*2002 Alabama Cotton Field Day Celebration. D. Monks and D. Delaney
*Postemergence Weed Control in Young Cotton.  M. Patterson
*Wind, Rain, Cold, Disease, Hits Northern Alabama Crop.  C. Burmester
*2002 Cotton Calendar.  D. Monks

2002 Alabama Cotton Field Day Celebration. D. Monks and D. Delaney

You are invited to attend and participate in the 2002 Alabama Cotton Field Day Celebration that will be held at the Prattville Experiment Field on June 25.  This year's cotton celebration will begin at 5 PM and conclude around 8:30.  Our schedule includes the following: Updates from the Extension Cotton Team, Jeff Thompson (Autauga Quality Cotton Assoc.), and industry representatives; a tour of cotton research plots at the station; informational displays and demonstrations on precision agriculture, nematodes, irrigation, genetic engineering, and "Cotton Counts", a promotional display sponsored by the National Cotton Council and the Alabama Cotton Commission.  Following a supper sponsored by the Alabama Cotton Commission, a rural humorist will share his thoughts on life in rural Alabama.

The information exchange will continue on June 26th at the E.V. Smith Research Center with the Southern Conservation Tillage for Sustainable Agriculture Field Day sponsored by the USDA Soil Dynamics Lab and Auburn University's College of Agriculture.  For more information, visit the website at www.ag.auburn.edu/nsdl/sctcsa/fieldDay.html.

Central and south Alabama crop update: the cotton crop across central and southern counties has suffered for several weeks under drought conditions.  Many counties in the east central and southeast portion of the state are in the moderate to severe drought categories.  Rainfall the last week of May over many areas of central, southeast, and southwest Alabama has helped ease the short-term drought conditions but most of the crop is late.  Producers have observed damage and slow growth caused by thrips, leaf spot diseases, cold weather, and drought.  The crop ranges from "skippy" to reasonable stands in the cotyledon to several node stages.  This will likely be a difficult crop to manage for most of the rest of the summer.

Postemergence Weed Control in Young Cotton. M. Patterson

Cotton up to a stand will generally need some type of over-the-top weed control.  Roundup Ready™ cotton varieties will naturally receive an application of glyphosate in one form or another.  Conventional cotton varieties can be sprayed with Staple™ alone or with 1 pint of MSMA until the cotton approaches pinhead square.   Adding MSMA to Staple will improve control of sicklepod.  Adding Staple to glyphosate in Roundup Ready cotton up to the 4 true leaf stage will improve control of morningglory and pigweed.  Read the label on the glyphosate container that you are using to determine if Staple is recommended as a tank-mix partner.   Staple applied postemergence alone or in mixture may also provide some residual activity if a rain or sprinkler irrigation follows the post application within a few days.

Emerged grasses infesting conventional cotton varieties will need to be treated with a postemergence grass herbicide if the cotton is small.  Generally these post-grass herbicides work better when applied alone with surfactant or crop oil concentrate.  In situations where Staple and a post-grass herbicide are required, Assure™ can be applied tank-mixed with Staple and surfactant and applied together.  The manufacturer's label for Staple recommends the use of other post-grass herbicides 3 days prior to Staple treatment.  Staple can be applied from the cotyledon stage until 60 days prior to harvest.  Do not expect Staple or Staple + MSMA to control large sicklepod (2-3 leaf) or large annual morningglory (3-5 leaf).  This treatment should control smaller weeds and buy some time for later post-directed treatments with more active ("hotter") materials.  Staple requires about 4 hours drying time before rainfall.  Glyphosate materials generally need an hour of drying time (sometimes less) before rainfall occurs.

Wind, Rain, Cold, Disease, Hits Northern Alabama Crop. C. Burmester

Cotton was off to a fast start in Northern Alabama until two weeks of cold rainy weather began in the middle of May. An unusually warm April and adequate soil moisture resulted in cotton emerging rapidly and growing with little stress.  May’s weather has not been as kind with many areas receiving repeated heavy rains of over 2 inch in short periods of time.  This resulted in flooding of low areas and caused replanting of cotton in late May.  Ten days of night temperatures in the 40’s or low 50’s also stopped cotton growth. Winds damaged cotton terminals during this period especially in large field with few windbreaks or cotton planted in fields with conventional tillage.

Finally with all the stresses, diseases have appeared on the cotton plants. Many lower true leaves and cotyledons are falling off the plants due to disease and wind damage. Some black lesions on leaf stem are being found which is probably ascochyta blight. This is also causing leaf drop and I have seen a few spots where this blight has killed small cotton because it began growth in the terminal bud. Replanting of cotton in poorly drained fields and spot planting of low areas has been common.

The early April planted cotton has tolerated these weeks of stress the best and most fields still look good. Scouting for thrips damage has also been difficult due to all the terminal damage. Many farmers have applied an insecticide for thrips control when they applied their over-the-top glyphosate spray on Roundup Ready cotton. Although the late April and May planted cotton is small with few leaves, the terminal is still green and is recovering.  We are looking at much later maturing cotton in many areas than we expected two weeks ago.

2002 Cotton Calendar.  D. Monks

Date                          Event                                                                                Contact
June 11                    Cotton Scouting School- Autaugaville                                R. Smith, CA*
June 12                    Cotton Scouting School- Headland                                    R. Smith, CA
June 13                    Cotton Scouting School- Belle Mina                                  B. Freeman, CA
June 25                    Alabama Cotton Field Day Celebration                              D. Monks,
                                                                                                                         D. Moore, CA
June 26                    Southern Conservation Tillage for Sustainable Agric.           D. Monks, CA
Aug. 1-4                  ALFA Commodity Conf., Huntsville                                   ALFA
*CA- county agent.  Note: Cotton scouting schools will begin at 8:30 AM.

If you are interested in weekly updates for the state’s cotton crop, there are several sources for that information. The DTN terminal at your local supply dealer has a category called "Local Information". The state agricultural statistics reporting service has a website update at:

www.nass.usda.gov/weather/cpcurr/al-crop-weather

If you are receiving this newsletter via e-mail, please visit our website for additional cotton information at:

http://www.acesag.auburn.edu/dept/

Updates are sent each Monday morning to these services and DD60s are updated at the end of each week.  These updates will begin at the start of the planting season or soon thereafter.

Reference Number: PSK-6-02, D. Monks and C. Burmester, editors