Maize after Grass

[kfpben]

I’m looking to put some maize in for a neighbour next spring. It will be drilled after a grass ley that will have been in for 6 1/2 years.

With the loss of seed dressings he’s worried about wire worm. Does anyone have any tips on how to avoid this?

We could go in with another spring crop but it’s heavy ground so should I think should suit maize well.

 

[deleted user 837354]

You can't 'avoid it' as such, but you can try to mitigate it.

The trick is to drill a higher seed rate, make a good seed bed and drill a little later if necessary so that the maize germinates and moves as fast as possible- once the mature plants are knee high you are basically out of the danger zone but in a heavy infestation they will attack even larger plants.

The worst thing you will do is drill it in a cool April, the maize comes out of the ground slowly and not uniformly and then lingers around with 2-4 leaves and then the stuff gets eaten.

One theory is that in the season following ploughing the wireworm eat the decaying turf beneath the surface. Beware the second and third years can be much worse as the wireworm have a life cycle that extends over several years until they fly away as adults.

 

[ProDrive]

Buy the seed this year.

 

[deleted user 837354]

If sonido is being banned it's no great loss, from what I saw of it it didn't work well at all.