• By Jarrod Hardke •

Soil temperatures remain cool, but it’s time to start putting some rice in the ground if fields are ready. Remember that seed treatments can start to run out of gas while the seed sits in the ground.
1. CruiserMaxx Rice and NipsIt INSIDE will provide about 28-35 days of dependable insect protection. After that, we begin to lose efficacy and can allow grape colaspis (GC) and rice water weevil (RWW) in our back pocket.
2. In an early-planted situation (like right now), consider adding Fortenza to your seed treatment package. The addition of this insecticide will improve and extend both RWW and GC control, and it’s cheaper than adding Dermacor (which only helps with RWW, not GC).
3. The fungicide seed treatments are good for about 14 days, maybe 21 if we’re lucky, but probably not. So we can’t depend on a great deal of help against seedling diseases from them when we plant under conditions that may result in 14-plus days to emergence.
4. Ensure you’re planting an adequate amount of seed to offset potential seedling loss in this situation – usually a 10 percent increase is enough. However, extreme situations will still result in areas of weak stands, particularly in unlevel areas where water pools.
5. Bird depredation can be an issue in early-planted rice fields as well. Currently, AV-1011 is labeled for use in rice and has shown to be very successful in keeping birds out of the field. If you have a field with a history of bird issues, or will be planting a field early and isolated that may draw more birds to it, consider adding this seed treatment.
There are a few cooler nights into the 30s coming up, but the extended forecast looks much better. Highs in the 70s and lows in the 50s mean we can make some actual progress with rice planted.
That being said, I don’t discourage planting some rice now – just try not to plant it all right now. Hard to stop once you’re rolling, I know. The added problem is always the longer we drag out rice planting, the longer we drag out soybean planting.
But if we go too fast before fields are ready, we’ll have stand issues out of the gate. Focus on getting some acres in the ground with levees up and a pre-emergence herbicide out ahead of the next rain.
Dr. Jarrod Hardke is the University of Arkansas rice Extension agronomist. He may be reached at jhardke@uaex.edu.