Specialists Speaking
Prepare For Early Season Pests ARIZONA Randy Norton
Nearly all the 2022 crop is in the ground with some of the earliest planted cotton in the western reaches of the state nearing first bloom. However, most of the crop across Arizona is not even to first square yet. Managing very young cotton is critical to the eventual success of your crop. There are many potential pests that can affect early season cotton both seen, such as thrips, flea beetle, etc. and unseen, such as nematodes. Knowing your fields and scouting for early season pests is critical to maintaining a healthy and vigorous crop. Often, a limited amount of early season insect pressure can be sustained without jeopardizing production. However, higher levels of sustained infestation can lead to reduced leaf surface area, split (forked) terminals and generally unhealthy seedlings. New technology on the verge of large-scale commercial release will help to manage some of these early season pests (specifically thrips). Knowing your field and the soil before planting and taking appropriate management actions will help you manage the unseen pests, such as nematodes. Let’s also not forget about proper early season crop management from an agronomic perspective. A hot and dry spring and early summer winds can quickly desiccate the soil and lead to water-stressed young plants. Proper irrigation management early in the season is critical. This type of stress can result in aborted early season fruit set, increased vegetative growth potential and delays in maturity, among a variety of other management complications. Maintaining a healthy young crop from an agronomic perspective will also make the crop better able to withstand other stresses, such as insect and disease pressure. Information related to these topics, along with many others, can be found on our UArizona website at extension.arizona.edu/crops-soils. rnorton@cals.arizona.edu
TEXAS Murilo Maeda
Planting is right around the corner by the time you receive this issue of Cotton Farming. As of April 8, conditions in the Texas High Plains have not improved much since I last wrote to you. In fact, most of our region has been “upgraded” to extreme and/or exceptional drought on the last drought monitor released on April 7. While the northern High Plains saw a little moisture and some snow, mostly dry conditions are prevalent there as well. At the time of this writing, I see warm weather and some very windy days in the short-term forecast; however, we will continue hoping for enough moisture to allow planting, and subsequent rains to carry us through the season. I mentioned last month about requesting warm/cool germination from your seed retailer as you commit to purchasing seed. Even though moisture is still the strongest limiting factor for seed germination and initial crop establishment at the field level, having this information can help you gauge the overall quality of the seed you are purchasing. That, in turn, can help you decide when to plant variety A versus variety B, for example. A recent survey conducted by Extension cotton specialists across the nation indicated that all samples testing below 80% warm germination also tested below 70% in cool germination. The cool germination test is known to be quite variable, but a good rule of thumb is the higher those numbers are, the better. While on their own they will not guarantee an adequate stand of cotton, the vigor index (warm + cool germination) can help guide your planting decisions. Simply add the warm and cool germination values you obtained
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COTTON FARMING | MAY 2022
for your seed. If the resulting number is below 120, that seed would be classified as having a poor vigor index. Between 140 and 159 is considered good, and 160 or greater would be classified as excellent. Faced with challenging conditions at planting, starting with higher vigor index seed will help ensure you are giving your crop the better chance. Wishing you all a successful 2022 season! mmaeda@ag.tamu.edu
TEXAS Ben McKnight
As of the first week of April, not much has changed from last month regarding any substantial relief from dry conditions across the state. Cotton in the Lower Rio Grande Valley and Coastal Bend has emerged if it was planted into moisture. With a dry weather forecast for the coming weeks, any remaining cotton that hasn’t been planted in the Coastal Bend will be dry planted ahead of the insurance cutoff date. Growers in the Upper Gulf Coast have made great progress getting the crop planted thus far, and soil moisture conditions in this region are better than much of the state south of Interstate 10. A good friend once told me the highest yield potential a cotton plant will ever have throughout the entire life cycle is when it’s a seed. As soon as that seed is planted into the seedbed, the clock starts ticking and management decisions must be made to preserve as much yield as possible. From a weed competition standpoint, nothing could be more accurate. In the late 1960s, Gail Buchanan and Earl Burns conducted trials in Alabama evaluating weed competition in cotton. The results from their work highlight the importance of keeping a cotton crop weed free for the first eight weeks following emergence to maximize yield. As a weed scientist by training, I am a big fan of starting clean and staying clean. Residual herbicides, when used according to label recommendations, can provide tremendous value to weed control efforts on the front end of the season. By reducing early season weed competition with an effective preemergence herbicide program, we are accomplishing two very important goals toward enhancing productivity. First, we are reducing the pressure put on postemergence products applied later in the season, which is an important component to an overall herbicide resistance management program. Secondly, effective early season weed control will reduce yield-robbing competition in the most critical time of the season to maintain a weed-free environment for cotton plants. Keep in mind to always check the herbicide label on residual products for important information including rates, crop rotation intervals and moisture requirements for product activation. Additionally, a great resource available for all weed management topics in Texas cotton can be found at https://bit.ly/3JN2ueS. bmcknight@tamu.edu
OKLAHOMA Seth Byrd
As I write this in mid-April, most of the cotton producing areas of Oklahoma are still in need of rain to raise hopes as we creep closer to planting the 2022 crop. While rain is something we can’t control, by and large, pest issues are something we can. There are a variety of ways to address potential pest issues. While diseases are largely mitigated through the use of seed treatments and variety selection (although that doesn’t alleviate all diseases as we’ve experienced in previous years), there are a variety of strategies that can be used to address weeds and insects. The vast majority of cotton planted across the U.S. Cotton Belt contains a trait that provides auxin resistance, and Oklahoma is no exception. COTTONFARMING.COM
