Jackson Cowart, Inverness
7/17/2023 – Cotton ranges from 14 to 19 nodes. Plant bugs have been from normal to light, which is a relief with a poor cotton market. We are in the middle of a heavy bollworm egg lay, and will treat what little BG2 we have left. We will keep an eye on the BG3 but will not spray on the egg lay.
Soybeans range from R5.5 to R1 wheat beans. Can find occasional bollworms and stink bugs but nothing heavy as of yet. Ground has been wet for a couple weeks now and are behind on weed control in a few spots. Will get back started spraying this week.
Corn ranges from early dough to 50% milk line. Good weekend rains will wrap up the water on the oldest corn. Southwestern corn borers were almost nonexistent this year and all traps have been picked up. Diseases have been low with the exception of Curvularia.
Ed Whatley, Clarksdale
7/17/2023 – Cotton- I’m going to make this short. Plant bugs, mites, aphids, bollworm moth flight, PGR applications. I’ve had plenty of rain in the past 2 weeks. Plant bug population has been steady all year but it is heavy now. Aphids building in cotton depending on earlier application that were made to control plant bugs. Mites have been light due to rainfall but they are starting to show up in spots. Bollworm flight started a week ago and is steady. BollGard 3 is holding so far, but I am making pyrethroid plus acephate application to control plant bugs. I am adding Transform when aphids are present and adding a miticide when needed. Now take these combinations and add a PGR and that’s what going on in cotton.
Soybeans- Podworms flight started last week in soybeans. Started making pod worm application this week in soybeans. Scouting for podworms in soybeans is unpredictability and hard work. I am finding worms in soybeans from R2 to R5 growth stage. But it is not consistent.
Stink bug population has been light overall. I have had to poison 2 fields that were planted in March. I have only seen 3 red banded stink bugs so far this year. I’m sure more will show up.
Corn- All of my corn is at dent to terminated. I have terminated all disease scouting in corn. Curvularia leaf spot has been bad in some fields. Scheduling irrigation after it dries will finish most of my corn.
Joe Townsend, Coahoma
7/18/2023 – Most of our corn is at dough stage, some is already at dent, and the late planted fields are just at milk stage. Most of the corn this year looks good. Soybeans are from R2 to R5. The insect pressure so far this year has been extremely light and on most of the fields only a fungicide has gone out. The potential for the beans looks really good.
The cotton is starting to take off, and pix applications have gone out and will be going out again this week. Plant bug pressure has been slightly lower than previous years, but the numbers are starting to increase now. We’ve started to see bollworm moths in the fields and eggs but no problems yet. There are only light spidermite numbers to date. Most of what we check is between 15 to 20 nodes and looks very good.
Pete Baughman, Indianola
7/17/2023 – Soybeans range from R3 to R6. Started picking up bollworms the last few days on the R3 – early R4 beans and will add insecticide to fungicide applications.
Corn is all dent stage and ranges from beginning starch line formation to 1/2 milk/starch line. Disease pressure has been light. Rice ranges from flag leaf emerging to heading. Moderate to heavy rice stinkbug populations in the early planted fields; will begin insecticide applications when heads are in the milk/dough stage.
Trent LaMastus, Cleveland
7/17/2023 – Cotton: all of my cotton is from 17-21 node; some fields are at cut out, but most average 7NAWF. Square retention is high overall. There are some fields that got hit pretty hard by plant bugs on edges next to corn and soybeans where applications were delayed!! Spider mites have been trying to get established in many areas since the cotton emerged. We treated several fields for mites when we were poisoning for plant bugs. Aphids have remained low so far, but are detectable in several fields. On July 9th, we found a big bollworm egg lay in the southern part of my work area and it continues today. The moths are really thick in the central and south-central Delta. Fortunately, all of my cotton has 3-gene technology and we haven’t had to treat for worms yet.
The ThryvOn cotton is really holding up well to this point. We have been able to delay or stretch poison intervals for plant bugs so far this season. That wasn’t the case to this extent last season. We have received sufficient to excess rain over my area; 1/2 of my cotton has been watered once, the other half has not been irrigated.
