After doubting the Weather Eye, the scurs saw it dazzle us with its brilliance. Will we keep getting pleasant surprises, or was that just a flash in the pan? Starting Thursday, partly sunny with highs in the upper 70’s and lows in the mid-50’s. Sunny Friday with highs in the low 80’s with lows in the upper 50’s. Sunny on Saturday with a slight chance of a shower or thunderstorm. Highs in the low 80’s with lows in the upper 50’s. Sunday, sunny with highs in the mid-80’s and lows in the upper 60’s. Sunny on Monday with highs in the upper 80’s and lows in the mid-60’s. Tuesday, mostly cloudy with a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the upper 80’s with lows in the mid-60’s. Mostly sunny on Wednesday with a slight chance of a shower or thunderstorm. Highs in the upper 80’s with lows in the mid-60’s. On the 21st, we slide under 15 hours of daylight and will have lost about a half hour of daylight since the summer solstice. On the 25th, we start losing daylight at just over two minutes a day. The normal high for July 25th is 81 and the normal low is 61. The scurs have their sights set on Canada for next week. Should work if the smoke stays away while on the water or at least while they’re close to it.
Crops benefited from the recent rains or at least those that didn’t receive hail or much rain. Rainfall at the ranch was one of those pleasant surprises with 1.34” falling between rains on the 12th and 13th. Bugtussle wasn’t quite as lucky tallying .96” for the week. The good news was the temps remained cool enough to allow the crops to take advantage of it rather than having it dry up before it could do any good. Hail fell west of town and ripped some fields up significantly. Those who carried hail insurance should be rewarded handsomely. Much of the first planted corn has tasseled while we likely have a couple weeks to go yet on the replant. Soybeans also moved along with most being R3 except those later planted fields. Some of the earlier planted, earlier maturing fields are R4 stage already. Soybean aphids are becoming somewhat easier to find, although numbers are far from threshold. More rain would be welcome, although odds are not in our favor. While that’s not a good thing, that’s what we were thinking last week before receiving some rain.
We touched on the subject of spraying corn for tar spot last week. There was a big push to start spraying last week already. Way too early on many fronts. Number one, the disease tends to arrive here later in the season if at all. Spraying too early increases the likelihood that another application will be needed. Also, as one keen observer put it, with prices where they are and the growing season at a tipping point in many instances, why help the insurance company? Another problem is the unevenness of the tasseling and silking in these fields. Applications with many fungicides are safest after pollination, especially when some aerial apps want to drop down to one gallon per acre of water and add an adjuvant to cover more acres. A few years back some were being pushed as they are this time. Beer can ears with long noses of unpollinated cob on about every tenth ear resulted. Bottom line: Be careful and be informed. Go into fungicide applications with both eyes open.
The garden at the ranch certainly benefited mightily from the rainfall, especially the weeds. While they were marking time prior to that, their sudden growth spurt meant time to get the tiller out and do battle. As is usually the case, the larger weeds tend to withstand the severe mauling and poke their heads back up within a day or two. Had the rain not fallen last week, it likely would’ve meant better control as the soil was so dry and loose it resembled volcanic ash. As it turned out, there was still a fair amount of hand weeding yet to do in the rows themselves anyway. A razor-sharp hoe works wonders and helps pick up those weeds that thought they’d snuck by the tilling.
Probably the worst weed to deal with this year has been purslane. Native to Eurasia, it is a fleshy-leaved, succulent plant that thrives during hot, dry weather. Its tiny seeds require only sparse precipitation to germinate. Once it does, it’s capable of surviving until significant rainfall arrives. Almost overnight following the recent rains, our garden was transformed to a green carpet of purslane. The sharp hoe mentioned previously works wonders, but those weeds too close to plants have to be pulled by hand. It’s not fun to pull as it tends to break off if you don’t get a good grip on it. If wet weather follows their uprooting or segmenting the stems by any means, purslane can re-root itself from the nodes. If I can’t leave the whole plant on top of dry ground with roots pointed skyward, I find it rewarding to throw the purslane over the fence to the sheep. They love the stuff. Try and regrow after that, ya little prostrate green jerks!
Poppy loves her people. With more company happening by recently, she’s been right in her element. Attention is always welcome and afterwards visitors are generally treated to a session of zoomies. Her speed for a dog with such short legs surprises folks. She can keep it up for several minutes, so bottling that energy would be of benefit for all of mankind. Along with her love of people, Poppy has also developed a need for privacy. There have been several occasions when we’ve lost track of her in the house, only to find her taking a nap in her kennel. I can relate. If I could find a place to take a nap most days without interruption, I’d do it. I could even omit the zoomies first.
See you next week…real good then.