Our chickpea crop is looking good. With 80mm of rain for September, our spray management has been critical to stay on top of fungal diseases, ascochyta blight and botrytis grey mould. A combination of ground rig with high water rates, and the plane to cover wetter areas has proved successful to protect the crop, and stay in front of the next rain event.
In a normal season, we might get away with just one or two sprays. These pics taken over the last few days are from our fourth spray, and expect another two or three, depending on the weather. Usually by end of September we expect to see a lot of pods and pod development. This crop has just started flowering. Its about two to three weeks behind because of unlimited moisture and the cooler conditions.
It could be a good crop, but its too early to say. Hoping to see more flowers and podset as the plants mature. Keep an eye on this space.
Notes: 1.There are a lot of weeds through these chickpeas. The wild turnip or charlock has come through the post emergent spray band, because of the high rainfall during the season. The weeds you see may only be 5 or 10% of what could have been without the post emergent. We are currently trialling a weed wiping boom, so more to follow in the next few posts.
2. Also want to point out the footprint of our sprayrigs narrow tyres in the pic above – not much damage in the wheel tracks.