With the rains we received this crop is making some progress now and has better potential than any crop at this point in the season since I have been here. Growth stages range from still at cotyledon to 9-10 true-leaves and squaring for several weeks at this point. With folks all over the state and even the cotton belt concerned about cooler temperatures right now we are truly in great shape. Since the rains over the weekend and these cooler temperatures we are averaging right at 15 GDU’s per day. Cotton loves this and as you know, we will crank out all the heat units we need during the season.

The number of fields that were checked this week was down since the scouts just weren’t able to get into the field without tearing up turn-rows. Fortunately insects overall all pretty lite right now. The few hot spots of fleahoppers, aphids, thrips, or spidermites that we were finding have disappeared or dispersed with the rain. I would still keep a close eye out for fleahoppers on any cotton that is squaring. With the potential and the price this year it would be nice to hang on to as much as we can. As yield potential and/or price increase our thresholds for pest generally are lowered as it becomes more economical to control the pest at a lower level.

Obviously, weeds are still a major concern. With Roundup in short supply folks are trying to do what they can to control weeds and stretch their Roundup as far as possible. With rain still in the forecast, residuals such as Prowl H20, Warrant, and Outlook may be a very good option. I have heard of several folks putting out Sequence which is Dual plus Roundup. A good option if we get some more rain to activate it. Be careful about putting any more Roundup in with your Sequence. 10-12 oz is about the max before you may start seeing crop injury, especially where boom passes may overlap.