Monthly Archives: May 2016

Mid Coast Crop Tours

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Crop tours are planned for Calhoun, Refugio and Victoria Counties.  The purpose of these crop tours is to provide updates from 2016 applied research projects and other crop management activities on the Texas Coast. June 8:  Refugio County Crop Tour (more info HERE) 7:00 a.m.     Canales Restaurant in Tivoli, TX 3:30 p.m.     Bonnie View Park, Bonnie View, TX June 14: Victoria County Crop Tour 1:00 p.m.     Sons of Hermann Hall, Da Costa, TX June 16: Calhoun County Crop Tour 3:30 p.m.     Calhoun County Ag Building, Port Lavaca,… Read More →

Mid-Coast Cotton Update

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Cotton fields range from 2-3 leaf to bloom.  Squaring cotton is most prevalent.  We are finding cotton fleahoppers in cotton fields across the Mid-Coast.  Treat fields based on an economic threshold of 15 fleahoppers per 100 plants. Watch a video on scouting for cotton fleahoppers HERE. Cotton fruit retention can be reduced by the cotton fleahopper. Another factor affecting fruit retention can be the cloudy, wet weather conditions of the past few weeks.  The recent weather can make treatment decisions difficult.  Just remember to treat based on pest… Read More →

Mid-Coast Grain Sorghum Update

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Grain sorghum maturity ranges from boot to soft dough.  Some fields are turning color. We are finding varying populations of Sorghum Midge in fields ranging from 0-5 per head.  Treatment thresholds are 0.5-1 midge per head depending on the number of flowering heads per acre. We are finding headworms in Refugio County sorghum fields ranging from 0-4 per head.  Many of these are fall armyworms.  The economic threshold for headworms ranges from 0.15 to 1 large worm (> 0.5 inch) per head.  For medium worms (0.25-0.5 inch) the ET… Read More →

Mid-Coast Grain Sorghum Insect Management

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Fields of grain sorghum in Calhoun, Refugio and Victoria Counties range from 6-7 leaf to mid-late bloom.  The most important insects we are seeing are sorghum midge and aphids. Sorghum midge are only pests of grain sorghum during bloom.  The adult sorghum midge is a 1.3-mm-long, fragile-looking, orange-red fly, with a yellow head, brown antennae and legs, and gray membranous wings. (Source) During the single day of adult life, each female lays about 50 yellowish-white eggs between the glumes of flowering spikelets of sorghum.  Larvae complete development in… Read More →

Herbicide Drift Management

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Herbicide Drift can cause great problems between neighbors.  When drift occurs, it can damage off target plants but it also means that the money spent on a herbicide application did not result in the total amount of herbicide reaching its intended target. When we discuss drift, we often think of physical drift; when the spray droplets are blown off target.  Proper application techniques should be used for each herbicide application to reduce physical drift. this includes using appropriate One of the most challenging herbicides for drift management is… Read More →