This cotton has really taken off for most folks over the past week. Just about everything in the three county area is now squaring with a couple of fields now blooming. Several more should start blooming next with more to come the week after. Cotton fleahoppers (CFH) are still out and about, but up to this point I have yet to find a field that is close to threshold and needing treatment. I did find one field the other day that had 15 CFH per 100 terminals, but this is still below threshold, especially with the great square set the field has. Overall our square sets are very good, even with some of the brutal heat that we have been having here lately. Most fields are anywhere between 85% and 98% square set. This is tremendous at this point and would be great if we could hang on to all of it by the end of the season. All other insect activity is low to nonexistent at this time. A few jumbos can be found here and there, but nothing that I am concerned about at this point. Stinkbugs are still out in fields which has me a little concerned about what the future may hold. Of course when this crop starts to bloom they may all move back to pasture, you just never know about them. A few fields are getting PGR’s applied at this time despite the lack of rain, good irrigation and fast growing, tall plants may need some control. Remember with PGR’s that as the plant loads up the growth will slow down. As we appear to be setting in to a drier period, plants may not need to be slowed down and too much PGR can shut the plant down prematurely and cause early cutout.

In sorghum, stinkbugs and headworms are becoming more of an issue each day that I check fields. I know of a couple of fields that have already been treated and would strongly suggest everyone keep an eye on theirs. It is not a bad idea to spray sorghum next to adjacent cotton for stinkbugs to try and control them later in the season. Spraying 40-80 acres is a lot cheaper than spraying several hundred if you can knock them all down or at least keep the numbers below threshold. Headworm numbers appear to just now be climbing, most everything I have seen is fairly small except for the occasional 1/2 inch worm. It is these 1/2 and larger worms that do the most damage, but the smaller worms are much easier to control. Also, sugarcane aphids have been spotted up around Plainview now. This is nothing new, many times they get them before we get them or the Concho Valley, but they should be on our radar. When the Concho Valley gets them we need to really increase our scouting efforts.