GENERAL SITUATION: This week was hot and dry. Some fields of grain sorghum were showing signs of drought. Many fields of cotton were showing some wilting in the afternoons. Of course, so were some producers and entomologists. Insect activity changed slightly this week. Less aphids and more fleahoppers and weevils in cotton.

Cotton Making Good, but Slow Progress

Cotton continued to show reasonably good signs of progress despite the various adversities encountered over the last several weeks. While the difficult weather conditions slowed planting and in some cases slowed maturity of earlier planted fields, the overall crop condition remained good this week. Even in most dryland situations, cotton was progressing well, but all crops could use a little rain to keep moving forward.
Cotton was growing taller than usual this week due to the continuous smoky-hazy conditions. Not enough sunlight was reaching the plant canopy and the plants were responding by growing taller and had larger than usual leaf sizes. Many plants, even in some dryland fields had 4 inch internode lengths this week. Many fields of cotton also had what often is called “elephant ear” cotton leaves. The extra large leaves also were a result of the hazy weather conditions.

Some days and nights this week were extremely hot. Daytime temperatures above 95 degrees and nighttime temperatures exceeding 80 degrees appeared to have had an impact on many fields of cotton. Some fields with blasted squares but have no cotton fleahoppers or other square feeding bugs present. The blasted square damaged observed this week was in fields, but fields which were just initiating squaring seemed to be ones with the most square damage.

It is a well established fact that extreme high daytime and nighttime temperatures can cause a loss of squares and/or slow square production. Most nights this week had temperatures no lower than 79 degrees and most were above 80. This has been a hot May even though we have only passed just 9 days of it, so far. Again, some rain would help.

“Red” Boll Weevils Found

Boll weevil punctured squares were reported this week. A high count of 6 punctures per 100 plants was reported from one field just south of Weslaco. Other reports of a few “red” boll weevils were also received this week. A few scattered squares on the ground were observed to hold boll weevil grubs. Most fields were showing no signs of weevil activity by the end of this week, but that could change quickly. Trap counts were down some this week as more cotton was fruiting, but weevils still were being trapped. (See attached trap records) Growers should continue to monitor fields often for new indications of weevil activity.