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OVERVIEW

Insect update

No overwhelming problems were reported. Thrips are certainly around, and some miticides are being applied. We continue to hear reports about worms in cotton and other crops. See Pete Goodell’s comments on lygus treatments in safflower.

The weather ride continues

After triple-digit highs the previous weekend, temperatures fell significantly last week. Differences in daily highs hit 30 degrees or more in parts of the valley in less than a week’s time. Wind battered more cotton, as well.

CROP REPORTS

Steve Wright, Extension Farm Advisor, Tulare and Kings Counties

“Cotton is looking good. Herbicide work and cultivation are underway. Some cotton needs water right now. Some lighter soils that were pre-irrigated back in December never got those rains we expect, and they’ve been running out of steam. The big challenge is getting water moved around with demands from several crops. In the last week, growers have been trying to finish irrigating the wheat grown for grain, plus water early-planted corn and alfalfa.

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“Some cotton fields were losing populations with the stress. We’ve also had winds at 40 to 50 mph on the west side, and that will exacerbate the situation. It’s suppose to calm down by tomorrow (Friday). A couple of weeks ago I looked at one field in Tulare County that actually had aphids on it, but beneficials were working on them, and they didn’t last long. I haven’t seen early-season aphids like that in years.

“A lot of our wheat looks real good, but in some cases it needed one more irrigation. In some cases, growers gave wheat a good irrigation in late April, then decided to leave off a last irrigation and use the water on other crops. Then the weather turned hot, and things dried up quickly. Normally, we would have had more time to extend the season, but that’s not the case this year.”

Dale Deshane, PCA, Supervised Control, Bakersfield

“This season has been crazy. These up-and-down weather conditions are hard to figure or plan around. We had bad mites in 2 fields and cleaned those up a couple of weeks ago. We’re now going across nearly everything with a cleanup miticide before first water. A few guys did water early, and we will clean up those fields after they finish their first irrigation. We’ve had a lot of thrips, and some cotton looked real ugly. But we held back on treating, and it doesn’t look like we’ll have any kind of problem.

“A lot of worms have turned up in places, both beet armyworms and loopers, and I’ve heard of some treatments. We haven’t sprayed any yet. Armyworms hit when it was real hot, but they cycled out by the time any damage became apparent. With loopers, cotton is growing fast enough that I don’t think they’ll be a factor. At first, we thought we would have to spray a lot, but they reached a point that they weren’t getting any worse. We started sweeping cotton late last week and swept some again today (Thursday). Counts have mostly been zeros, with a 1-count here and there. One guy picked up an 8 count today but it was isolated.

“Our earlier cotton is not setting early on the plant. We’re not finding squares before the eighth to ninth node. I don’t like to see that, but I’m sure it has to do with the weather we’ve had.

“We’ve had worms in other crops. We’ve sprayed in a lot of vegetables, tomatoes, potatoes and melons. We’re spraying mites in almonds. We’ve had some trouble getting control and could end up with ugly trees in some places by the end of the year.”

Jim Hall, PCA, Hall Agronomics, Fresno

“On the ground I’m checking this year, cotton isn’t doing badly. A farmer who doesn’t have cotton this year has a piece of leased ground with light soil that was blowing hard. I asked him what kind of shape cotton would have been in if he had planted it there this year. He said it probably would have been wiped out by all the wind. My biggest cotton is pushing fourth leaf. We’re furrowed up and probably will start watering next week.

“There’s nothing at this point to treat. Yellow striped armyworms were active in alfalfa last week. I haven’t seen anything of them in tomatoes or cotton yet, but it’s probably just a matter of time. I’m concerned about the effect of that real high heat on tomatoes but can’t say yet what it did.”

Bob Hutmacher, Extension Cotton Specialist

“This weather has been crazy – 103 to 104 in places last week, then down in the 70s this week. Right now, I’m in the Buttonwillow area (Friday afternoon), and it’s raining. This isn’t one of those sprinkling kinds of rains. It’s going to be at least a measurable amount. Lower temperatures will provide relief to some of the later-planted cotton that’s struggling. But, the 30 mph winds have brought anything but relief. April wasn’t particularly kind to cotton, and May isn’t much of an improvement.

“I think the plants that were over the edge have pretty much succumbed to stress in the dried out areas. Stands have been thinned out or portions of the stand are gone. Cotton that hooked into deeper moisture is holding on, but some of it isn’t showing much vigor. We’ve got some at the 5- to 6-leaf stage but just 3 inches tall or less. It’s a real hard call on some of this stuff – irrigate or back off and wait? I did see some fields being irrigated this week in Fresno County, which is about 10 days earlier than normal.

“We’re close enough now to June 1 that I think more people will start irrigating if cotton is a little on the rough side. Others may hold off. There’s quite a variation in crop conditions. On the east side I’m finding some beautiful fields and, in general, the small amount of cotton still on that side of the valley looks better than a lot of what I’ve seen on the west side. Fields on the east side probably haven’t been hit as hard by wind and heat.

“With this cooldown, some of the small plants in Fresno County this week were showing more thrips and related damage. I’m not seeing anything terribly alarming yet. But if it stays cool and growth remains slow, that could be a concern. I saw my first 2 fields this week with mite damage. There’s probably more out there, but these are the first ones I’ve seen in 2008. They were in west Fresno County near Interstate 5.”

Pete Goodell, Extension IPM Entomologist, Kearney Ag Center, Parlier

“Some growers and PCAs are considering lygus treatments in safflower to reduce migration into cotton. They need to know that we’ve reached the application triggering point in areas from Kettleman City to Tranquility. The triggering point is an accumulation of 660 degree days from April 1. Last week’s Cotton Field Check included more details on treatment options. Where I’ve been able to check safflower, I’m finding lygus in almost every field.”

ALSO AT AGFAX.COM

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Closing Cotton: Negative Factors Hammer Cotton 5/23

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