Spring planting season is now complete for the Variety Testing Program. Due to the prolonged cold this spring, most sites were planted about two weeks behind schedule. So far, all sites look like we achieved good stands with the exception of Plaza, which had some spotty emergence in spots. We ended up replanting Farmington after wet soil conditions caused some planting issues part way through the trial. The replanted trial is just now coming up so final stands there are forthcoming.
I mentioned earlier this spring that crusting led to lower stands in the fall planted HRS trial at Moses Lake. We had a very similar circumstance occur at Othello as well, so keep that in mind when looking at the data, if it is published later this summer. I noticed some damping off of spring wheat at our Almira site, but I would say visible plant death was ~2%.
Winter trials are progressing rapidly now with the warm temperatures. Some varieties have already headed out at Walla Walla and we will begin taking heading notes at Dusty and Connell the week of May 15. Dayton was at flag leaf stage this week. Most winter wheat along Highway 2 is around Feekes 7-8, well past jointing but flag leaf not fully emerged.
We took our second round of snow mold regrowth notes in Douglas County on May 16. As expected, some varieties with heavy damage managed to regrow well while others did not. There were also some entries at Reardan that did not recover well after cold/snow mold damage.
At Fairfield, plots were uniform; however, VI Voodoo CL+ stood out as being behind other varieties in all three reps, perhaps due to some winter cold damage. Interestingly, I found winter grain mites at our Fairfield winter site–likely a result of visiting the trial late in the evening when they tend to be more active.[slideshow title=”From the Field – May 17, 2023″ ][slide slide_type=”custom” img_src=”https://wpcdn.web.wsu.edu/cahnrs/uploads/sites/16/Winter-grain-mites-scaled-1.jpg” img_id=”993826″ item_title=”Winter grain mites.” ][slide slide_type=”custom” img_src=”https://wpcdn.web.wsu.edu/cahnrs/uploads/sites/16/VI-Voodoo-CL-at-Fairfield-scaled-1.jpg” img_id=”993825″ item_title=”VI Voodoo CL at Fairfield.” ][slide slide_type=”custom” img_src=”https://wpcdn.web.wsu.edu/cahnrs/uploads/sites/16/SWW-CoAXium-varieties-at-Douglas-scaled-1.jpg” img_id=”993824″ item_title=”SWW CoAXium varieties at Douglas.” ][slide slide_type=”custom” img_src=”https://wpcdn.web.wsu.edu/cahnrs/uploads/sites/16/Reardan-Winters-5-16-23-scaled-1.jpg” img_id=”993823″ item_title=”Reardan winters.” ][slide slide_type=”custom” img_src=”https://wpcdn.web.wsu.edu/cahnrs/uploads/sites/16/Piranha-CL-and-Sockeye-CL-at-Douglas-scaled-1.jpg” img_id=”993822″ item_title=”Piranha CL+ and Sockeye CL+ at Douglas.” ][slide slide_type=”custom” img_src=”https://wpcdn.web.wsu.edu/cahnrs/uploads/sites/16/Othello-Winters-and-Fall-planted-HRS-5-17-23.jpg” img_id=”993821″ item_title=”Othello winters and fall-planted HRS.” ][slide slide_type=”custom” img_src=”https://wpcdn.web.wsu.edu/cahnrs/uploads/sites/16/Farmington-Winters-5-16-23-scaled-1.jpg” img_id=”993820″ item_title=”Farmington winters.” ][slide slide_type=”custom” img_src=”https://wpcdn.web.wsu.edu/cahnrs/uploads/sites/16/Dusty-Winters-5-17-23.jpg” img_id=”993819″ item_title=”Dusty winters.” ][slide slide_type=”custom” img_src=”https://wpcdn.web.wsu.edu/cahnrs/uploads/sites/16/Dayton-Winters-5-15-23.jpg” img_id=”993818″ item_title=”Dayton winters.” ][slide slide_type=”custom” img_src=”https://wpcdn.web.wsu.edu/cahnrs/uploads/sites/16/Curiosity-CL-and-Mela-CL-at-Douglas-scaled-1.jpg” img_id=”993817″ item_title=”Curiosity CL+ and Mela CL+ at Douglas.” ][slide slide_type=”custom” img_src=”https://wpcdn.web.wsu.edu/cahnrs/uploads/sites/16/Creston-Winters-5-16-23-scaled-1.jpg” img_id=”993816″ item_title=”Creston winters.” ][slide slide_type=”custom” img_src=”https://wpcdn.web.wsu.edu/cahnrs/uploads/sites/16/Club-wheats-at-Douglas-scaled-1.jpg” img_id=”993815″ item_title=”Club wheats at Douglas.” ][/slideshow]
Coordinates and planting dates for each site of the Variety Testing Program (2023)
View the PDF maps of the sites.
| Location | Google Coordinates | Planting Date |
| Pasco | 46.611469, -119.226651 | 16-Mar |
| Lind | 47.003500, -118.571300 | 16-Mar |
| Moses Lake | 47.115300, -119.112683 | 17-Mar |
| Horse Heaven | 46.197638, -119.580877 | 30-Mar |
| Endicott | 46.905085, -117.746907 | 5-Apr |
| Walla Walla | 46.115541, -118.237102 | 6-Apr |
| Lamont | 47.119056, -117.825691 | 13-Apr |
| Reardan | 47.663854, -118.034981 | 14-Apr |
| Mayview | 46.589300, -117.401210 | 19-Apr |
| Bickleton | 46.038840, -120.263061 | 20-Apr |
| Almira | 47.886560, -118.894723 | 26-Apr |
| Pullman | 46.693330, -117.146946 | 26-Apr |
| St. John | 47.082824, -117.518538 | 27-Apr |
| Plaza | 47.253260, -117.305460 | 27-Apr |
| Dayton | 46.359165, -117.951514 | 1-May |
| Fairfield | 47.395370, -117.067805 | 2-May |
| Palouse | 46.9554833, -117.2000500 | 3-May |
| Farmington | 47.038104, -117.049306 | 11-May |
Importantly, myself and my crew have yet to observe stripe rust at any of our locations in Washington. I did see, however, that Dr. Christina Hagerty, Oregon State University cereal pathologist, just posted that she observed her first stripe rust of the season in a trial near Pendleton, Oregon this week. I will continue to share if and when I see stripe rust this season around Washington.
For questions or comments, contact Clark Neely via email at clark.neely@wsu.edu or mobile phone at (814) 571-5628.