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Owen Taylor, Editor

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OVERVIEW - May 19, 2008

The heat is on

The fast warmup over the last few days has people scrambling to water cotton.

Pests?

Insect and mite pressure remain relatively light in cotton. See Steve Lenander’s commends regarding worms.

LYGUS FORECAST FOR 2008

Pete Goodell, Interim State IPM Director and IPM Advisor, issued his 2008 Lygus Management Guide, which is more commonly known in SJV cotton circles as his “lygus forecast.” The title this year:

Lygus Management in’08 - Preparing for Problems.

Click here to download the full report (PDF).

Topics include:

• Will the foothills play a role in Lygus pressure?

• Where will Lygus be a problem?

• Why is the cropping mix in an area so important?

• Can some of these source crops be managed?

• Why is safflower such a problem and what guidelines are available for action?

• How can alfalfa hay be managed to help manage Lygus

• Managing Lygus in cotton

CROP REPORTS

Bill Weir, PCA, Merced

“Some cotton is now at 4 leaves, a little at 5, and I don’t think anything is quite squaring yet. With this really hot weather, several growers who already had sidedressed are trying to get water on right away, even though it’s early.

Some people are still sidedressing. At least one farmer I know started watering today (Thursday). With this hot weather, moisture will get drawn out in a hurry. No bug problems as far as I know.”

Jerry Salvador, Salvador’s Consulting Service, Tranquility

“Everybody is hurrying as fast as they can to set up and start running water. It’s suppose to get to 95 today (Thursday) and 101 by Saturday. In general, we’re behind 1.5 nodes. Some cotton doesn’t look good at all. It’s not moving and has poor root systems. Planting dates are very evident. If cotton looks bad, you can ask the grower when he planted it, and you can just about bet it’s in a specific time period when conditions weren’t right or really turned against it. A few guys gave up on problem stands and came back with corn.

“Everything else looks good. Almond growers have a great load, tomatoes look good. Grain does, too. We won’t start cleanup sprays in seed alfalfa for another 2 weeks, but lygus are already building in it, according to what another PCA told me today. He said numbers were coming up from just a couple of weeks ago.”

Steve Lenander, Technicare, Bakersfield

“The forecast is calling for temperatures in the 100 to 105 range over the next several days, so it’s getting up there pretty good. We did have a little drama this week. Worms popped up, and some applications have gone out. These are armyworms with some loopers in the mix. I’ve seen them in Fresno, Kern and Kings Counties this week. One grower has some Phytogen 725, which has the Widestrike trait, and it doesn’t have worms, so I guess it’s working.

“We’ve been able to piggyback some applications with Roundup. My growers have already sprayed some, and another grower said that the PCA who does his insect work indicated that they would probably spray some of that cotton this weekend or early next week. No mites to speak of. We can find them but nothing heavy. Right now, it looks like we might make it through first irrigation, then apply our miticides.

“Almonds look fantastic. This is a huge crop. I asked one grower who has been producing almonds for 25 years if he had ever seen a bloom of this intensity, and he said no. Some guys are propping up limbs and tying branches. One grower said today that he tied branches about a month ago, then went back and re-tied them again. He’s worried now that the whole tree will fall over. Mites are coming in almonds. We have a lot of foliage this year.”

ALSO AT AGFAX.COM

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Gerloff On Cotton: If anything, prices are higher than one might expect 5/17

Nunn Cotton Letter, 5/16, There won’t be any trade selling from cotton purchases until futures rally further.

DTN Closing Cotton

DOANE: Cotton Commentary

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