Covering The San Joaquin Valley Since 1991
Owen Taylor, Editor (888-327-6329)
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OVERVIEW
Lygus are turning up in more cotton, mainly influenced by movement from alfalfa.
Worms are apparent in alfalfa and tomatoes, and a few more treatments were being reported this week.
Excessive heat will be with the crop going into the week. How that affects spider mites and other pests is an open question. The Bakersfield forecast called for 107 for both Sunday and Monday (6/28-29) when we closed this report Saturday morning, and temperatures above 100 were in the forecast at least through mid week. However, nighttime lows were expected to stay in the low to mid 70s, which could reduce some of the potential plant stress.
CROP REPORTS
Tony Touma, PCA, Bio Ag Consulting, Bakersfield: "We maybe have sprayed 10% of our cotton for lygus south of Buttonwillow. North of Buttonwillow, we’ve sprayed all of our cotton for lygus and one field twice. In that area, lygus are coming off state land. We’re not seeing any spider mites or aphids. We had some loopers, but it looks like they cycled out. On Monday (6/22) we sprayed a few alfalfa fields for yellow stripe armyworms. That’s our first worm spray in alfalfa this year."
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Joe Baird, Agri-Valley Consulting, Merced: "We’re putting on some layby applications. We’ve sprayed once for lygus. Those treatments were within the last 10 days (from 6/26). Retention looks like it’s doing pretty good. Cotton is about 28 inches high and at 16 nodes, so we’re doing alright there. Lygus migrated out of alfalfa. It was cut all around us, and they didn’t have anyplace to go but the cotton. But we didn’t have many lygus in there before that migration. With the layby application we’re including a miticide and Pix."
Sara Savary, PCA Crop Care Associates, Fresno: "We’re getting ready to put on our second irrigation. Cotton is at about 15 nodes and ranges from 24 to 30 inches high. We’ll probably apply Pix right after this second irrigation to hold down plants a little. Part of this cotton is following corn, so there’s a lot of nitrogen in the ground and we’re not expecting cotton to slow down on its own. We had a flush of lygus out of the hay at the end of last week. We’ll look at cotton again on Monday (6/29) to see what they’re doing. We’ve made a Roundup application and cultivated, so we’ve just laid by.
"We’ve just started picking up a few armyworm egg masses and hatches this week in both tomatoes and alfalfa. There aren’t enough to treat, but I imagine we’ll be to that point pretty soon."
Bob Hutmacher, Extension Cotton Specialist: "Most of the cotton I saw this week ranged from 12 to 16 nodes, with some at first bloom. I was in some fields in Kings County this week that had retention problems and were running lygus counts of 4 to 5. Lygus are certainly out there in places, but most of the cotton I happened to be in this week had not been sprayed and was carrying beneficial populations that looked pretty good.
"In Fresno County yesterday (6/25) I was in several fields where first irrigation might have been put on fairly early, and those fields obviously were waiting for the second irrigation. They looked fairly dry but not devastatingly bad. By 2 p.m., leaves were showing signs of wilt. We’re going into highs well above 100, and stress will be more apparent next week in that cotton. This tended to be in areas where water is short, so holding off is somewhat understandable. But a lot of this cotton is approaching first bloom, and it would greatly benefit from irrigation right away, if possible.
"I was in a couple of fields in Kern County this week that were actually quite lush. I wouldn’t say they were overwatered, but they had big, bright green leaves and long internodes. These were situations where you have to be cautious because there was this high growth rate with about 60% retention on the bottom 5 and the next couple of nodes above that were retaining 50% to 60%."
Pete Goodell, Extension IPM Entomologist, Kearney Ag Center, Parlier: "Lygus pressure continues to increase through the valley. Based on the reports we’re receiving, this is due to movement from alfalfa hay into cotton. I’ve experienced the same situation in experimental plots at Kearney Ag Center. Populations have been moving freely from the general area into cotton, averaging 21 per 50 sweeps. Strip cutting alfalfa hay can help mitigate movement but may not completely contain it. During hay cutting it’s essential to closely scout cotton and look for signs that lygus population are increasing, plus it’s invaluable to monitor the fruit set. Visit our Cotton Pest Management Guidelines at www.ucipm.davis.edu to review fruit retention evaluation. Use of selective insecticides for the first application will help conserve natural enemies and buffer the cotton ecosystem into the near term future."
OTHER CROPS
Chris Morgner, PCA, Agri-Valley Consulting, Merced: "Some worms are showing up in the alfalfa, but there are no serious issues. I did write up my first alfalfa field today (6/26) for a western yellow stripe armyworm treatment. It’s not a big, serious situation, but this is a ranch with problems in the past. It’s not that they’ll do that much damage to the standing crop, but we didn’t want them to eat up the regrowth. A couple of other fields actually justified treatment, but the swathers already were headed toward the field when the population hit treatment level.
"Light worm pressure is turning up in the tomatoes, but we’re seeing a lot more moths flying around and are finding tomato fruit worm moths flying to the blossoms during the day. We also were finding eggs and hatches. These particular fields are fresh market tomatoes, and we wrote up several this week. So far, the fresh tomato fields have had nice sets and good crops, with yields that are certainly above average. Up until now, we’ve had good weather for tomatoes. But several days of extremely hot temperatures are in the forecast, and we’ll probably lose some of these new blossoms, which will affect that part of the crop. The milder weather, plus some humidity, did promote powdery mildew in some tomatoes. But it’s funny how it works. About 2 miles from where it’s the heaviest we have a field planted a week later that’s not having a problem. That particular area, though, tends to not get much dew for whatever reason, to the point that the grower quit growing hay there."
DD60 TABLE/Through June 24, 2009
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