Thanks for the feedback. I had some fields quite bad last year as well, after the crop had a normal to above normal start and establishment, then the patches just started dying. One observation though was that once I crossed onto an old pasture, has been farmed for about 20 years now though, the root rot was non-existant, even in the low spots right up to standing water. The plants survived near flooding where in the same field with the same cropping history but across the line of the old pasture into the field, it was devastated. Now obviously, the disease triangle of host, pathogen, and environment, were the same host, pathogen and above ground environment so that leaves soil. What is different in the soil? Fertility is better in the newer ground, bulk density lower, more OM, better aerated soil, more mellow. Not to jump on the compaction bandwagon, but I think I need to look at how to get my soil in better shape. Long term and short term because peas and lentils might be the "canary in the coal mine" They indicate a soil problem but if we don't correct it, we soon will see issues in other crops as well. Likely we already are seeing yield decreases due to stresses just not the complete breakdown like peas and lentils. I likely have the most diverse rotation around growing 12 different crops per year, and intercropping. But I have been cheating on cereal acres the last while just for economics. So, my plan is to get some barley into those pieces this year, and maybe some tillage radish this fall. If I can get a machine, I would like to compare some smart till, and also my homemade cultivator with old stealth points sunk in the ground as deep as I can get them until I tear apart the cultivator and have to go to another auction sale.
To you guys who have been fighting this, I think you are right, there is no magic bullet here, no chemical solution, this one is going to be solved with field husbandry. What have you guys tried as far as soil solutions? Anyone tried deep tillage, vertical tillage, ripping? Tillage radish, forage rotation? Where you saw fields worse than others, how would you characterize the soil differences where it was better or worse?