Over the past week a few soybean fields in the Delta have been observed with the characteristic symptoms and signs of southern blight. Typically, southern blight is a disease of rare occurrence; however, the prevailing environmental conditions seem to be causing added stress and increasing the incidence of this particular disease.
Over last week or so, calls have become to trickle in on sick rice after the flood has been established. In most of these cases, the rice does not want to grow with the fertilizer and a flood on it. After inspecting these fields, signs of herbicide damage are evident on the foliage. When most of the calls come in, the producers believe that it is either a fertility, insect or disease issue. However, those issues generally occur in patches or spots where some areas are worse than others. Herbicide drift usually occurs across the whole field with one side being worse than the other. Also, rice that is on the levee can give you a general direction in where it came from.
Pheromone trap counts for bollworm were steady to lower this week in most areas. Tobacco budworm counts were steady to higher. Compared to last year at this time, counts are similar or lower for both pests.
From time to time we send crews out to survey insect pest populations in ditchbanks adjacent to agricultural fields. This gives us an idea of what to expect later in the season based on what and how many pests we
Over the last couple of weeks I have had numerous calls about caterpillar pest in young soybeans. Most of these have been concerning beans that are still in the vegetative stages (V2-V5). The species that are being found are bollworm, yellowstriped armyworm, green
The corn crop appears to be much earlier this year than it has over the recent past. I’ve driven by numerous fields from south Washington County to north Bolivar County where almost 100% of the field has reached the tasseling
The insect scout schools for 2012 have been set. At each scout school we will go over biology, thresholds, and scouting techniques for each of the major pests of cotton, soybean, and corn. This is a great refresher for the
In most years it is not uncommon to overspray 20-30% of the cotton acres for thrips in MS. Last year (2011) was an anomaly in that we treated around 70% of the cotton acres for thrips due to extremely high pressure. It appears that this year is shaping up the same way. This week we have had numerous calls on young cotton with very high numbers of thrips. There have also been reports of Western flower thrips on cotton.
Pheromone traps are up and running for 2012. I will be posting county average trap counts here weekly from the Delta, the Northeastern Hills and the Central MS region for bollworm, tobacco budworm and beet armyworm. Most counties have 2 traps
USDA released their monthly World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report (WASDE) early this morning (May 10). The report is the first to highlight the new -2012- crop. The report revealed more corn and cotton available than analysts expected, while
Dry early season conditions have prompted much conversation about the proper time to initiate irrigation for corn. This scenario usually generates a lot more anxiety than necessary because early season wilting is certainly not something we are very accustomed to.
There have been a lot of questions recently about thrips control in peanuts. In general, thrips will not hurt peanut yields except in EXTREME situations. Peanut seedlings are relatively vigorous compared to most of the crops grown in Mississippi. Foliar insecticide applications, though rarely needed, should be based on plant injury rather than thrips numbers.
A good rule of thumb is that the crop should be weed-free for the first four to six weeks following emergence to avoid yield loss.
Environment is the key component in the expression of every plant disease. Especially when considering the occurrence of seedling diseases we typically have a situation in place where inoculum is present in the soil, more than likely in high quantities,
Mississippi State University has named Dr. Jason Krutz as Extension/Research Irrigation Specialist at the Delta Research and Extension Center
Yesterday (4/30), I had a call from a consultant who found about 20% infestation of 3-4 day old SWCB in Non-Bt, V6 stage corn in the Minter City area. There were places in the field that averaged 40-50% infestation, but overall was about 20%.
Over the last several weeks corn has either passed or approached the V2-V5 stage of corn growth. During this time we have received numerous calls about corn having a yellow, streaky appearance. Many of the fields we received calls on
Holcus leaf spot, a leaf spot of corn caused by a bacterium, has been confirmed across a wide geographic area in the Mississippi Delta over the past two weeks. The disease is typically characterized by numerous cream to white lesions on the corn leaf that can oftentimes be confused with herbicide (paraquat) drift.
Rice Acreage: On March 30th USDA estimated that Mississippi will plant 135,000 acres of rice. That is down 16% from 2011 and the lowest acreage since the mid 1970’s. Talking with producers and seed retailers, I would estimate that Mississippi acres will be closer 100,000 acres. There are a lot of farmers across the delta that will not be planting any rice and it has been over 40 years since they have done that. Stagnant rice prices and high urea prices have not encouraged any additional plantings. The recent upswing in urea prices will not have a significant impact on rice acres.
The 2012 Mississippi Agricultural Industry Council and Mississippi Seedsmen’s Association convention will be held again at beautiful Perdido Beach Resort in Orange Beach, Alabama, on July 24-July 28, 2012. This will be our 19th year at Perdido Beach Resort.
In addition to the wheat rusts we’ve been observing over the past few months throughout our wheat production area, numerous additional foliar disease have been observed. The abnormally warm temperature and heavy dews we’ve experienced over the past several weeks have allowed several other wheat diseases to occur.
Sentinel plots will continue to be used to monitor for yield-limiting diseases throughout MS during the 2012 season. Even though in the past sentinel plots have more typically been used to monitor for the presence of soybean rust, the plots will be used to monitor for all economically important soybean diseases.
Heavy leaf and stripe rust sporulation continues to be a concern throughout much of the wheat production area in MS.
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