Authors: Avat Shekoofa and Tyson Raper
Reports of ‘sudden wilt’, ‘parawilt’, or ‘wet wilt’ began Wednesday afternoon and continued through Thursday. This article briefly explains the phenomena and discusses management during recovery.
The 3-4 weeks after first bloom, and typically the last two weeks of July and the first two weeks of August, is a critical window to scout and manage insect pests. This is when we are setting the bolls that will contribute most to yield, and it’s also a time insects are most attracted to the crop (with plenty of susceptible fruiting structures to feed on). Most of the comments in this article will focus on plant bug and stink bug management. However, bollworm management will become a bigger factor by the end of the month. I’ll hit on that topic Continue reading
The call of the spring and now well into the summer is on failed attempts to control junglerice and goosegrass in Xtend crops. The most recent rash of calls have been from very frustrated folks who have not controlled one of those grass species even after three applications of glyphosate and/or clethodim. Most of these failed applications are coming from tank mixing Engenia or XtendiMax in the tank with either glyphosate, clethodim, or both. Continue reading
Cotton is blooming in Tennessee and I’ve gotten some calls asking about fungicides – there are options but none is warranted at this time, but as the rain, heat, and humidity continue we may start to see target spot develop which could justify a fungicide application.
There have been a good number of calls reporting poor prickly sida (teaweed) control with Engenia or XtendiMax tankmixed with Roundup PM. I have seen prickly sida escape dicamba tankmixed with glyphosate in some research here at the station as well. This appears to have been a building problem as I recall similar, though fewer, calls last year. The lack of prickly sida control in the Xtend system has been building a seed bank that is apparently showing up in many fields this year. Continue reading
After more questions this past week on follow-up applications to remove Palmer amaranth, junglerice and goosegrass in Xtend crops it occurred to me we need a new thought process on weed management with this technology. Roundup Ready soybeans came out in 1996 and cotton in 1998. If we look back at the first three years with that technology, glyphosate was controlling every weed no matter the weed height. That Roundup Ready performance in the early years is still the expectation with Xtend technology. It has become abundantly clear, in year three, that Engenia or XtendiMax mixed with glyphosate is not providing even close to the level of weed control that glyphosate alone did back in it’s hay day. Continue reading
In light of recent publicity concerning the herbicide glyphosate, University of Tennessee Extension has released a Glyphosate Fact Sheet to address questions and concerns pertaining to the herbicide. Drs. Jim Brosnan and Larry Steckel discuss in this podcast. Continue reading
Plant bugs … I’d classify the overall plant bug pressure in cotton as average, although we are seeing a few more clouded plant bugs than in recent years. Until bolls are present, count tarnished and clouded plant bugs the same. Once bolls are present, I suggest counting clouded plant bugs as equivalent to 1.5 tarnished plant bugs when making a treatment decision, primarily because clouded plant bugs are more inclined to feed on bolls. As cotton begins blooming, Continue reading