Cotton, both dryland and irrigated, in the Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV) "looks really good," reports an IPM Extension agent.
Last week, in her Texas A&M AgriLife Extension newsletter Pest Cast, Danielle Sekula, IPM Extension agent, reports hot temperatures coupled with scattered rainfall across the LRGV, with rain totals ranging from half an inch to 2 inches in areas.
"Dryland cotton that was stressed two weeks ago is either at cutout or heavily blooming after the rains. The dryland cotton was showing a lot of shedding of small immature bolls and squares but many have good fruit retention, so now the plant can focus on filling out the fruit," writes Sekula. "Irrigated cotton was showing more fields with boll and square shedding, too, and most of what I've seen has good boll set. Overall, the cotton crop looks really good this year."
But Sekula says cotton predators like lacewings and big-eyed bugs are on the move. "I noticed tarnished plantbugs in cotton but most fields were pretty clean and not at threshold. Threshold for tarnished plantbugs is 10 tarnished plantbugs per 100 sweeps.
"We've started to pick up on a couple of Verde bugs in a couple of fields in the Raymondville area and are seeing higher number in Bayview, Los Fresnos and Rio Hondo," she says. "It's the same thing with stinkbugs, I'm seeing a couple of southern green stinkbugs every once in a while in cotton. Verde bugs along with tarnished plantbugs pierce immature bolls and squares with their mouthparts causing boll malformation to complete fruit loss."
Whiteflies are quickly on the rise in the Edinburg, Pharr, Progresso, Rangerville, and Santa Rosa areas. "If you have whiteflies present you will want to treat and get ahead of them to avoid sticky, stained, black cotton when the bolls open in July," Sekula warns. "I have seen a couple of bollworm eggs in fields but haven't seen damage or any bollworms present yet."
OTHER CROPS
As far as other crops, Sekula says the grain sorghum is drying up for harvest and as the rain cleared last week, growers began cutting. "Sesame is growing nicely and looking great after this last rain shower," she adds. And sunflower harvest in the McCook area has also begun.
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