Soybean: the majority of the beans I scout are at R5. Some fields are R4-5, with others at R6. I only have one late field and it is approaching R3. We treated some earlier beans for green and brown stink bugs with traces and up to thresholds levels of red banded stink bugs in the mix. Although we are in the midst of a very large bollworm moth flight, the worms have not developed to treatable levels yet. I expect that may change on a few acres in the near future. Most of my soybeans received a fungicide or are about to. We delayed applications of fungicide on our latest fields wanting to tank mix if the worms developed. Disease has been light to this point. Overall, the beans look pretty good.
Corn: as of today (7-17-23) all of the corn I scout is at dent. My oldest corn is about 50-60% starch line. Disease has picked up over the past week or two, but the corn should outrun any negative yield effects caused by disease without a fungicide treatment.
A lot of my corn has wind and some hail damage. It’s going to be a slow harvest in some cases.
Sweet potatoes: most of our sweet potatoes are lapped up with only a few late acres yet to cover the middles with vines. Insects have been light, but 12 spotted cucumber beetles have been increasing lately. I found some army worms in one field today, but they were spotty in the field.
Lauren Green, Greenwood
7/17/2023 – Corn is from beginning dent to starch line 50%. Most will likely only require one more watering. Overall, disease pressure has been low this year and yield potential looks good.
Soybeans range from R1 to R5.5. Flushing moths last week and picking up low levels of podworms and expect to be adding control to beans that have not had fungicide this week. Seeing some taproot decline picking up as well. Stinkbugs are beginning to show up more in older soybeans. No RBSB yet.
Cotton is anywhere from 15 nodes up to 19 nodes. The last two weeks have been cloudy and rainy in most of my area. Seeing square shed today. Plant bug numbers are back on the rise as well. Finding fresh eggs in terminals and bloom tags but all is BG3, so will continue to watch. We were pretty dry at the end of June and had begun to water in places and now over saturated with all the rain so pix has been going out with our applications.
Miles Jackson, Winona
7/16/2023 – Cotton ranges anywhere from 12-16 nodes; oldest has been blooming for about 10 days and majority of it will start blooming this week. Most of my cotton acres have aggressive growing varieties on them so between that, all the rain we’ve had and trying to speed this late crop up, we are getting Pix out, as quick as we can. Plant bug numbers seem to be normal, maybe a tad lower. Almost every acre has been treated once for plant bugs and some of it has been twice, mainly next to corn. One thing I’ve noticed, and I’ve seen others mention also, clouded plant bug numbers are higher than normal for this time of the year in my area, too. We usually don’t start picking them up until end of July/first of August. There are a few aphids in most every field but the fungus is starting so they’re not an issue.
Weed control has been great besides a couple fields that got herbicides washed off and got back to it later than should have, due to other work needing to get done. Overall, fruit retention is looking great right now.
Beans range anywhere from V3-R5, majority being R2-R4. I have one farm that has been pasture ground forever, farmer broke it up and planted beans middle of June. I had to treat that particular farm for armyworms about 10 days ago. Other than that, insect pressure is still low at the moment. I’m catching a really low % of bollworms, loopers, mix of green/brown stink bugs, and a scattered red band or two. It’s mainly been green cloverworms, velvetbean caterpillars, and bean leaf beetles but nothing to be concerned about right now. I’ve had to treat some fields for aerial web blight, but it’s still mostly non-existent at the moment. Weed control has been good. These dryland beans are loving all the rain we’ve been blessed with this month.
Peanuts- fungicide went out 2 weeks ago and no sign of any disease or insect pressure right now. Crop looking good.
Larry Walton, Tupelo
7/17/2023 – Crop progressing very well here in NE Mississippi and really looking good at this time of year. Rainfall has gone from perfect in some areas to extreme flooding in others. Corn is approaching maturity and will probably be one of our better crops in years if ample Nitrogen was applied. No major insect or disease pests at this time. Soybeans range anywhere from vegetative stage to R5 in my area depending upon plant date. To date, I have not observed any soybean looper moths or larvae to report. I am seeing some frogeye in places and fungicides being applied.
The cotton crop is in full bloom and again looking very good with no major issues at this time. A few bollworm moths can be seen as expected this time of year. With this summertime temperature soaring close to the century mark, crops will mature quickly now.