GENERAL SITUATION

Although summer is officially upon us, we have been blessed with relatively cool temperatures and low humidity up to this point. The area received another round of showers late last week. Rainfall amounts ranged from a trace to around 2 inches. Most received 0.5 inches or less. The area South and West of Taylor have received the least rain and could use rain ASAP. Grain continues to make good progress and has benefitted from the relatively mild conditions, although it could use some more moisture. More cotton has reached bloom and fruit set has improved over the past week.

CORN AND SORGHUM SOIL INSECT PESTS

Sorghum midge levels have picked up some over the last week. Midge counts range from 6 to 30 per 100 head checked. Higher numbers are from fields that have less than 30% of the plants in bloom.

The majority of grain sorghum in the area has finished blooming and is no longer threatened by midge, but any remaining sorghum that has yet to make it through the bloom stage will be likely to be a target of midge that will be emerging from previous blooming sorghum. Also, don't forget that johnsongrass is a host ofmidge. As a result, populations of johnsongrass could serve as an additional breeding ground for these insects, which could compound the situation.

Table 1 provides the threshold levels for midge. I have included this in a previous newsletter, but thought the timing would be good to provide once more.

COTTON

Cotton ranges from a pinhead square stage through three weeks into bloom. Square set is ranging between 52% to 86% with most around 72%. On many of the earliest fields bloom counts are being made. Number of feet for 100 squares is ranging from 6.5 to 9 and number of blooms in that distance are averaging about 8. The majority of the cotton is averaging about 7 squares per plant.

Aphid levels have decreased in most fields over the past week, although they have increased in a small percentage of fields. Aphids are heavy in spots in these fields, but are not consistently heavy throughout the entire fields. These fields should be carefully monitored for beneficial activity and level of aphids. For the most part, good levels of beneficials will help control the aphid problems that we are currently seeing.

Fleahopper levels continue to decrease. However, there are a few fields that are still being bothered by aphids currently. This is where the dilemma lies, do you treat and knock the level of fleahoppers down or not treat and try to preserve beneficials for the expected bollworm/budworm egg lay. This will take place probably within a week. I tend to want to hold off and let the cotton do what it is going to do at this point, in an attempt to avoid running into worm problems in the future.

Currently, fleahopper counts range from 2 to 60 per 100 plants with the majority of fields ranging from 10 to 18 per 100 plants.

Boll Weevil damage has dropped off this week. We are not seeing as many punctured squares as in the previous two weeks, however, there are certainly some first generation (F1) grubs on the ground that will be emerging over the next 10 days. At that point, we expect to see an increase in boll weevil activity.

Punctures range from 0-8 per 100 squares checked. Most fields are still averaging between 0-2 punctured squares per 100 squares checked.

Bollworm/budworm levels remain low this week. Number of eggs ranged from 0 to 10 per 100 plants and larvae range from 0 to 6 per 100 plants. Most fields average 2-4 eggs and 0-2 larvae per 100 plants checked.

Anticipate an increase in bollworm/budworm egg lay around the Fourth of July as moths begin to emerge from the corn. We could see an extended emergence of bollworms coming from corn fields giving the variability in the ages of corn around the area.

The decision on whether or not to use a plant growth regulator or how much product to use is always very difficult. Until one can predict with certainty how much rainfall the cotton will receive in a growing season, the decision will always be difficult.

Many fields of cotton where little or no plant growth regulators have been applied are putting on excessive vegetative growth due to multiple rain showers, adequate sub-surface moisture and most important, the poor fruit load as a result of heavy fleahopper pressure. As a result, some fields may justify some pix in order to keep the excessive plant height to a minimum. The application of plant growth regulators does not necessarily contribute to higher yields, but they do help manage cotton growth, in return making the preparation of the crop simple for harvest and less expensive.

If excessive growth is occurring and the cotton is in bloom, and you choose to use a growth regulator, be sure to use a good rate. Four oz. of Pix® will not hurt the cotton at this point.

Table 1. Suggested insecticides for controlling sorghum midge