IN THIS ISSUE

· TPMA Website
· Upper Coast IPM Program Sponsors
· Cotton Insect Situation
· Cotton Variety Test
· Did You Know

TPMA Website

The Upper Coast Crop Improvement newsletter and other Extension IPM Program newsletters from across the state can be viewed at the Texas Pest Management Association website at www.tpma.org.

Upper Coast IPM Program Sponsors

Cotton Insect Situation

Fields that were monitored during the past week were near cutout (NAWF=5) to fields that were twenty-one days past cutout. Open bolls in fields will begin to appear during the next two weeks in fields across the Tri-County area.

Aphid numbers continue to be low in numbers throughout the Upper Coast. Boll weevil punctured square counts have increased in some fields during the past two weeks especially along field border or margins, however for the season pressure has been relatively low. Bollworm/budworm pressure increased during the past two weeks. Egg counts were very high in some fields, however the percentage of eggs that produced live larvae was low. Stink bugs continue to be found in a high percentage of fields throughout the area.

Cotton Variety Test

Included in this newsletter are three charts that compare the number of days to cutout, location of first fruiting branch and plant heights for the nineteen varieties that are represented in this year's Wharton County cotton variety test. The variety test was planted on March 22 at the county fairgrounds located at Crescent. A season total of four ounces of mepiquat chloride was applied at matchhead square stage. A total of 5.88 inches of rainfall was received between the planting date of March 22 and when the last variety cutout on June 19th.

Did You Know

Origin of Cotton: Cotton is used in reference to the species of Gossypium is relatively large, with 39 reported species, and is very diverse. Today, only four species of Gossypium are used in commercial cotton production; two (Gossypium arboreum and Gossypium herbaceium) are diploids (n=13) of Middle East or Old World origin and two (Gossypium barbadense and Gossypium hirsutum) are tetraploids (n=26) that evolved in the New World.

When and where cotton was first used by man as a raw material for textiles is unknown. Archaeological and historical evidence clearly show that the use of cotton predates recorded history by several centuries. Cotton fabrics dating to 3000 B.C. have been found in excavations at Mohejo-daro in the Indu River Valley in northwestern India. In the New World, cotton specimens dating to 2500 B.C. were found in the Ancon-Chillon district of Peru.

In the Americas, it appears that Gossypium barbadense evolved as a wild species in South America and was in fact domesticated in Peru. Gossypium hirsutum occurs in the wild in Central America, northern South America and in the West Indies. No form of Gossypium hirsutum has a history of growing wild as a perennial plant in what is today the continental United States.

Available evidence suggest that Old World cottons were domesticated and cultivated to serve the needs of the ancients in well-established, sophisticated agricultural societies that already had the technology for spinning and weaving other fibers. In the Americas, cotton cultivation more than likely evolved from the "dump heap" type agriculture. In such a system, seed and fiber were collected from wild plants by the indigenous people and carried to their dwellings. Later, the discarded seeds provided a convenient source of cotton, and the proximity encouraged cultivation and perhaps selection for plants that produced more lint on the seed, larger bolls, etc. (Source: Weeds Of Cotton: Characterization and Control; Number Two of the Cotton Foundation Reference Book Series)