CROP AND PEST UPDATE

Kerry Siders Crop Report June 2, 2023 Kerry Siders, is the Texas A&M University Extension Agent-IPM for Cochran, Hockley and Lamb Counties. He wrote this report for Cotton Grower’s Crop Scan report.

As I write this, it is raining. Now don’t for a minute think that I am saying that our drought is over, but only that we have been heading in the right direction the last few weeks. In May here at my office in Levelland, we received 3.28” of precipitation. Really nothing to brag about for spring rains. However, many parts of this and surrounding counties have had upwards of 7” during May.

This weather during planting has caused some delays and poor stands. Looking at some of my variety trials on the last day of May, I would say that 50% of those will need to be replanted. The soil temperature has been good, but our nighttime temperatures have continued to hover in the mid to upper 50’s — too cool.

Cotton here on the Southern High Plains of Texas is mostly planted. There are dryland acres which still need to be planted as soon as it dries enough to get back in the field. This weather has thrown us a curve ball in the completion of planting, but I think producers will stick with cotton for as long as they can and then may divert acres to alternative crops such as grain sorghum or corn.

Cotton stand evaluations are our priority as we visit fields. Most of our cotton acres are on 40” rows, so we generally count the number of plants in 13’ of row (1/1000th of an acre). We would consider 26 plants (2 plants per foot) in that 13’ space to be 26,000 plants per acre. This would be a minimum good stand on irrigated cotton. Ideally, your stand would have closer to 40,000 plants per acre or closer to 3 plants per foot. Dryland acres can dip down into the 19,000 range or 1.5 plants per row foot.

Weed pressure has really increased with these rains. As soon as planting is over and stands are established or maybe even sooner, producers need to turn their attention to weed management. Post- emerge herbicides like Roundup, Liberty, XtendiMax, or Enlist will need to be used along with the addition of a residual herbicide.

Another issue that producers will need to revisit due to the recent rains is their fertilizer program, matched up with a new realistic yield goal. We often do this recalculation too late in June or July and are behind the growth curve to do much good and can cause delay in cotton plant maturity. Here very soon will be the time to react to these rains.

Thrips have been light up to this point. As this cotton has been slow to grow-off and many acres are just now emerging, thrips could rapidly develop and be devastating. Fields must be scouted! A good field scout can pay for itself.