Often we turn our thoughts to irrigating beet when they are showing signs of wilting, by which stage yield potential has been hit and irrigators are already committed in other crops. The best approach is to apply water before wilting occurs just to help keep the crop growing through a dry spell and 25mm of irrigation can return around 2.5t/ha in yield where soil moisture deficits exist.
Aphid numbers and seed treatments
Aphid numbers remain low this year apart from one site in Cambridgeshire which demonstrates how aphid populations can build up quickly under favourable conditions. Ibt is important that we do not become complacent, as aphids remain a potentially serious threat to future sugar beet crops through their transmission of virus yellows. Around 4-5% of the UK crop is still grown without an insecticide seed treatment, and this is mostly where a granular nematicide is being used to overcome docking disorder caused by free living nematodes.
Common practice has been to monitor these crops for aphids and to apply a foliar insecticide as required. However, the prevalence of aphids carrying MACE and kdr resistance in the UK has left us with no effective foliar aphicides and as a result, crops grown without an insecticide seed treatment are now at significant risk from virus yellows. We therefore recommend that ALL seed for 2014 is ordered with an insecticide seed treatment.