Jealous Of Jassids And Afraid Of Nematodes - Bob Kemerait's 2026 Update

One wrong assumption in a cotton field can get expensive fast. We sit down with UGA’s Dr. Bob Kemerait to talk through the 2026 decisions that are easy to “cut out” on a spreadsheet but hard to recover once the planter runs, especially nematode management, variety selection, and early-season disease prevention.

We dig into the reality that nematodes are already there, including reniform nematode, root-knot nematode, and sting nematode, and why winter weather mostly slows them down rather than erasing the problem. Dr. Kemerait explains how to think about nematicide choices, why rates and product types matter, and how nematode resistant cotton varieties can protect yield differently depending on which nematode you’re fighting. We also cover why stalk destruction can help hit a “reset button” by breaking the life cycle, even if the economics are still being pinned down.

Then we shift to diagnosis and mid-season protection: jassid injury that can look like potassium deficiency, how Stemphylium leaf spot ties back to nutrition, and why scouting prevents wasted sprays. We wrap with practical updates on target spot and areolate mildew fungicide timing, the warning signs around declining azoxystrobin performance on mildew, and why boll rot remains a weather-driven headache. Finally, we talk rotation, including the long-term risks of peanuts behind peanuts and why cotton still matters for Georgia agriculture.

Transcript

Why These County Updates Matter

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Bringing you all things cotton production and pest management. This is the Talking Cotton Podcast with the University of Georgia Cotton Team. Let's get into the whys of putting on, throwing off, and cutting out. All right, so this is another county meeting update for 2026. Again, we're recording these at the end of 2025. So things are subject to change, but uh just a reminder that uh we're still encouraging folks to get out, go to county meetings, and uh visit with us before, after meetings. And really the main goal of this is to provide information uh because not every cotton team member can make it to every meeting, and even you as a grower, consultant, or industry person may not be able to make it to the meeting in your county. So um just wanted to provide information in different ways and give this to you as a resource. But on this particular update, we have Dr. Bob Kemright. Dr. Kimright, you doing good? I'm doing great, thank you. Doing great. Got your got your Coke Zero Sugar, ready to go, ready to take on the day. I'm I'm I'm ready to get after it. Ready to get after it. So, Dr. Kemright, I know everybody wants to talk about Jassets, right? Yeah, let's let's talk about them real quick.

SPEAKER_02 1:29

You know, I just followed uh Dr. Roberts in here and I'm I'm really jealous. But yeah, you know, he uh he was talking about the uncertainty of jazz its coming in when and when they might come in in in 2026. And and and I'm simple, you know, I understand that's a big deal when it's gonna come in. That's right. But I can promise you one thing, Dr. Han. There's no doubt when the nemathodes are coming in, right? Oh, they're already there. They're there. They're already there. They're waiting there. Now hopefully this cold is gonna put them to sleep for a little bit. I'll take a long winter's nap. But you know, as important as Jacids are, as important as everything is in in my wheelhouse, we we gotta remember the basics of things like nemathodes, that we don't have to wonder when they're gonna come in. That's right. We know when they're coming in. If you got them, they're there. They're there, and they're sleeping. They may not be sleeping right now, but I hope to go to sleep. But the thing is, is is and I'm a broken record, right? It's either La Nina or El Nino, or you get one chance. But uh But my concern now is especially with the with the cotton situation and the prices, that the growers are gonna be looking for ways, hey, do you what we really put that? Do I really need that?

SPEAKER_00 2:31

Do we really need that? That's right. And so uh Well, and I brought this up with with Dr. Roberts a second ago. And you know, whenever people think about cutting anything, it's always up front. Always. I I mean you don't you don't ever get into the season and it's like, well, I'm not gonna spray a fungicide or whatever. I'm or in my experience, once you get into the season, it's hey, I'm making the crop, I'm doing what I gotta do to make the crop. But this time of year, people are always, oh well, whenever I plant, I'm not gonna use that in fur ag logic or vellum or Averland or whatever. You know, I'm gonna cut that because I really don't think I

The One Chance Planting Mindset

SPEAKER_00 3:15

need it. Or plant a different variety, right? I mean, that's all that kind of stuff. And so that's why what you're talking about is so important because you get one chance.

