Canopy management in cereals

To achieve the optimum yield for your wheat crop, you need the right amount of leaf area capturing sunlight and feeding the right number of ears.

A thick crop won’t process light or nutrients efficiently and is prone to lodging.

A thin crop won’t reach its potential. Here you can get advice on how to assess your crop plus tips to ensure you achieve a crop canopy that will get the balance just right.

Growth stage
Lodging
App for iPhone

CAT app for the iPhone

BASF has launched an iPhone App to help you assess the green area index (GAI) of your wheat crops.

The Canopy Assessment Tool (CAT) calculates a wheat crop’s GAI at the crucial Growth Stage 30/31.

Armed with the GAI assessment, you can then tailor a PGR programme, calculate nitrogen requirements accurately and importantly, assess crop lodging risk.

The mobile version will accompany and replicate the successful online CAT launched last year (see at www.pgrplus.basf.com). It can be downloaded now from the iTunes website, priced £1.79.

The size of the wheat canopy in the spring time is a critical indicator for decisions about nitrogen and plant growth regulators. Size of the wheat canopy is difficult to estimate, but it can be measured by its Green Area Index (GAI), which is the amount of green tissue per sq m of ground.

Knowing the GAI at growth stage 30 or 31, with the lodging resistance score of the variety and an estimate of the crop's yield potential can be used to predict the lodging risk and the subsequent need for a PGR.

Using the CAT (Canopy Assessment Tool), you can quickly and very easily obtain a lodging risk assessment of your wheat crop and a simple, yet tailored PGR programme.
The information provided is also important for accurately estimating the fertiliser requirement of the crop when using methods such as the RB209 Fertiliser Guide and GrowHow's N-Calc System.

The CAT has been developed, trialled and calibrated by ADAS and BASF in order to provide an accurate lodging risk assessment and PGR programme according to the in-field risk.