. 100% fields are drilled and range from 1 leaf sown to GS29.
Eastern. First drillings now tillering well. GS 23/30 common in early crops. Later drillings emerged but slow on cold clay. Linked to seedbed conditions. Warm weather last week helped.
West Midlands. Majority of spring barley should all be in by the end of this week with the earliest crops at 2-3 true leaves. Some herbicide damage seen.
East Midlands. Crops at GS 21-23 and look well.
North East.  All crops now in with earliest now at GS 22.