SPEAKER_02 3:25

Yeah, that's and that's that's my first message to today is not everybody needs to use nemathode resistant variety. Not everybody needs to make a decision on nematocide. Well, every everybody does need to make a decision on a variety, and everybody needs to make a decision on the nematocide. And that decision may be I don't need a resistant variety, and that decision may be I don't need a nematocide, but you need to make that, you need to go through that exercise. You need, and if if you decide you don't need one, uh make sure it's for the right reasons. Yeah. Make sure it's because, well, I don't have a nemathode problem, or we've taken samples and our threshold levels are so low, or I've had four years of non-host crops in the field, those kind of things. Every time I go by my most the most famous cotton field in Georgia, they're on the in the in the curve of the road on the way to Athens and they're in Bishop. Uh last year and the past few years have been planted in a in a in a reniform-resistant variety. And why? Because for them, it just makes sense to take that out of the equation. So in in a year where we're worried about cotton prices, we're worried about everything about cotton, recognize that that nemathodes are a significant problem if you have them and we have opportunity. Uh, I get beat up over the head sometimes about what the nematicide recommendations are. Certainly, and if you decide you have a nemathode problem, but don't go with nematode-resistant variety, either because you just don't want it, or you're concerned about some production factor, maybe the Y-word, or you're you have sting nematodes and not in a form of root knot, and we don't have resistance to sting, uh, then just recognize that that all nematicides aren't equal. And so it may be more convenient to put out a liquid than put out a granule. It may be out of the question to put out a fumigant. Yeah. But just recognize that there are differences and uh we need to make the decisions carefully because the only thing worse than not putting out a nematocide may be putting out a nematocide that's not at a rate or not the type that you need to protect your crop. And so those are not putting one out when you need it. Correct. Right. That's correct. So not putting one out when you need it.

SPEAKER_00 5:23

So what about the kind of the pattern

How Winter Weather Changes Pressure

SPEAKER_00 5:26

we're in? You always like to talk about climate, you know. And so what kind of pattern are we in? What are we looking at this winter kind of going into 26?

SPEAKER_02 5:35

Funny you should mention that because uh officially we're in what's called a La Niña.

SPEAKER_01 5:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:40

And those are typically warmer and drier, and so I've been kind of quiet because we're not warmer and we're not drier right now. So what I'm focusing on, Dr. Han, thanks for bringing that up. But uh because Well, it was dry.

SPEAKER_00 5:50

You know, it was dry for a while and it was really hot. And we've had two cold snaps, which is really good. And we get some moisture, that's right.

SPEAKER_02 5:58

So whether you want to call it tomato or tomato or El Niño or La Niña, the main important thing is the weather we experience this winter will have an impact on nemathodes in terms of for a couple of reasons. The first, the reason is that colder soils tend to put them to bed, they tend to slow down, they quit eating so much, but reproduce, and they just kind of fade into sleep, if you will. And also the colder it is, or if you destroy the taproots, then the nemathodes are not going to survive. The nemathodes have to have the root knot, especially, have to have a living taproot. You know, it's they don't survive undead ones. So if we freeze those out or destroy them, that breaks their life cycle. They you know they're stun for the year. So the colder weather weather we're having right now, whether it's La Nino or El Nino, is inconsequential. We're having it and we need more of it. Yeah, that's gonna benefit us in two ways. One, cold soils, nematodes are gonna slow activity. It may kill cotton roots, but they're pretty tough unless you dig them up or pull them up. Uh and also some of our diseases can survive in in uh the living host tissue. Yeah the the cottonleafral dwarf virus, right? That can as well. Um, and debris. You know, we talk about uh uh target spot.

