The cotton crop in Hyde county continues to progress nicely. Fields that suffered from heavy rains in recent weeks are on the way to recovery. Some of these areas were replanted and are now at the cotyledon stage. The crop ranges from 4-8 leaves with the oldest fields at matchhead square. Pix applications will begin on these fields within 10 days.
I started finding aphids county wide yesterday. In all cases, parasitic wasps and lady bugs were having their way with them. With a few exceptions, the door has been shut on thrip treatments for this season. I did suggest to one grower ,yesterday, to treat a farm for the second time. Although this farm was nearing the 4 leaf stage, the presence of immature thrips and battered terminals lead me to this suggestion. Our replanted cotton will be monitored for any thrip treatments.
Mummified aphids as a result of parasitic wasps (tan looking balls)
Nothing exciting is happening in the world of weed control, yet. We’ve been blessed not to have resistance issues to the degree our friends to the west and south have. You know our organic soils don’t offer us a ton of options in terms of residual products yet we still have some options. Most growers have done a nice job making timely applications this year and adequate moisture has helped eliminate wheel track issues that we usually face. I believe every farm will one day have to have a tractor sprayer or another self propelled that is dedicated to burndown applications. Or, as a lot of growers think, dicamba cotton is going to solve everything. I’d have two sprayers. Here is my tractor sprayer of choice:
http://www.tractorhouse.com/listingsdetail/detail.aspx?OHID=6568321
