Cotton continues to make good progress during this moderate weather and following some muchneeded rain. Most cotton fields have bloomed out the top/bolled to the top. Most fields have shed all young fruit which will not contribute at harvest and are now filling bolls. Scouting the last few days and gauging the cotton plant I do not think water will need to be turned back on with few exceptions in areas which did not receive enough to finish out. I would be hard pressed to recommend irrigating after September 15th. I hate to use calendar dates, however, here at the end we only have so many days, day length, sunshine, and heat units left to accumulate. So, all that equates to forcing the plant to mature out sooner than too late. In fact, many acres which received +1.5” could very well take back off growing vegetatively. Every day from here out we should be seeing more cracked and open bolls. We will discuss harvest aid timing here next week. Here again are links to a couple of videos on the “how, what and when” on harvest aids I made a few years ago: https:// www. youtube. com/ watch?v=Fb0f7ZzPoI4 https:// www. youtube. com/ watch?v=eMZPaHYzybw I am not finding much of any insect pest activity of importance. I can still find a few solitary cotton aphids, not in colonies. I am not seeing stink bugs. If Lygus are present, they are most likely damaging younger fruit which will not contribute to yield and are not worth protecting.
Grain sorghum that is still flowering to soft dough needs to be watched carefully for sorghum aphids, headworms, Lygus, stink-bugs, and midge. Insect pests are as variable as the sorghum is in growth stage. Call if you need help. ***** Defoliation is starting or getting ready to start on early planted cotton in areas across the Southeast, Mid-South, and Texas. For the most part, however, much of the crop is still weeks away from being ready to defoliate and pick. Some areas of southwest Georgia are still battling plant bugs and whiteflies, with stink bugs still showing up in parts of central Texas. Right now, the crop is what the crop will be. Growers are just looking for Mother Nature to provide some good harvest weather.
Here’s what our contributing consultants had to report for early September.
Kerry Siders is Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Agent-IPM for Hockley, Cochran, and Lamb Counties.
The South Plains of Texas cotton crop growing season is coming to an end. Fortunately, good rain was received during the Labor Day weekend which made turning water off possible.
West Plains IPM Update is a publication of the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service IPM Program in Hockley, Cochran, and Lamb Counties.
I think this rain provides the answer to our annual question of “When do we turn the water off and leave it off?.” Most areas received an average of 1.5” of rain. Currently, cotton is using an average of 0.12” per day. So, 1.5” of rain plus what irrigation water was present in the soil should give us 12-15 days of good moisture.
This moisture should get us down the road to near September 17-20. Plus, odds of additional rain are good this time of year. By that time, the youngest harvestable bolls should be well over 30 days old and can take moderate stress from heat as long as they can recover overnight. I think we can leave most water off with few exceptions. In fact, coming off this recent heat stress in August, the cotton plant could respond to this weather by taking off growing vegetatively and causing real problems with maturing out the crop that we have set.