Many fields in West TN reached first flower well-before the 4th. I wouldn’t be surprised if over half of our acres will be blooming by the end of the week. With rain and warm temperatures in the forecast, expect very rapid plant growth in areas which have adequate moisture as we move into flowering. For those who have not applied an early shot of a plant growth regulator (PGR), you should consider doing so very soon. Several points should be considered when attempting to regulate growth in 2016. Continue reading
Category Archives: Insects
Shifting Gears for Plant Bugs
We need to make some adjustment in managing plant bugs as we near bloom. Much of the cotton is at or beyond the third week of squaring, and thus, the suggested sweep net threshold can be relaxed to 15 bugs/100 sweeps. However, you should be more aggressive in situations where overall square retention is at or below 80%. Continue reading
Sugarcane Aphid Update
Grain sorghum acres are way down this year, but those who are growing sorghum should start scouting for sugarcane aphids now. Based on my counterparts reports in more southern states, I suspect there are already low numbers of aphids in some fields. This pest thrives in hot weather, so populations can spread and build quickly. Serious infestations that go untreated can cause catastrophic yield loss. Continue reading
Critter Calls
Threecornered alfalfa hoppers, snails, Japanese beetles, and plant bugs … should you be worried? I’ve had a variety of calls this week, but the most frequent call has been about Continue reading
Threecornered Alfalfa Hopper on Soybean.

Recent research in the Mid-South has convinced me that threecornered alfalfa hopper (TCAH) is almost exclusively a pest of only small soybeans. We’ve had a relatively mild winter. Tennessee is on the northern edge of threecornered alfalfa hopper home range, and warm winters generally means higher populations. That appears to be the case in 2016. Late planted soybean such as Continue reading
Plan A for Plant Bugs
Our earliest cotton is beginning to square, and I think a few reminders are in order. Continue reading
Approval of Section 18 For Transform Insecticide in Cotton
There was some good news today as the EPA approved the Section 18 requests allowing the emergency use of Transform in cotton for the control of tarnished plant bugs. Continue reading
Cotton Insect Update (mostly thrips)
Other than a few calls about slugs, thrips are the primary pest of concern. Although there seems to be a lot of excitement out there, I’m not seeing anything too out of the ordinary. Thrips populations seemed to have peaked, and Continue reading