Owen Taylor, Editor

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OVERVIEW

Seedling disease. A bit more rhizoctonia is showing up, but no appreciable plant loss was reported. No real pest pressure was noted in cotton this week.

Slow going. Cooler conditions off and on in April have noticeably slowed plant development in much of the valley. Warmer conditions seem to be returning, which would help move things along at this point.

Planting forecasts. We have phased out our text-message cotton-planting forecasts for 2008. Most, if not all, of the crop has been planted, plus conditions are on a warmer, more certain track. We hope you found this service helpful.

CROP REPORTS

Vern Crawford, PCA, Wilbur-Ellis Co., Shafter:

“This already has been a strange year. It was warmer at the beginning of April than at the end, and we keep going through all these cycles of warm and cold, with no rain whatsoever – which pretty much continues an historically dry cycle that we’re in now.

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“What’s surprising in the cotton is how little pest pressure we have, relative to what everyone is finding in other crops. Darkling ground beetle problems are being reported up and down the valley in tomatoes. It’s been hard to keep up with the demand for Sevin bait. We’ve already sold what probably would be an entire year’s production. Earwigs and crickets are problems, too. This is the second year in the last three years when we’ve had any kind of earwig pressure. In 40 years, I’ve never seen the kind of earwig activity that we had in 2006 and now in 2008.

“I’ve been comparing notes with other PCAs, and we’re also finding mite pressure in some of the almonds and other crops, despite the fact that it’s been mostly cool for the last 45 days. When you do find them, there already are spots of webbing in places. I was at a meeting today (Thursday), and people farther north were also saying that they found indications that it might be a bad mite year. Add to that the fact that we had to spray virtually all the alfalfa in the south end of the valley for cowpea aphid. We have a lot of alfalfa varieties out there, and a large number claim some degree of resistance, but this year we seem to be finding aphids across all of them, whether resistant or susceptible. We’re still finding aphids in wheat where we thought there were enough ladybugs and other beneficials to clean them up by now.

“Most of the cotton I take care of has its first true leaf. Even though it was mainly planted in March, it’s had very limited growth because of cold conditions. Rhizoctonia is out there, which isn’t shocking after this prolonged cold weather. The best seed protectant will only hold so long. Cotton, overall, is up to a good stand, but we’re getting a little mortality. I don’t think stands are thinned out, and roots aren’t damaged that much. It would be more noticeable, I think, if we hadn’t caught some of those days with highs in the 70s and 80s. After that frost last week, I’ve seen marginal burn around leaf edges on late-planted spring potatoes, and some tomatoes in colder areas ended up with frost damage, too.”

Nick Groenenberg, Indep. PCA, Hanford:

“It’s been pretty quiet in cotton. I think all of our cotton is up now. We’ve been trying to see what might be ready for herbicides. Without rain, hardly any weeds are coming up. I don’t think we’ve had a drop of rain since the first cotton planter started running. That’s good and bad. We don’t like the planting delays, but we could have used the rain. We’re not finding much in the way of bugs. A few plants are dying because of rhizoctonia, but it’s not bad. The weather has really been up and down, but the cotton looks good.

“Our garlic looks pretty good. We’re still treating for rust. Alfalfa looks good, as well, and we haven’t had any insect problems. Wheat is finishing up in pretty good shape, and we haven’t seen much rust there.”

Mark W.F. Carter, PCA, Agri-Consultants, Los Banos:

“Our earliest cotton has started its first true leaves. Basically, though, cotton hasn’t moved much in the last two weeks because of the cool weather. In Los Banos, we’ve had 3 to 4 windy days every week lately, and it’s been cold. We’re starting to spray the Flex cotton, then cultivate and sidedress behind that. Not much to report in terms of insects. A lot of grasshoppers are around, but they aren’t doing much in the cotton. We did have to spray a couple of tomato fields for grasshoppers. Aphids increased in hay, but then the predation increased, and the pressure came down.

“Today (Thursday) we started finding just a little rhizoctonia in cotton planted about 2 weeks ago. That’s probably because it was planted in warm conditions, then temperatures got real cold behind it. Probably one percent of the plants are affected, at the most.”

Bob Hutmacher, Extension Cotton Specialist:

“Cotton is kind of kicking into gear and finally doing something. Temperatures have moved into the upper 70s and low 80s on a more consistent basis, and they’re suppose to stay that way through the weekend. Some of the cotton looks kind of beat up due to the wind over the last few days. Some fields look rough, but I think we’ll be okay.

“I was in Fresno, Kings and Merced Counties this week in our trials and some growers’ fields, and I didn’t see anything beyond the second leaf stage. In most years that would have been surprising, but cool conditions have really delayed things. I began picking up rhizoctonia damage in some cotton this week. It was in the Huron aera. I also saw a little thelaviopsis in 2 fields in Kern County, but it wasn’t significant.

“I was in a field this week that sustained some first-leaf and terminal damage that looked like it was caused either by thrips or false chinch bugs. The field was next to wheat fields that had been cut for silage. I couldn’t find insects, and I didn’t see enough damage that I would think a treatment would have been necessary, even if the insects were still there. The damage was worse near the wheat, and we may see more of that with all the grain fields around.”

ALSO AT AGFAX.COM

DTN Closing Cotton

DOANE: Cotton Commentary

GERLOFF ON COTTON: Late-week commentary from Delton Gerloff, University of Tennessee Ag Economist.

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