19 March 2024.
How time flies and here we are in mid-March with some extraordinary interest in growing chickpeas for this winter of 2024. Is it because of the crown rot levels in our previous winter cereal crops and unfortunately, no Victratro fungicide seed dressing to reduce these impact levels of FCR or Fusarium Crown Rot? Is it because of us Aussie's speculation with India’s current over 60 % tariff be reduced or abolished?
With the evidently dry El Nino summer we were supposed to have had, many growers have received great summer of rain to build up their sub soil moisture for our winter crop plantings. So, in these early autumn times, effective weed control in pre plant and post plant timings in our chickpea blocks is important. We used to call chickpeas, chickweeds in the 1980s as effective or registered herbicides were few and far between. Options like we have now are extensive, with products like Isoxaflutole , Imazethapyr, Terbuthylazine, Simazine, Triallate, Prometryne, Atrazine, Carbetamide, Trifluralin, Flumioxazin and even old Pendimethalin, plus several other Group 14 mode of action products are used as residual herbicides for our chickpea crop these days. True, they all have different application guidelines like IBS or Pre-Plant and even Post plant pre-emergent, however across a wide range of mode of actions, there is more than enough residual herbicide options for your range of weedy paddocks.
Another important issue that I have mentioned before is chickpea planting seed quality. Quality of seed covers a few basic things like germination and vigour. My photo shows a potential seed line sample tested and there was identified four field moulds present in this small lot, plus Ascochyta Blight [AB] and Botrytis Grey Mould [BGM] presence. The extra bad news was total lack of germination from this handpicked seed line. So, if the planting seed looks crook [symptomatic] it probably is, and if it looks okay [asymptomatic] it may still contain a level of damaging disease. I have read research that showed even good-looking seed lines of chickpeas, after wet harvests in the previous growing season like can happen, were running at nearly 20% disease level. So do not invite disease into your paddocks or farm by planting crook seed or more importantly seed that has not been fungicide treated correctly and completely.
Another beware symbol for you is the use of Glyphosate as a pre harvest spray on future planting seed, which we have all been rather blase about. There is no doubt that pre harvest spraying with Glyphosate being performed in many pulse crops and the last few years would have been no exception. The one major concern apart from obeying harvest With Holding Periods, is the possible detrimental impact on the germination and vigour of any of the pulse crops like chickpeas.
My last point on planting seed for this coming winter is back onto the fungicide application of either Thiram or P Pickle T as a seed dressing. Both are registered and both do a good job of controlling various disease spores on the chickpea seed. The only problem you will have is coverage or more specifically lack of coverage on all those twisty and knobbly parts of a chickpea seed. So, when you read old product labels these days [like Thiram’s is], they do leave a lot of interpretation needed. When you consider that 1kg of chickpea is around 5,000 seeds and you need to cover a tonne of seed by the label’s critical comments, that you mix 2.0 lts of Thiram 600 with 3.0 litres of water and then evenly spread this amount of solution over 5 million seeds[1 tonne] to achieve total coverage. I sincerely hope your method of application and subsequent mixing is very through without cracking the seed coat or seed itself.
So enjoy the sub soil moisture build-up and make sure you do not waste this precious moisture with a poor crop start with fallow weed survivors and crook seed lines.
That’s all folks
Photo is of poor quality diseased and low germination chickpea seed line.