Wheat is flowering and kernels are starting to develop pushing into the milk stage. Most of the crop has been sprayed with a fungicide to protect from rust. April sprays should hold us out until harvest.
A few things to watch for:
Decatur County Agent, Justin Ballew, located wheat stem maggot in a field there. I have not seen or heard reports here. The maggot apparently bores into the stem at the bottom of the top internode and the grain head dies and turns white. UGA Extension Entomologist, Dr. David Buntin, says he has seen it before and usually at low levels in the field such as these. Below are two pictures from Seminole County Agent, Rome Ethredge.
For now we can still check for ahpids. Our threshold from heading to early dough stage is 10 aphids per head. Once the plant has lost its green color and we hit the hard dough stage, insect and disease management is ended. Aphids were not a problem in this field here, but I did see a hatch out. Something I’ve seen all season is good beneficial population. Here is a picture of a lady bug larvae (left) and some adult, baby, and mummy aphid on leaf (right).
Thomas County Ag 