The UT Cotton Scout School is scheduled for the last Friday of the month, May 26th, at the West Tennessee Research and Education Center (605 Airways Blvd, Jackson). There is no fee, and preregistration is not required. Registration begins at 8:00 AM with the program starting at 8:30. Content will include classroom and hands-on training with an optional go-to-the-field session after lunch. Topics covered will include cotton development and identification and symptoms of insect pests, plant diseases, and weeds.
Category Archives: Cotton
Mitigating Potential Herbicide Mixing Issues
This time of year as we move to burndown behind the planter we typically get some reports of mixing issues when either glyphosate or Gramoxone is added to the tank with residual herbicides like atrazine, metribuzin, Cotoran, Caparol, fomesafen or a pyroxasulfone containing product. What happens is the white herbicides will often clabber up and stop up screens and strainers in the sprayer. Continue reading
Another April cold snap, too close for comfort
Yet another cold snap moved through the area this past weekend and several had questions concerning the possibility of this event to damage our wheat crop. I’ve pasted a copy of the NOAA observed low temperatures throughout most of Tennessee’s wheat producing areas, and as you can see from the image temperatures fell very close to dangerous levels. Additionally, frost was reported in several areas. Continue reading
Application Time of Day Affects Gramoxone Performance on Some Weeds
With the planting season started, many people are thinking about using Gramoxone (paraquat) as a burndown for many weeds present at planting. Gramoxone is a very good broad-spectrum herbicide that has been the go to for burndown of many winter and summer annual broadleaf weeds. With Palmer amaranth starting to emerge, Gramoxone is the only sure thing that will control it. However, it is less consistent controlling some weeds like horseweed (marestail). Continue reading
Early Burndown Results

We have had the opportunity to observe field and demo burndowns around West Tennessee. In general, going back “old school” and applying glyphosate alone provided very effective burndown. This includes applications made back in mid-March when night time temperatures were below freezing (Picture 1). Continue reading
Importance of Using Effective Residual Herbicides in Soybean and Cotton

Increase in input costs and lower relative commodity prices compared to last year may tempt some to forgo using a PRE this spring. Since glyphosate and dicamba have actually gone down in price, it may be tempting to try this combination near planting, then hope that dicamba will provide enough residual weed control to hold until those herbicides can be applied again early POST. Continue reading
2022 USDA NASS Estimated County Average Yields for Corn, Soybean, and Wheat in Tennessee
S. Aaron Smith, Associate Professor and Extension Crop Marketing Specialist
Beck Bowling, Extension Specialist
Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics
University of Tennessee
Below is a summary of USDA NASS Estimated County Yields for Tennessee. Data is displayed for all available counties as of March 28, 2023. Additional data can be found at:
https://quickstats.nass.usda.gov/
To view this article in PDF form with all attached figures, please click the image above. Continue reading
Cover Crop Burndown Time

It is cover crop burndown time. There is no one size fits all recommendation for cover crop control. It really depends on the environment and the cover crop species in the field. With respect to environment, cover crop burndown can be tricky during periods of long stretches of saturated soil conditions. This is particularly true with systemic herbicides where translocation of those herbicides to growing points can become limited. Continue reading