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Thrips injury on southern peas

These are Southern peas and butter beans that have been planted and coming up now. We’re shooting for seed being about 3 inches apart in the drill trying to get 4 plants per foot. We are growing a variety that is small, light-green color and about 70 days to maturity.

Thrips

A little scary to see how much damage from thrips we are seeing. You can see the cupping in the seedling leaves. I haven’t checked to see what species, but in the truck, I flicked them off on a piece of white paper and see the light colored thrips. This is either Western Flower Thrips or immatures. This is a critical time to control and watch thrips in our beans until we get a good few leaves. If we keep warm weather, the plants will be better able to grow through the pressure. If we hit another cool spell, this could hurt. We gotta check if we use foliar insecticide. Products labeled on Southern Pea may not be labeled on Lima Bean.

Aphids in young southern peas – Photo by John Offenberg

Aphids

John and Dylan also found some aphids in the same field a day later. The aphids were also seen down in the terminals. UGA Extension Vegetable Entomologist Dr. Stormy Sparks says if we see a few aphids here and there, it is nothing to worry about. If they start building in large numbers and have plant damage, we will then have to treat. Same as thrips, if we can keep some good growing weather, the plants will grow through it.

 

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