Cotton Insect Update: July 10, 2015
Tarnished plant bug populations have continued to be high over the last couple weeks in the Delta. A lot of the cotton is at or near the bloom stage when it is most attractive to plant bugs.
Tarnished plant bug populations have continued to be high over the last couple weeks in the Delta. A lot of the cotton is at or near the bloom stage when it is most attractive to plant bugs.
An agronomic crops field day will be held at Cliff Heaton farms, just east of the intersection of Highway 61 and Highway 6. The field day will be held in the cotton field on the south side of the road. MSU Extension Specialists will be present to discuss topics in corn, cotton, grain sorghum, peanut, rice and soybean.
The tarnished plant bug is the most important insect pest of cotton in the Mississippi Delta. Management with insecticides has become difficult in recent years and more tools are needed to economically manage this pest. Although it is early March and we are getting pair of unusual winter storms in the Delta, it is not too early to start making a plan for managing tarnished plant bugs in cotton. We have done a lot of research over the last several years with the goal of making tarnished plant bug management more economical for producers without sacrificing yield. See the attached document for more details on the best management practices listed below.
Find attached the agenda for the 42nd Annual Delta Ag Expo to be held in Cleveland, MS on Wednesday, January 21 and Thursday, January 22, 2015. We hope to see you in attendance at the Bolivar County Ag Expo Center.
Boll rot appeared to be a common occurrence in numerous cotton fields at the end of the 2014 season. However, not all boll rot can be attributed to bacterial blight, especially in situations where the disease was not observed prior to harvest. Secondary fungal infection can ultimately obscure the observable boll symptoms associated with bacterial blight. Keep this in mind when scouting fields at the end of the season as bacterial blight boll lesions can oftentimes be obscured by secondary fungal invaders.
We had a few calls over the last week about poor control of cotton aphid with Transform. In all of those cases, the field was actually sprayed for plant bugs with a 1.5 oz rate of Transform. That rate should be very effective on cotton aphid based on previous experience. As a result, we collected aphids from three different fields this week to test their susceptibility to Transform.
The North Mississippi Research and Extension Center’s Agronomic Row Crops Field Day on Thursday, August 7 will present the latest research to the area’s row-crop farmers and consultants. The field day will be from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Lee County Agri-Center Magnolia Conference Center on Highway 145 South in Verona.
Additional bacterial blight has been observed in the MS cotton production system. At present, 12 counties have been reported to contain infected cotton.
Once again, bacterial blight has been observed in the MS cotton crop. At present, several fields in the south and north Delta as well as a single field in east MS have been observed to contain bacterial blight infected cotton leaves. To date (July 8, 2014), a single cotton variety has been reported to be infected in all fields.
This past Monday (June 30), USDA released their annual Acreage report. The report is preceded by the March Prospective Plantings report with the difference being a more solid, confirmed acreage number in the acreage report compared to an expected, planned
Tarnished plant bug numbers have actually started off at low to moderate levels this year in the Delta region but just in the last few days numbers seem to be picking up pretty good in a few locations and square
A corn, cotton, peanut, and soybean field day is scheduled for June 17th at the Delta Research and Extension Center in Stoneville, MS. The general theme of the field day will include pertinent information for mid-season row crop issues.
Although very little, if any, cotton has been planted in the Delta, it is not too early to start thinking about managing tarnished plant bugs.
The results from the Second Annual Future of Ag Graduate Student Competition are included in this post.
Soybeans The 2013/14 crop saw a few changes from last month’s report should be considered slightly bearish even as the market moved higher. Planted acres were revised up 0.6 million acres from last month to reflect the June Acreage report. Harvested acres