Cotton Blooms. Photo by S. Biles

Cotton maturity ranges from early bloom to pinhead square. Squaring cotton should still be monitored for cotton fleahoppers.  Once cotton begins to bloom, we tend to consider the field safe from cotton fleahopper.  The field can be considered safe if fruit retention is sufficiently high to meet its expected yield potential.  The reason I think the field is safe is cotton fleahoppers cause fruit shed to small squares, pinhead sized or smaller and the plants should have enough fruit matchhead square or older.

When the crop begins to bloom, start counting Nodes Above White Flower weekly.  Nodes Above White Flower (NAWF) is measured by counting the number of nodes (branches) above the first position white flower to the highest unfurled leaf which is usually about 1 inch in diameter. Unstressed cotton should have 9 NAWF. Continue to assess NAWF weekly through the rest of the season.  Cutout can be determined when the plant reached 5 NAWF and bolls are safe from stink bugs after 350 heat units after cutout.

We established a cotton fleahopper control test today and hope to have results next week.  The test averaged 13 fleahoppers (adults and nymphs) in 100 plants, above my threshold of 10 per 100 plants.

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