We have been in a lot of cotton field intensively these past few weeks. There is obviously a wide planting date range and different age groups in the same field due to replanting. The month of May was very hot and dry and caused some issues with cotton stands with the extreme temperatures. With these different stages of cotton within the same field, managing can be tough, especially for growth regulators (pix).
We have been making a lot of recommendations on pix requirements by doing internode length measurements and taking into consideration, the factors of irrigated or not, plant variety, how soon pix applications were initiated, etc. Managing two different stages of growth in the same field with pix can be tough. It causes growers to make separate trips because they pix an area in the field that needs it, then they have areas where the cotton was replanted and younger that does not need it. If you have any questions on pix, and decisions related to this, please give us a call.
So far we have not seen any fields with disease, such as target spot. It is important to scout for that to make timely decisions and if there are any questions on products to use or identifying the disease give us a call.
For insects, we have not seen plant bug pressure bad now. Earlier in the season, there was some pressure. Older fields were checked and missing square positions could be seen in the plant canopy. Plant bugs could be found in some cases at a higher level, but then sometimes they could not be found to match the square retention.
For those with B2XF cotton varieties (two-gene), be aware and scout for corn earworm. We are seeing some fields with corn earworm escapes, but have not found any at threshold yet.
Whiteflies are present in some cotton fields as mentioned in an older post, and we are monitoring closely. They definitely can be seen in fields around produce fields. We are starting to see where the nymphs are present in some areas. We believe whiteflies will be a factor this year, and if you have them in cotton, we recommend not using Bidrin for stink bugs in fields where whiteflies are present. Please give us a call if you need any fields checked or have questions.
A publication on scouting for whiteflies was posted last week, but here it is again if needed.