AgFax Cotton - Louisiana
by AgFax Media LLC
OVERVIEW
Thrips remain the primary focus as far as insects go. More foliar applications have been going out. Pressure is falling off to a degree in parts of Louisiana. Warmer conditions should allow more plants to grow past thrips vulnerability. In places, big numbers of adults have been migrating into cotton after treatments, which makes it appear that foliar treatments have failed.
An impressive bollworm flight has taken shape in Arkansas.
Soil moisture varies widely. Parts of the region need rain to finish germinating seeds and to activate herbicides. On the other hand, portions of the upper Midsouth have already been pounded this week by heavy rains.
Cotton planting has about wrapped up through much of the region.
CROP REPORTS
Gary Wolfe, La-Ark Agricultural Consulting, Ida, Louisiana: "We've finished planting but later than normal, and it will be into July before we see blooms this year. We had one early run at planting, then it rained heavily. All the gauges overflowed, although one farmer dumped his before it topped out, so he knew for a fact that it rained 8.5 inches at that location. Then it turned cool and more rains fell later.
"In at least one case, cotton was planted and then flooded out and then replanted twice and it flooded out again each of those times. The farmer finally went back with soybeans. Hail also has damaged corn and cotton in spots. Several days ago our highs were in the 60s, and we maybe were accumulating 5 DD60s a day. But the weather has warmed up and it's 85 right now (5/23). One small cotton field has started squaring. Otherwise, we've got a ways to go. We'll get through it – we always do – but this was a slow start."
David Kerns, Entomologist, Louisiana State University, Macon Ridge Research Station: "Cotton is all over the board. A lot of it is now past the point of thrips susceptibility and is at the 4- to 5-true-leaf stage. But we still have plenty of small cotton. Pre-emergence herbicides never activated and some of that cotton sustained a good deal of thrips injury. We're picking up a few spider mites, too, but nothing to warrant treatment. Some of this mite activity may relate to thrips sprays. Where we applied acephate in our test plots, we're finding mites now."