WEST PLAINS IPM UPDATE
Area crops seem to be making some progress now, at least those acres remaining. The wind has laid somewhat. The wind has been our biggest pest you might say. In cotton, most fields are squaring. Where I have seen square loss, it has been due mostly to wind, hot dry wind.
Cotton growth and development update based on irrigated IPM Scouting Program fields looks like this:
• 4.8” height (range 2.5”- 11.0”)
• 8.2 total nodes (range 5.0 – 14.0)
• 0.6” per internode length (range 0.5”- 0.8”)
• 1st fruiting branch at node 7 (range 5.8 – 8.3)
• 2 first position squares at positions 7 and 8 (range 0 – 1 boll w/ 8 NAWF)
• 97% square retention (range 88%-100%)
The irrigated cotton is slightly behind (7-10 days) what my notes from years past indicate at this same time. As with all averages it is made up of extremes. See the ranges beside values above. One indicator of this extreme is the fact that we have had blooming cotton in Hockley County since June 27th. Obviously, this was like April 29th planted cotton. Hopefully your fields are at or ahead of this average. We normally go into bloom with 7-9 nodes above white flower. I will use 8 for this year. There are 2 squares on average currently; will need to develop 6-7 more; one every 3 days; so that is 20 days from now. This “average” field should see first bloom on or around July 21st. Not bad. That allows for a good 24 days of bloom period. A few cotton producers will be ahead of this timeline and others may not see 1st bloom until late July even 1st of August. This late first bloom really narrows the window which allows cotton to have a high probability of developing a bloom into a mature harvestable boll. If the weather trend would change soon (July 15-20) for moderate temperatures (high 95, low 65 degrees F), wind speeds less than 10 mph, and general soaking rains then prospects improve markedly.
I have detected a very low number of fleahoppers in cotton and a cotton bollworm egg lay this past week. Nothing at treatable levels, but only a mention to heighten your awareness of potential issues which require someone scouting fields.
Here is an excellent publication from Dr. Suhas Vyahare, Extension Cotton Entomologist, Lubbock: http://lubbock.tamu.edu/files/ 2017/06/Cotton-fleahopper_ENTO073.pdf Also, the following link is of a
Also, the following link is of a video I made a couple years ago which may be of help: https:// www.youtube.com/ watch?v=epVctkRkTHs West Plains IPM Update is a
West Plains IPM Update is a publication of the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service IPM Program in Hockley, Cochran, and Lamb Counties.
Editor: Kerry Siders, Extension Agent-IPM
Contact information: 1212 Houston St., Suite 2 Levelland, TX 79336 (806) 894-3150 (office), 638-5635 (mobile), or 897-3104 (Fax) ksiders@tamu.edu (E-mail)