Cotton: Only 10-20% of the acres are at legitimate risk to insect pests at this time. These are the later maturing fields, mostly those planted in the river bottoms after flood waters receded. These same areas are in the midst of a large bollworm flight, and Continue reading
FROM DARRIN DODDS, EXTENSION COTTON SPECIALIST, ON AUGUST 19TH, 2011
While it will likely be several weeks before widespread defoliation applications take place, beginning to plan for these applications now may lead to increased success later. Cotton defoliation has long been considered as much of an art as a science. Continue reading
Senescence: the highly ordered, genetically programmed processes that lead to plant death. It is generally accepted that there are three phases leading to natural plant death. 1) Initiation phase: shutdown of cell maintenance functions and increase in degradative enzymes. 2) Degeneration: disassembly of metabolic processes. 3) Homeostatic Imbalance: loss of internal controls, cell membrane integrity and ultimately, cell death. Continue reading
Do you know what this critter is? The lesser cornstalk borer is an uncommon pest of late planted soybean, corn and peanuts. I’ve had a couple of complaints about this pest on soybeans from the Mississippi River Bottoms, and I have also observed Continue reading
Spider mites are increasing or persisting in some fields. To be honest, the unpredictable nature of spider mites makes treatment decisions an educated guess. Late season infestations are less concerning than those starting earlier, but it is important to prevent premature defoliation until most harvestable bolls have matured. Below are some points for consideration. Continue reading
Soybean: As I feared, corn earworms are making their presence felt again in soybean. Again, the heavy action is mostly concentrated in the Mississippi River bottoms. Following last week’s high moth catches up and down the River, there have been numerous reports of many moths in fields. Again, use a treatment threshold of 9 larvae per 25 sweeps (36/100 sweeps). Good control has been reported from the Continue reading
The second half of the season has been very typical of West Tennessee. Plant bugs, stink bugs, bollworm and spider mite infestations have been highly variable. Some folks have sprayed a lot, others just once or twice. Now as we near the end, the common question is Continue reading
Week Ending August 11 – Although this is the last week we will run moth traps this year, bollworm (a.k.a corn earworm) moth catches continued to increase this past week, and this matches the increased action observed in soybean and cotton. Complete moth trapping results for bollworm (corn earworm), tobacco budworm, beet armyworm and southwestern corn borer are linked below. Continue reading