AgFax Cotton - Louisiana
By AgFax.com, AgFax Media, LLC
OVERVIEW
Residual herbicides have browned up some cotton more than might be expected, two of our contacts noted this week. The effect has occurred with several products and/or adjuvants. No theories about why plants seem more sensitive this year.
Plant bug applications are increasing on a wide basis. No runaway situations are being reported. Some aphids are being sprayed in Louisiana, mostly in conjunction with plant bug treatments. Spider mite treatments continue.
Rain continues to be spotty and highly variable through much of the region.
Plant growth regulator applications were a big topic this week as growers try to gain early control of newer and more aggressively growing varieties.
Pigweed remains a challenge in parts of the Midsouth. Early on, rain didn't come quickly enough to activate herbicides in some areas. Later, too much rain kept growers from making timely applications.
Planting may have finally wrapped up, but who knows for sure? Higher cotton prices and a lower bean market shifted some late acres to cotton. A few late acres of cotton went in behind wheat in Tennessee.
LOUISIANA CROP REPORTS
Sebe Brown, Northeast Louisiana Region Extension Entomologist:
"Parts of Louisiana remain dry (as of 6/12) and we need rain on a wide basis. With these conditions, aphids are becoming more apparent and I've had a number of calls about aphids picking up, as well as plant bugs.
"With our earlier planted corn, we've moved to brown silk and those fields are progressing to maturity. So, plant bugs in that corn are heading into cotton. Plus, it's so dry that wild hosts may have senesced and now we're seeing an influx of plant bugs from that source. Treatments are going out on a big portion of our squaring cotton.
"I expect to find blooms on our oldest cotton in central Louisiana in the next week. A lot of guys are starting their plant growth regulator sprays, especially in varieties that grow aggressively. We've got to stay on top of PGR applications with several of these varieties. It sounds a bit odd for an entomologist to stress the need for PGRs but gaining control of growth will influence how well you keep insects in check later.
"Plant bugs like rank cotton. With rank cotton, it's also harder to reach plant bugs with applications, so they keep working over the fruit. When plants lose fruit, they grow that much more, so it's even harder to reach insects. Plus, rank cotton increases the risk of diseases like target spot and complicates defoliation.
"So, getting height under control early goes a long way towards controlling insects later. People are planting certain of these aggressive varieties for the first time and they've got to be proactive with growth management."
Hank Jones, C&J Ag Consulting, Pioneer, Louisiana:
"It's dry. We've only had scattered showers here and there. Cotton is shaping up. Most all of the cotton I check has pinhead squares and some of the oldest now (6/11) has 4 to 5 squares. We're starting Pix applications.
"Plant bug pressure has been really low where I'm scouting. In places where we're finding a few, we are including an insecticide as we go across the field just to take the pressure off.
"I'm excited about the strong way roots have developed. The weather was dry enough to encourage that. It's been 2 or 3 years since we've had the luxury of working with deep roots. The plants pushed out of the thrips period and they're putting on big leaves. As the old timers used to say, plants are 'shanked up' nicely.
"Probably our biggest hurdle is that we didn't get good herbicide activity in cotton and soybeans, so we're battling a few more pigweeds than in recent years. We're finding that dicamba probably isn't the magic answer that everyone thought it would be. Some first-time users assumed it would put pigweed back in the ground, but a few days later they realized they would have to come back with something else. By the time they sprayed, pigweeds were too big. Some hoeing seems likely.
"Anyone who can water corn and soybeans is doing so. Disease pressure has been very, very light – the lowest in 4 or 5 years. That's probably the result of this dry, hot weather. But even in hybrids that are susceptible to various diseases, nothing is showing up. With this heat, it's like someone hit the fast-forward button on the corn and it's really changed quickly. Soybeans range from just emerging to R3, so some guys are applying fungicides in their earliest beans."
Dan Fromme, Louisiana Extension Cotton and Corn Specialist:
"Rain continues to be very spotty, with no general system yet. I just came out of a meeting on irrigation that included agents from all over the state. Our consensus was that it's abnormally dry everywhere in Louisiana.
"In the last 4 years, we've had plenty of rain – too much at times for cotton, in my opinion – and that kind of spoiled us. The last really dry year was 2011. I don't know of anyone irrigating cotton yet. But if we don't see more consistent rainfall, people will be pumping water toward the end of the month as cotton begins blooming. Our oldest corn is in the milk stage and growers who can irrigate are running pumps across the state."
Harold Lambert, Independent Consultant, Innis, Louisiana:
"Cotton is several weeks into squaring now (6/11) and we've had a little plant bug pressure. Our non-irrigated cotton – which accounts for most of our acreage – needs a rain. It's rained a little in places but we haven't had a good general event for all of our crops. Our non-irrigated cotton on heavy ground is growing in slow motion.
"No spider mite pressure. Where we have cotton on lighter textured soils, we have applied some plant growth regulator."