Owen Taylor, Editor, 888-327-6329
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OVERVIEW
Insects continue to be a mixed bag. Plant bugs are the most generalized pest. Pressure from aphids and mites varies. A few worms are being treated in non-Bt cotton, and a big moth flight has taken shape in Arkansas.
Hot, dry weather continues, although temperatures have dropped a bit. Rain is needed in most areas.
CROP REPORTS
Charles Denver, Denver Crop Consulting, Watson, Ark.: "Our cotton ranges from 4 to 5 leaves to blooming. Plant bugs are growing a little, and aphids are increasing some. We’re finding a few worms in non-Bt cotton. We’re not spraying worms but have been treating plant bugs. Most everybody has started irrigating cotton. The only rain lately was scattered, maybe 2 to 3 tenths on 10% of our area."
Joe Townsend, Ind. Consultant, Coahoma, Miss.: "We haven’t irrigated any cotton yet but could use a good, general rain on it. We’re doing great where we can get any. We’re treating a huge epidemic of plant bugs, and a lot of our cotton already has had 3 applications. In some cotton we treated last Thursday we’re now finding 20% to 30% within 50 to 100 yards of corn. The initial pressure was general, but what we’re dealing with now is definitely out of corn. Where cotton rows are perpendicular to corn, we’re treating by air. Where they’re parallel, we’re spraying by ground. We’ve had a smattering of aphids and treated where needed, mostly in no-till cotton. We’ve had problems in all our crops this year with Roundup-resistant horseweed and now resistant careless weed. It’s absolutely horrible. We’re to the point now that we’re trying to figure out what we can spot-spray on them, regardless of the effect on the crop. A bunch of them are being hoed."
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Steve Schutz, Ind. Consultant, Coushatta, La.: "We haven’t gotten rain in over a month. Usually by now I’ve used 40 ounces of Pix or more, but so far this season only 2 to 4 ounces have gone out, and that was at pinhead. Cotton is being irrigated wherever possible. We’ve had nights with lows at 80 or more. I would be more concerned about the effect of the heat if cotton were forming fiber right now, but with temperatures like that at night it doesn’t have much time to recover from the daytime heat. We’re treating aphids and plant bugs here and there, generally with Trimax or a generic. It seems like activity isn’t as good as it was last year but still is okay. We’re picking up a big egg lay in cotton, and most of ours is DPL 555. What I’m seeing are bollworm moths. Mites are building, but we haven’t treated yet."
Victor Roth, Roth Farm Service, Malden, Mo.: "We’ve had little showers around, nothing real serious. Most growers are cranking up irrigation pumps pretty widely. Several already have watered once with pivots and others have furrow irrigated some cotton. We had a break in temperatures yesterday (6/28), and the high was 8 to 9 degrees lower than what it had been for several days. It’s suppose to be around 88 today, which will help a lot with the cotton. We’re finally past thrips. I don’t know if any of our cotton will bloom by the Fourth of July, but I just looked at some that’s at 12 to 13 nodes and should bloom next week. We treated a few fields for plant bugs last week, and we’ll probably treat more this week. These are adults that probably moved in from other hosts. We’ve treated several fields for flea hoppers, too. I’ve only found mites in 2 fields in the last 10 days, nothing treatable."
David Hydrick, Hydrick’s Crop Consulting, Inc., Jonesboro, Ark.: "We’re trying to lay some Dual in the middles where we can and are running Pix, plus a plant bug material where warranted. This hasn’t been a year with overwhelming plant bugs, but we’ve had our share of them. It’s not a banner year for aphids, but we’re seeing more than normal and have treated 20 to 30 fields. No mite treatments so far this year, which is hard to believe. Our cotton ranges from just emerged where it was spot replanted to the first week of bloom. About 50% of our cotton isn’t blooming yet and 50% of that isn’t close yet. A couple of days ago (from 6/29) we got 3 to 4 inches of rain, mostly through the center of Mississippi County. Part of that area got 1.5 inches a day or so before that. Thankfully, a good portion of it fell on dryland fields. But a lot of areas that need rain haven’t seen it lately."
Kyle Skinner, Skinner Ag, Starkville, Miss.: "Some fields are just now beginning to bloom. We’re mainly checking for plant bugs and are spraying as needed. We’ve sprayed just about every field and are starting on some now (6/29) for the second time. We’re finding them mostly near corn. We got 3 tenths of an inch of rain in Caledonia over the weekend but haven’t had any in Noxubee County for 10 to 14 days."
Dale Wells, Ind. Consultant, Cotton Services, Inc., Leachville, Ark.: "It’s been hot – the upper 90s to low 100s and a heat index one day at 112. Plus, we haven’t had a rain in a couple of weeks. All the center pivots are going, and furrow irrigation, too. We’re catching a little break this week because temperatures are suppose to go down. We’re spraying plant bugs where we find them and putting on boron with a little nitrogen to carry it into the plant. We’re still fighting pigweed. We’re going across with Roundup and making sure there’s enough moisture to activate the Dual. Our oldest cotton is on about node 14. We normally expect fruiting to start at the fifth to sixth node, but a lot of this didn’t start until node 8."
