GENERAL SITUATION: Rain, finally. The amount of moisture which fell on Monday night and Tuesday morning was variable, as always, but helpful, none-the-less. Rainfall amounts ranged from 0.1 -0.3 inches along the Rio Grande to about expressway 83 from Brownsville to McAllen. Much heavier amounts from Expressway 83 and north were recorded. There, rain totals ranged from 1 to nearly 6 inches from Edinburg to the coast. The heaviest amounts of rain appeared to have fallen north of Edinburg, where one Doppler radar reading was reported to have been 11 inches. Some grain sorghum fields were not helped by the generous rains because of damage already caused by the drought conditions. However, most of the cotton and sorghum fields benefitted from rains. Additional rain is needed in those areas not receiving much this week. Predicted chances for more rain into this weekend were encouraging. Insect activity remained about the same as last week in most fields.

Cotton conditions improved this week. Plant growth may now proceed a little closer to normal in most fields now that adequate moisture is available. Yield potential for most area fields likely will have been reduced prior to this week's rains, but will be far and away better than if the rains had not come for another two weeks. Time will tell how much this rain event will have helped the yields. Another good rainfall event about the middle of May would make the crop for most area farmers.

Many area fields were beginning to show a few blooms this week. Fields planted prior to or about February 15, were beginning to bloom. Fields planted a week or so later were very close to bloom this week. Most area cotton had reached squaring stage by last week into this week.

Boll weevil trap numbers continued to decline in most traps this week (See attached graphs). Only two traps, one north of Edcouch-# 17 and one just south of San Benito-#101, from our Valley wide line were showing any significant numbers of weevils this week. The rest were near zero. This was the last week to make overwintered boll weevil treatments. If cotton was not ready for the treatments by this week, then the best suggestion would be to wait until actual boll weevil punctured square counts reach treatment threshold before making applications. A few fields have already begun to show increased worm counts following overwintered weevil treatments, and further treatments into the month of May likely would make worm problems only worse.

Fleahopper counts were only slightly up in a few fields, but down in others. Most fields had not shown significant fleahopper counts this week. But for those that did, insecticide treatments were reported to have been effective.