OHIO NOTEBOOK: Excessive rain, flooding, ponding damaging some Ohio crops

Compiled by Chris Pugh
Ohio news notebook

Record rain and extensive flooding and ponding have taken a toll on commodity fields across Ohio, leaving some growers facing diseased crops, the death of their plants and potential yield loss, according to agronomists in the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences at The Ohio State University.

Depending on the growth stage of corn crops stuck in waterlogged soils, some growers could experience a yield loss of over 10 percent in corn crops that experienced as few as two days of flooding, said Alexander Lindsey, an assistant professor of horticulture and crop science at Ohio State.

Corn crops that are still in the vegetative growth stage and standing in waterlogged soils for longer than two days could experience up to a 50 percent yield loss, he said in a report published in the latest issue of the college’s Crop Observation and Recommendation Network (C.O.R.N) newsletter.

Flooding and ponding are also a concern for soybean growers, whose crops could face a yield loss of up to 64 percent for those plants in the reproductive stage that have been underwater for seven days or more, Lindsey said.

Many fields have spots where the crop died from floodwaters and the remaining plants are stunted from too many days in saturated soils, said Ed Lentz, an Ohio State University Extension educator. OSU Extension is the outreach arm of the college.


And for some growers, fieldwork that generally is completed by mid-July is now stretching into August because of the wet conditions, Lentz said. (Ohio State Extension)

Dietary supplement exposures a concern

U.S. Poison Control Centers receive a call every 24 minutes, on average, regarding dietary supplement exposures, according to a new study from the Center for Injury Research and Policy and the Central Ohio Poison Center, both at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.

The study, published online in the Journal of Medical Toxicology, found the rate of calls regarding dietary supplement exposures increased (46.1%) during 2000 to 2002, decreased (8.8%) during 2002 to 2005 and increased again (49.3%) from 2005 to 2012. The decrease from 2002 to 2005 most likely resulted from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) ban of the botanical stimulant ma huang previously found in some dietary supplements. (Nationwide Children's Hospital)

Free drive-thru shred days scheduled

Stark Federal Credit Union Community Shared Days in Alliance and Jackson Township provide residents with an important free service of destroying unneeded confidential documents.

The credit union hosts the drive-through events from 9 a.m. to noon Aug. 12 at the Alliance Branch, 310 Johnson Ave., and Aug. 19 at the Dressler Road Office, 4100 Dressler Rd. NW.

Participants receive a re-useable shopping bag. At the same time, nonperishable food and monetary donations are accepted for Stark County Hunger Task Force. (Stark County Hunger Task Force).