As we start heading closer towards harvest, around the Valley the cotton crop has about 50% to 70 % open bolls on average, with later planted cotton at 10% open bolls. Most dry land cotton is maturing fast and has had some of the first fields to receive defoliants. Defoliation of cotton will really start to pick up next week in both dryland and irrigated cotton fields.
Some of the defoliants being put out are thidiazuron, diuron and ethephon. This week we saw some Verde bugs out in the fields but were of little concern since the majority of cotton bolls have already matured to unfavorable size that the Verde bug cannot penetrate.
Photo: Danielle Ortiz, Texas AgriLife Extension
Whiteflies are increasing in the Bayview area and spray control might be considered in the next week before harvest time. As for the rest of the Valley the number of whiteflies seen has been considerably low.
Grain Sorghum
Harvest continues to go well in both grain sorghum and corn crops. Very little acreage is left to harvest of grain sorghum. Sugarcane aphids are still present in some areas but have not had any reports of substantial problems in the area.