Gus Lorenz, Arkansas Extension IPM Specialist: "We’re getting pretty dry in spots, but that doesn’t appear to be holding down insects much. Plant bugs have increased in cotton since last week, and we’re spraying more fields. We’re not seeing aphids, though, like we expected. We had a test in Jefferson County, and beneficials took them out. We treated last week, and when we came back this week the untreated check was as clean as the treated plots. Bollworm moth counts are up again this week. We’re finding tremendous numbers in traps for this time of the year. In Lonoke County traps hit 200 to 300 over the weekend. We counted 150 to 200 in traps in Desha County in the south part of the state. Be aware of this if you’ve got non-Bt cotton or any Bt cotton that’s blooming."
Barry L. Freeman, Extension Entomologist (Retired), Belle Mina, Ala.: "A little treating is underway for plant bugs, and a fair amount of insecticide will be piggybacked this week with herbicides before people take off for the Fourth of July. I understand their thinking – trying to be cautious in case something might develop during the holiday. The flip side of that is that the treatment could flare secondary pests. We’ve got scattered aphids and mites and have hit threshold on plant bugs in places, but they’re not bad at all. Where they’re showing up, it has more to do with the age of the cotton than anything else. We’ve had scattered rain. One farmer got 2 inches, but that was a rare case. Overall, we’re dry. Corn is losing yield every day that it doesn’t rain. It’s a little cooler now but still hot enough that things are going to droop. We’re in the early bloom stage now in the older crop. So, cotton isn’t in the heaviest water-use period yet but is heading that way, which is a concern."
Angus Catchot, Mississippi Extension Entomologist: " Plant bug numbers are picking up pretty good in places, and quite a few treatments have been going out, with some fields on their third spraying. It’s not hard to find blooms in a lot of the older cotton. We’re still spraying a few aphids around, plus spider mites. I’ve heard about a few non-Bt fields being treated for worms in the last 10 days. The biggest factor right now is lack of rainfall. A few spotty showers fell last week, and I’ve heard of 1.5 inches in places, but nothing widespread, and a lot of irrigation is going."
Scott Stewart, Extension Cotton Entomologist, Jackson, Tenn.: "Plant bugs are starting to be more widespread and are a bigger problem this week. A lot of acres started squaring last week, so we’re not surprised to see plant bug now. Thankfully, conditions have cooled down. Overall, the heat helped cotton get going. It was too wet 2 weeks ago, and now we could use a general rain. We’re beginning to get a better handle on our cotton acreage this year. The boll weevil eradication acreage this year is something like 220,000 acres, according to numbers given to Chris Main (Extension Cotton Specialist). That’s more than the 150,000 we had informally estimated earlier in June after all the delays and flooding. But going into planting season, we thought there would be 300,000 acres, maybe more."
Don Boquet, Louisiana Interim Cotton Agronomist: "Central Louisiana received significant rainfall on June 29, up to 3 inches in places, but the rest of the state remains extremely dry, especially the northeast region. Irrigated fields are progressing ahead of schedule, with the earliest planted cotton at 17 to 19 nodes and bolls retained at nodes 10 to 11. Keeping the crop growing in non-irrigated fields, however, is becoming more difficult. Only a few small showers have fallen in the cotton growing areas during the past 26 days. At this time of year, we need a rain at least every 14 days to avoid drought stress. Many fields that are flowering have lower-than-desired NAWF counts, and it is a real concern that cutout will occur much too soon to produce good yields. Without a rapid change in rainfall, this will, in fact, likely happen. We also are rapidly approaching a situation in which we could set a few bolls and then have a much later second crop of bolls when rain does arrive. Fertilizers applied around and since planting time are still present and will be taken up with the next rain to initiate new growth. The dry weather has also contributed to extensive build ups of aphids and spider mites to go along with a few plant bug and worm infestations that required insecticide applications."
ALSO AT AGFAX.COM
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DuPont Divests Lorox/Linuron Herbicide Assets 6-29
Arkansas Cotton Update, 6-26, Crop still behind schedule; time for irrigation; plant growth regulators questions.
Louisiana Cotton Bulletin, 6-30, Improving the Efficiency of Cotton Irrigation.
Ag Report (E-Central La.), 6-28. Rain favors some but not all; limited fungicides on beans; stink bug numbers jump sharply; aphid treatments in cotton, mites increasing; corn harvest maybe 2 weeks off.
Mississippi Grain Crops Update, 6-26, Heat stress, pollination and irrigation scheduling.
Mississippi Grain Crops Update, 6-26, Heat stress, pollination and irrigation scheduling.
Mississippi Field Crops Newsletter, 6-26, Twenty inches of rain, failing stands, and delays.
Tennessee IPM Newsletter, 6-25, Tarnished Plant Bug and Thresholds; Glyphosate-Resistant Giant Ragweed.
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