Refugio County Crop tours are Wednesday.  Check here for more info on Crop Tours.

Audio Updates are another way to get IPM Updates. Find them here.

We have found little change in the field over the past week. Crops continue to progress and fleahoppers and stink bugs are the primary things to look for in cotton, sorghum and soybeans.

Southern Rust is the issue of greatest concern in corn fields of the Mid Coast of Texas.  Many fields have southern rust pustules on the leaves of the upper canopy.  The main questions are: 1) How many of the leaves have southern rust pustules? and 2) How mature is the crop?

The time from dent to black layer (mature seed) is about 20 days. Check the ears and see where the milk line is on the kernels.

Corn Stunt has been confirmed in Victoria corn fields however, there is no management suggestions for this disease at the current crop maturity. Fields first showed symptoms about three weeks ago so infection likely occurred occurred 20-30 days prior to that.

The discovery of corn stunt is rather frustrating because we have not found the corn leafhopper, which vectors the disease, in corn fields until this week. While I was not scouting the particular fields we are finding the disease, I would have thought the insect would have been found much easier than it was.  This demonstrates that we still have a lot to learn about this insect and the disease it vectors.