Cotton: Cotton Leaf Roll Dwarf Virus (CLRDV) is becoming more popular over the past two weeks. I posted some pictures below of what the symptoms look like from cotton I’ve found. We are still in the early stages of getting a handle on this disease. Aphids are known to transmit CLRDV but there is no way to have a 100% control of aphids. CLRDV affects the cotton differently at different stages of growth and yield impact has been very inconsistent. We’re working on it. If you find suspect plants please let me know.

Peanuts: Whitemold is still a concern even though I haven’t seen much around. Burrower bug management is something that comes up around this time of year. Deep tillage is one of the best practices but its a little late for that. Granular chlorpyrifos (GC) are the other option. Just remember that GC will flare caterpillar and spider mites, Liquid formulations of chlorpyifos is not labeled for post emergence in peanut fields, and GC requires rainfall or irrigation after application.

Tropical Storm Isaias: The current forecast does not bring it up to hurricane strength but predicts it will stay a tropical storm. The latest forecast is farther to the east than earlier forecasts today and shows it moving up the coast starting in southeast Florida on Saturday night and passing North Carolina sometime Monday night. The cone shows it could come on shore or it could stay offshore and hug the coast. Still too early to say. I continue to think that we will see mostly some heavy rain and some gusty winds from the storm. The forecasts will continue to change as the storm moves over the islands in the next day or two.