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OVERVIEW

Cotton making progress, finally

Less wind, warmer conditions and irrigation are helping put fields on track. Squaring has started on a wider basis.

Pest update

No big problems were reported this week in cotton.

New alfalfa critter

See the report below on South American bean thrips, which have turned up in some SJV alfalfa fields this year.

DD60 TABLE STARTING

Pete Goodell – who is wearing a couple of hats as IPM advisor and also interim statewide IPM coordinator – is still taking time to put together our DD60 table, something he’s done faithfully for the last 15 years.

His first table for 2008 appears this week (below the item about South American bean thrips). He also sent a second table showing projected cotton developmental events based on weather conditions, so far, and average conditions going forward.

Thanks, Pete!

CROP REPORTS

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

“I’m really pleased with the way my growers’ cotton looks. Our early-planted Pima this week probably has 5 to 6 squares per plant. It’s loaded. There are no missing squares, which would indicate no lygus activity out there. This was planted in that early window when we had warm weather for what seemed like about 20 minutes. We got in it, and the cotton made it through the danger period. We’ve sidedressed it, put on first irrigation, and it looks gorgeous, with 12 to 13 nodes.

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"The one negative is that it’s not squaring until the seventh node. Fields planted about 2 weeks later are at 8 to 9 nodes and also squaring on the seventh. It was just too cool to let any of this start squaring on the fifth node. The Hazara hybrid is starting on the fifth.

“With this cold weather, we haven’t had a lot of mite development in cotton. But I’m sure it will kick in when things warms up more, and I think everybody will spray on schedule before cotton is laid by.”

Nick Groenenberg, Indep. PCA, Hanford

“With this warm weather, the cotton has started moving a lot better. My biggest is at 12 nodes, and some irrigation is starting. It’s not so much because plants need irrigation right now, but with this critical water shortage we’re getting the wells into rotation, then will supplement with surface water if we have an extra demand.

“I’ve been sweeping some of the early fields and occasionally come up with a 1-count for lygus, but nothing very often. The mite situation looks pretty good. We may start treating in 10 days. The wind in the last couple of weeks beat up the cotton pretty good, and it knocked off some early squares. The new growth looks real good.

“Tomatoes look good, too. They also were roughed up some in the wind. We’ve had to treat some worms in the tomatoes, and we put on a fungicide a week ago ahead of those rains. We’re spraying a little weevil in the alfalfa and picking up some yellow striped armyworms, but alfalfa is growing good, and the quality has been nice.”

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

“There isn’t a lot going on in the cotton. The Pima is just starting to square, and we should see squaring start next week in the Acala. Just a little mite are moving up on true leaves. We’ll probably start Zephyr applications late next week. We’re almost done with first irrigation. The wind kind of stopped cotton for a week in terms of growth. But we’re not in sand here, so it didn’t tear it up too badly.

“The wind slowed down tomatoes for about a week, too, but it didn’t affect them much besides that. A lot of almond trees have gone down or split with the wind. We just got through a big yellow striped armyworm hatch in the alfalfa. It occurred right at cutting, too close to treat. This was during that real hot weekend. They all survived, ate the regrowth in the hay and then started walking out of the alfalfa and into adjoining crops. We’ve been running around, checking and treating borders, and we’ve finally got them under control.”

Bob Hutmacher, Extension Cotton Specialist

“We still have concerns with thrips in some cases. Plants are starting to grow, but there may be fields with a fair amount of thrips injury and some activity on cotton that already has been slowed down due to cooler weather. We can find this in some plots at the West Side REC and will probably call for treatments in those cases.

“Many people have started irrigation, and in most cases I think that’s a good call. A lot of cotton is still kind of disappointing, with slow growth in many of these fields. Between warmer conditions and water, much of it is perking up. But it still doesn’t look like June 1 to me. In a normal season you would expect to find a bloom here and there in the first 10 days of June. That won’t be the case from the mid valley north this year. Maybe we’ll see some on the east side but not on the west side.”

SOUTH AMERICAN BEAN THRIPS

South American bean thrips (SABT) – a new pest for SJV alfalfa – has been causing problems in parts of the valley over the last few weeks.

South American bean thrips (photo University of California)

Carol Frate, Extension Farm Adviser in Tulare County, released a bulletin on the thrips this week, which we are attaching.

“Unfortunately for the thrips, one of the places it initially showed up was in alfalfa at the UC Kearney Center,” she said. That gave entomologists a quick headstart on identifying the pest.

“It’s been in Imperial County in Southern California for several years, and they’ve seen damage on alfalfa,” she said. “But only rarely do they find infestations that they believe should be treated.”

At a distance, fields hit by SABT appear to be under severe moisture stress, she said. Closer inspection, though, shows that “many of the terminals are blasted and appear dead.”

SABT has dark bands across its thorax and tail.

Frate said she did not know of any treatments made specifically for SABT in the valley, so far. One of her colleagues in the Imperial Valley said that while applications for SABT weren’t common in his area, “there were times when treatments on new plantings would have been helpful,” she added.

Charlie Summers, a Kearney-based entomologist, sent an initial advisory to PCAs after he and other Extension personnel responded to the first identification of SABT, Frate said.

“We think everyone should be on the alert so you don’t end up with a lot of damage before you know what’s there,” Frate said. “Again, based on comments from the Imperial Valley, situations requiring treatment might not be too common. But we at least need to be aware that this pest is turning up in the valley now.”

 DD60 TABLE

ALSO AT AGFAX.COM

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