The call of the last week was easily “my cotton looks like #&*^!”. The main reason for cotton looking bad was the cold wet spell over Memorial Day weekend that seemed to last longer. That poor cotton growing weather then catalyzed pre-applied herbicide injury in some cases, seedling diseases in other cases and has likely made a bad thrips window even worse across most every field. Continue reading
Large rainfall events and cool weather in late May strained Tennessee’s cotton crop. In some areas, individuals are considering replanting cotton that failed to emerge or cotton that appears to be just sitting. In other areas, reports of damaged or desiccated cotyledons have been reported and healthy, large cotyledons are hard to find most anywhere. In this blog, I cover a few rules of thumb to consider when determining whether or not to keep the stand and give a few words of advice to those that are considering May 30-something cotton. Continue reading
The beginning of June is always a busy planting and spray window. It will be more so this spring with most of last week a wash to get much field work done. Of course, there will be a good deal of glyphosate and dicamba sprayed this week and likely some Liberty as well. With Liberty in such short supply every quart must count. This is just a quick reminder that the time of day that Liberty is applied has a large determination on the success or failure of that application.
From 2012 to 2017 we conducted a good many studies examining Liberty performance on Palmer amaranth as affected by the time of day the application was conducted. All the studies pointed to the same conclusion, that Liberty applied in the middle of the day provided better and more consistent control of Palmer amaranth than either early morning or evening applications (studies conducted in warm weather). As an example, one study (Figure 1.) from 2015 showed good control of 4” tall Palmer amaranth if the Liberty application was applied at noon compared to applications made at dawn or sunset.
In general, the best Liberty performance can be achieved when applications are made from 8:00AM to 6:00PM.
Other environmental factors also greatly effect Liberty’s weed control performance. It controls weeds best if applied on days where the high temperatures for the day are in the 80s or 90s. Also, it works best at higher humidity’s as well. In other words, a typical June or July day.
The Tennessee Farm Bureau along with the Tennessee Certified Crop Adviser Board of Directors sponsor an Award to a deserving Tennessee Certified Crop Adviser who has exemplified the merits of service and dedication to their customers.
The winner will receive a plaque and a $500 cash prize.
To nominate someone, please write a short bio of this person’s accomplishments and submit to Jaymie Seay, Executive Board Administrator for the Tennessee CCA Board of Directors. Her email is Jaymie.seay@protritionfeed.com You do not have to be a CCA to nominate someone. Please submit by August 30, 2022.
A committee from the Tennessee CCA Board will select the winner.
I’ve received several phone calls over the past few days with concerns about rice stink bug in wheat. Rice stink bugs have to be present in extremely high numbers to cause economic damage to wheat. There is no sweep net threshold for stink bugs in wheat and once the crop hits the hard dough stage injury potential is significantly reduced. Keep in mind that stink bugs are transient in wheat and can often be found in high numbers one week and disappear the next. Stink bugs will often congregate on the edges of field crops and wheat is no different. High numbers of stink bugs will often be found on borders and diminish the further you move into a field. Since we normally do not treat for stink bugs in wheat, large numbers can move into seedling corn in adjacent fields. Corn smaller than 24 inches is at risk for stink bug injury and seedling corn with 10% or more infested plants should be treated. Rice stink bugs are not a cause for concern in corn, brown stink bugs are the primary species that injury seedling stage corn.
The UT Cotton Scout School is scheduled for the last Friday of the month, May 27th, 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.
Weather permitting, this week will be the start of the early POST applications in cotton. These applications are often critical to not only curtail weed competition but to combat thrips injury as well. The biggest concern with these applications is injury to the young cotton plants. Traditionally, the main pesticides applied are a mixture of glyphosate plus either Dual, Outlook or Warrant plus Intrepid Edge or acephate. Those herbicides which contain a good surfactant in glyphosate with the oil formulations of the chloracetamide herbicides will always burn young cotton leaves. The typical cotton injury from those mixtures will range from 10 to 20% (Picture 1). Continue reading
Strong thunderstorms brought heavy rainfall and isolated hail to some areas of the MidSouth last weekend (5/13-5/15). Reports of hail damage have not been widespread and many welcomed a rather helpful rainfall event. Still, those who caught hail are assessing their damaged stand and those who caught the heaviest rainfalls are trying to determine if a replant is warranted. In this blog, I summarize some recent research conducted by the MidSouth Cotton Specialists’ Working Group on hail damage and planting date/populations and discuss the applicability of those findings to our current situation. Continue reading