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Texas Cooperative Extension Service The Texas A&M University System Plains Pest Management Newsletter |
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News about Integrated Pest Management in Hale-Swisher Counties. Greg Cronholm, Extension Agent - IPM, 122 East 6th, P.O. Box 680, Plainview, TX., 79073-0680, 806-291-5273 |
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Web Site: http://entowww.tamu.edu |
E-Mail:
g-cronholm@tamu.edu
August 30, 2001 |
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Hale
Co. Crop/Drip Irrigation Tour
A tour has been set up on September 11 to view drip irrigation and crop research at the Texas A&M Experiment Station farm near Plainview. We will have researchers and specialists available to give an overview and answer questions. I believe you will be very impressed by the drip irrigation systems. The following is a schedule of the tour. Tentative Agenda 9:00 Sorghum/Cotton Rotation Sunflower Projects, Halfway, Dr. Calvin Trostle, Ext. Agronomist. 9:45 Drip Irrigation Research - Jim Bordovsky, Ag Engineer, TAES 10:25 Leave for Ed Vadder Farm - Plainview 10:50 Drip Irrigation - Cotton - Dr. Randy Boman, Extension Cotton Specialist, Ed Vadder, Ricky Kelm, Dr. Dana Porter, Extension Irrigation Specialist 11:30 Defoliation Questions - Dr. Randy Boman, Extension Cotton Specialist
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SORGHUM A few sorghum midge have been observed in late blooming fields. Continue to scout for this pest on a daily basis during the bloom period. The best time to scout fields is from noon to around 3:00 p.m. Midge emergence is delayed to noon because of our cooler night time temperatures typical on the High Plains; therefore scouting in the morning for this pest will not give one a true picture of the population which may be present. Headworms continue
to be found in some fields, while others have none due to abundant
predators such as pirate bugs, crab spiders and assassin bugs. |
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Lygus bugs are abundant in some sorghum fields with 20 to 40 per head observed. We currently do not have a threshold for this pest in sorghum. Damage will depend on the maturity of grain. Soft dough (green grain) sorghum is much more susceptible to bug damage than grain in the hard dough (red grain) stage. Dr. George Teetes, Professor Emeritus believes the threshold would be from 5 to 10 Lygus per head in the soft sough stage. Seed sorghum is much more susceptible to damage than commercial production, since plant bug feeding can significantly reduce seed germination. False chinch bugs are on the increase in some sorghum fields. Populations of up to 40 per head have been observed. The economic threshold for this pest is in excess of 140 per head at the milk stage. COTTON Cotton is opening rapidly with many fields now having 5 to 20% open bolls. Late planted irrigated cotton has very little open cotton or none. Most cotton is now past damage by boll weevils and Lygus bugs. Bollworms have not been able to establish in cut out cotton because square and small bolls have been shed from the plant. Some well irrigated cotton fields still have small bolls which are susceptible to weevils, boll worms, Lygus bugs and southern green stink bugs. Growers will have to decide if there are enough bolls to justify management of late season pest and if soil moisture is adequate for boll retention. Lygus counts continue to be very high in a few area cotton fields and small boll damage is significant. Boll weevil punctured bolls generally remain low in fields that are susceptible. Cotton bollworm counts have generally ranged from 0 to 6,000 per acre and damage has been very light.
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Beet armyworm and cotton aphid populations remain very low at this time. Whiteflies are still abundant in some fields, but damage and honeydew have been minimal. CORN We have had a late season surge of southwestern corn borer this year (3rd generation). Trap counts ranged from 1229 to 7835 on August 21 for a four day period. This is very high for this late in the year. Dr. Pat Porter and I again collected European corn borer and southwestern corn borer moths on the night of August 29 for a resistance management project. Freshly emerged southwestern were very abundant at our light traps. All corn should be so near harvest that these late season borers will not be a problem. The large number of borers entering the 3rd generation may reduce or delay the girdling associated with the southwestern corn borer. Greg Cronholm,
Extension Agent - IPM,  Posted at this web site by: texagnet Internet Services. |
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by the cooperative Extension is implied. The
Texas A&M University System, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the
County Commissioners Courts of Texas
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