Peanuts: Nothing too crazy on the maturity boards this week, but I have had a lot of questions about dryland peanuts. There is finally rain in the forecast with a strong chance of rain on Friday and Saturday (9/26-9/27). Here are a few things I’ve discussed with some of you about dryland peanuts, as well as some tips Dr. Monfort and I have discussed. Just remember, this is not going to be an easy recommendation either way.
- If they are ready, dig them.
- If the crop is green (lively) all day or wilted in the heat of the day but rebounds during the night and morning, I would leave them if they need more time to fill out the pods. If you are seeing more than 5-10% of the hull coming loose, I would recommend digging them.
- If the crop is permanently wilted, I would dig them before you lose the crop that is on the plant.
- All of the above suggestions are great if you can get a digger in the ground, but are not worth much if you cannot. At this point, you are waiting for the rain to come.
- When the rain does come, I would go after the fields with the best crop first.
- Make sure that you can dig them and be back in the fields within 3 days for harvest. The vines will disintegrate quickly, which may cause higher header losses.
- I would set the combine to blow out as much of the foreign material and bad pods as possible.
- For crops younger than 120 days, I am unsure what we have produced currently or what could be produced if the weekly rains return. All we can do is look at them and try to determine if there is a crop worth saving now or just let them go until a frost.
- It may be best to talk with your insurance agent.
Cotton: A decent bit of cotton was sprayed this week. We do not need to cut corners on our Thidiazuron products. If we catch a rain this week, this cotton is going to regrow like crazy, so we need to have a good dose of thidiazuron out there to suppress that regrowth. Another consideration with the rain coming is rain-free periods. Keep in mind that Thidiazuron has a 24-hour rain-free period; cut that to 12 hours if you mix with Folex/Def, which most people do. 12 hours is still a long time, though. Here is what we’re looking at with defoliants.
- 4 oz Thidiazuron (more if you can stand it, but this is likely the most expensive thing going in the tank)
- 8 to 10 oz Folex/Def
- 32 to 42 oz Ethephon
- If you use ET or ETX remember to adjust your crop oil according to temperature.
- 0.5% v/v crop oil (high 90s and lows 70s) and 1% (high 80s and lows 60s)