Below are a few reminders as much of the crop will begin squaring in the next week. It’s too soon to know what kind of plant bug year we will have, but there are a couple of truism that generally hold. When we have a wet spring, and particularly a cool spring, infestations in cotton often start a little later than normal. The weedy hosts of tarnished plant bug will stay attractive longer, holding the bugs longer before they migrate into cotton. However, we often since higher than normal populations during mid and late season under the same circumstance. Second, Continue reading →

It’s been a challenge getting our crops in the ground, and our planting dates are really stretched out. It is especially important that our late planted cotton gets off to a good start to make up for a little lost time. Unfortunately, the ‘Thrips Infestation Predictor for Cotton’ (https://climate.ncsu.edu/cottonTIP) appears to be dead on in predicting our heaviest thrips pressure will occur in early June, just as our later planted cotton is most susceptible. I’d suggest making an insecticide application to Continue reading →