Fungicide on winter wheat is a timing game. Put it on too early and you've spent money before the disease shows up. Put it on too late and the flag leaf is already hit. On the Palouse, where stripe rust shows up most years, getting the timing right is the whole job.
The window that matters: flag leaf to heading
The flag leaf is the top leaf, and it drives most of the yield in the head below it. Protecting that leaf is the point of a wheat fungicide, so the money window runs from flag-leaf emergence through heading. Miss it and you're protecting a leaf the disease already reached.
That window can be short, a matter of days if the weather is pushing the crop along. It's the main reason growers call for an airplane: we can be over the field the morning it's ready, not three days later when the ground finally dries.
Watching stripe rust pressure
Stripe rust likes cool, wet springs, exactly what the Palouse hands us in a lot of years. When rust is showing early and the forecast stays damp, the case for a timely fungicide gets stronger. Your agronomist and the regional rust forecasts are the right people to read that pressure with.
We don't sell you fungicide and we don't call the rate. We put it on, at the right stage, exactly where it needs to go.
How aerial application helps you hit the window
- Speed. Big acreage covered in the hours the crop is ready.
- Wet ground is no problem. We fly whether or not a rig could drive.
- Even coverage. Flown low for good canopy penetration on a thick stand.
Plan ahead of the window
The growers who get the best timing are the ones who call before the crop is quite ready, so they're already on the board when the flag leaf comes. Talk to your agronomist about the stage, then get on our schedule so we can move the day it's right.