The bacterium that causes bacterial streak and black chaff disease in wheat and other small grains is Xanthomonas translucens.  In Texas, other species of Xanthomas cause leaf diseases of cotton, tomato and pepper.  In the food industry, Xanthomonas species are grown to produce a carbohydrate, xanthan gum, which is used to thicken foods such as ice cream.  Xanthomonas translucens has four known pathovars.  A pathovar is a sub-species designation that refers to strains of the bacterium that differ in their host range.  Three pathovars infect wheat and various… Read More →

Texas grain sorghum farmers have dealt with sugarcane aphid levels to varying degrees for the past five years.  In grain sorghum, most seed companies now have commercial hybrids they believe have some tolerance, even resistance to sugarcane aphid.  Regardless of a grain sorghum hybrid’s potential tolerance (let alone resistance) to SCA, all grain sorghums are assumed susceptible at some level and must be scouted. What about sorghum/sudans?  This forage class is popular in Texas for both grazing and haying with high potential for regrowth.  This regrowth reduces production… Read More →

  Submitted by Dr. Calvin Trostle, Extension Agronomy, TAMU Dept. of Soil & Crop Sciences, Lubbock, 806-746-6101, ctrostle@ag.tamu.edu May 8, 2019   Sesame is a drought tolerant, heat tolerant crop that has a relatively low number of pests—either insects or plant diseases—compared to other Texas crops. Sesaco Corp. (https://www.sesaco.com) has offered Texas growers indehiscent (non-shattering) sesame for over 15 years. Compared to then today’s sesame varieties are a slightly shorter in maturity. Non-shattering varieties enable combine harvest. Though they are called non-shattering, some losses do occur. This is… Read More →

Emi Kimura, State Extension Peanut Specialist, Vernon, TX Josh McGinty, Extension Agronomist at Corpus Christi, TX James Grichar, Senior Research Scientist at Yoakum, TX Pete Dotray, Weed Scientist at Lubbock, TX   Best Management Practices (BMPs) for peanut production include effective season-long weed management.  Below are four weed management principles in peanut production. Start clean Use residual herbicides Timely postemergence applications Know your weeds In the April article, we discussed the importance of preplant burndown (PP), preplant incorporated (PPI), and preemergence (PRE) herbicide applications for reducing early-season weed… Read More →