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OVERVIEW
More rain needed
Parts of the lower Southeast remain dry.
Insect update
Thrips continue to an issue on a broad basis. A suspected population of western flower thrips has turned up in one Virginia cotton field. See Ames Herbert’s comments. Grasshoppers are still being treated in some seedling cotton. Unusually high counts of corn earworm moths have been turning up in traps in parts of Virginia.
CROP REPORTS
Rusty Harris, Worth County Extension Agent, Sylvester, Ga.
“We finally got a rain last night (Wednesday) across the county, from a half inch to an inch in most areas. Cotton is coming along pretty well. We’re 85% to 95% planted, and a lot is up.
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"Thrips have been treated on a high percentage of the crop. We get into this situation some every year when it’s too dry for Temic or Avicta to be taken up as quickly as farmers would like, so some Orthene was included with Roundup. Grasshoppers have been working pretty actively on cotton in some strip-till fields, and we’ve had replanting because of this in the south end of Worth County and down into Colquitt County.”
Brandon Dillard, Regional Agronomist, Geneva, Ala.
“We have cotton ranging from just being planted all the way up to some at the 6-leaf stage. Growers are starting on the doublecrop cotton now. Overall, we’re 75% to 85% planted, with 70% to 75% emerged. We’re spraying some for grasshoppers. Most people are applying a pyrethroid, but some are using Orthene. Our first Roundup applications have been going out. I got a call yesterday (Wednesday) about a field with potentially resistant pigweed. When it’s dry like it is this time of the year, people often assume that lack of control is due to lack of moisture. But it never hurts to contact us to come out and apply comparisons of heavy rates and evaluate the results. This field, in particular, could be an interesting situation. I found places where one pigweed was alive, while another one next to it was dead.”
Mike Howell, Extension Area Agronomist, Gulfport, Miss.
“We’re probably 50% planted in south Mississippi. Some people are still trying to finish peanut planting. Cotton that’s up looks pretty good. The biggest I’ve seen has 2 true leaves.”
Wes Briggs, Briggs Crop Services, Inc., Bainbridge, Ga.
“Cotton is about 75% planted. Most of what we’re putting in now is behind wheat or snap beans. We replanted about 2,000 acres, which is more than my growers have replanted in a season since I started working in south Georgia in 1995. This was due to sand storms and rhizoctonia. I’ve never seen wind like we had in a 2-week period in early May. It never seemed to drop below 30 mph. We’ve managed to get fairly good stands on dryland acreage with what little rain we’ve caught. Some spot replanting had to be done. We’re spraying thrips on probably 99% of our cotton. It doesn’t matter what was used – Avicta, Cruiser or Temik. They’re really heavy this year. Our most advanced cotton is at 12 nodes, and next week we’ll start sidedressing 28% N and applying Pix on our oldest cotton.
“We continue to miss widespread rainfall. We’re watering all the irrigated cotton and peanuts, from a half-inch per week up to three-quarters on sandier ground. For peanuts, it’s to promote canopy closure. For cotton, it’s to keep it growing.”
Johnny Parker, Agronomist, Commonwealth Gin, Windsor, Va.
“Overall, cotton development is behind due to the continuous the cool weather we’ve had in May. We have accumulated only about 50 DD60s per week for the whole month. Developmentally, you could expect that cotton planted at the very beginning of the month would only have about 2 true leaves. For cotton planted in the middle of May, the first leaf is just starting to make a good showing. All of this will change dramatically over the next 10 days. We will average 50 DD60s every 3 days. This should allow cotton to make about 3 true leaves over the next 10 days.
“Our oldest cotton – planted in April or the very beginning of May – will be at the 5-leaf stage by June 8. Older style RR varieties like 444 and 370 need to have the final over-the-top Roundup application made by the fourth to fifth true leaf. Cotton that was planted prior to the middle of May is developing its first true leaf and should be sprayed for thrips as soon as possible. Thrips damage has increased dramatically over the last week on older cotton.”
Jeremy Greene, Clemson University Cotton Entomologist, Blackville, S.C.
“It’s getting dry in most places, and it has been relatively cool for the last couple of days. Intermittent rain events – with little precipitation when they do occur – are inadequate for some of the crop that needs to finish germinating and emerging. Thrips injury is increasing on plants that need rain, warmer temperatures and better conditions to outgrow continued feeding injury. Randy Cubbage, Extension Agent in Lee County, reported some spraying for thrips there. Overall planting intentions in his county are 8,053 acres in 2008, he said. That’s down 70% from 2006. He also reports that glyphosate tolerant/resistant pigweed will likely be more of a problem this year than in 2007.”
Phillip Roberts, Extension Entomologist, Tifton, Ga.
“Thrips numbers have been moderate to high in most areas, especially on cotton planted in late April and early May. Foliar sprays have been needed in some areas. We continue to receive reports of grasshoppers and seedling injury in some conservation tillage fields. On a side note, a few county agents have commented that they are seeing more stink bugs in both wheat and field corn compared with recent years.”
Ames Herbert, Virginia Extension Entomologist
“Although we are seeing a lot of damage in cotton, adult thrips populations are actually lower this week than last, according to our sticky card and pan trap samples. We have passed through a large peak that occurred on about May 20, and counts have been generally declining since then. Last year, we experienced a second large peak when small grain dried down, which is just starting, so a second surge may still be ahead.
“We have confirmed – about 90% sure – a population of western flower thrips in one cotton field that had been previously treated with 6 oz/acre of Orthene 97. A plant sample showed that almost 100% of the survivors were western flower thrips. A followup treatment of 12 oz/acre of Orthene 97 provided only about 50% control. According to our work and that of many others, there is still no better option for westerns. Increasing to 16 oz/acre probably won’t help, and switching to pyrethroids or other OP materials will definitely not help.
“We see the biggest problem in April-planted cotton where the seed or in-furrow treatments probably lost some efficacy. The best advice at this point is to treat only those fields that are really critical, that have so much damage that true leaves are not opening. If leaves are open and shiny green -- even though they may be somewhat crinkled – the plants are going to do okay, especially since we now have good soil moisture. With the soil moisture and a few warm days, cotton will quickly outgrow the problem.”
ALSO AT AGFAX.COM
On The Farm (SW Alabama), 5-30. Judging soybean stands; what to do with wheat straw?; peanut pointers; stink bugs in corn; grain storage.
Georgia Seminole County E News, 5-30, Weeds building in peanuts.
Georgia Cotton Insect Newsletter, 5-29, Thrips; Grasshoppers.
South Carolina Cotton Insect Newsletter, 5-30, Thrips injury increasing; tobacco budworm and bollworm making debut.
Virginia Ag Pest, 5-30. Western flower thrips might be in one cotton field; thrips populations peaking._
Virginia Ag Pest, 5-30. Corn earworm numbers unusually high for May.
Mississippi Crop Situation, 5-30, Corn growth situation; stink bugs; Cotton Agronomics; Soybean Update; Peanuts.
Tennessee IPM Newsletter, 5-29, Managing Late Planted Cotton; Insect management; Wheat Disease; Farm Management.
Gerloff On Cotton: Strength hard to find 5/30
Closing Cotton: Options were surprisingly active today and well balanced 5/30
NYBOT Cotton: Futures | Options
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