Soybean cultivar selection in the Mid-southern U.S. has shifted toward early maturing, indeterminate maturity group (MG) 4 varieties. This shift has increased the adoption of harvest aid application in these environments. Leaf retention and green stems and pods in earlier maturing, indeterminate varieties after physiological maturity can delay harvest. Application of harvest aids also assists in late-season weed control and may allow producers to achieve earlier crop delivery at an above-base premium. Continue reading →

The 2023 Cotton Tour will be held Sept. 13, 2023 at the West Tennessee Research and Education Center (605 Airways Blvd, Jackson, TN 38305).  Pesticide recertification and CCA points will be available.  Lunch will be provided.  We will also be touching on a few other commodities (soybeans, corn).  An agenda will be posted to the blog in the coming weeks. Look forward to seeing you there!

Temperatures this week have really pushed our crop; node above white flower counts are crashing and bolls are hardening in our earliest crop well-up past the middle of the plant.  Many of those who have the option of irrigating their cotton have called this week to discuss if the rewards for irrigating outweigh the risks.  In this blog, I try to outline those discussions to help those in a similar situation. Continue reading →

August has turned wet, and while I generally like rain through July and August, we could now tolerate a few dry, clear days.  Much of our canopy has remained wet over the past week, and as you might expect, the leaf spot complex has appeared in some of our earliest planted cotton. Subsequently, foliar fungicide use in cotton has been the topic of conversation for August. Fortunately, most of our research on fungicide use in cotton is pretty straight-forward.  In this blog, I share a few thoughts concerning foliar fungicide use in cotton and link to a few of Dr. Heather Kelly’s deliverables from the past few years. Continue reading →