SPEAKER_01 7:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:12

It's gonna be surviving in crop debris. So if it rots, that's good. So right now, rain and coal, whether we call it, you know, whether I can tell you we're in a La Nina and it's really not like a La Nina right now, it doesn't matter. The bottom line is we what we're having right now is a good thing.

SPEAKER_00 7:26

So just my curiosity, I guess. So whenever it gets really cold, I'm always nervous when an agronomist is curious. I'm just you know I'm just asking the question. So, you know, does the cold weather kill them or do they go deeper because it's warmer the deeper you go? If it's cold outside, right, your soil temperatures increase as you go deeper. Do they go down or do they just die? Like what what do they do? So so great question.

SPEAKER_02 7:52

So they're really not dying, right? Okay. But uh, but they if you're a root-knot nematode, root knot nemathodes overwinter as eggs, right? Okay. And so as the soils get colder, the the J2, the vermiform, the anyway, the tree lobby or whatever. They're not gonna be doing much at all. It's gonna be mostly and not surviving the winter that way. It's gonna be mostly the eggs surviving. And with the reniform nemathodes, which do overwinter in a in a worm-like form, they they are going to be quieted. They're gonna be there's not gonna be much activity. You know, the temperature is gonna so it's not really so much killing them as just suspending feeding, suspending reproduction, suspending those things.

SPEAKER_00 8:32

So really it's more about how many you're putting out there in the wintertime, right? So what you deal in 2025 is gonna impact the decision you have to make in 2026 because they're not necessarily dying, you're just slowing them down.

SPEAKER_02 8:49

So a cold winter is not going to it's not a silver bullet. It's not a cold winter's not gonna What a cold winter does is it breaks the cycle. Yeah. If we get freezes, if we get rid of those roots, it means we're just not continuing to build up. Right. Right. But it doesn't, we're we're not really reducing the populations. Yeah. So we it rather than continuing to build into the winter, we stop, we hit a reset button, and then what we had to start with, and when when we hit that reset button, then we start again with, we're just not gonna build anymore. That's a great point because a cold, hard, cold winter is not gonna eliminate our problem. It's just gonna make our problem not as bad as it might have been if they continued to I've got pictures of you know of cotton surviving, cotton blooming in Mitchell County and the end of January, right? And so if they're warm enough for that, you know those nemathodes are active. The other reason thing is in camp is that uh until the soils warm up, the nematodes aren't gonna be very active. So cold soils will kind of put them in quiet and and as long as it stays cold, but as soon as it warms up, they're gonna be looking for something to eat.

SPEAKER_00 9:49

Right. Right.

Stalk Destruction And The Reset Button

SPEAKER_00 9:50

And then I know that y'all started a project with uh with Dr. Chowdery and things like that this past year. What about pulling stalks versus shredding? Because I mean some people are still working on some of that kind of um as we go into the the wintertime, springtime, and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_02 10:06

Yeah, there is absolutely no question that destroying cotton stocks, uh, especially if you know assuming they were still alive, is a is a is going to stop, you know, then you're not gonna have a food source out for those nematodes unless there's some weed there. So it's a good thing. It's a you you hit reset. What we don't have, and this is what Dr. Chowdery is working very hard to come up with, is the economics, you know. So if you do do that, then how much does your nematode population differ than if you didn't do that? Right. And that's a function going to be a function of a how quickly after when did you harvest and how quickly did you pull the stocks or destroy the stocks, and how soon after harvest did we have a hard freeze? Right. So if you don't pull the stocks and you don't have a hard freeze until January, those nemathodes can continue going.

SPEAKER_00 10:53

But there's potential for the cotton to regrow, right. And so it just stays alive.

SPEAKER_02 10:58

In that situation, pulling stocks is going to have a more of a benefit than if you you you put them to bed earlier. So it's it's a uh there is zero doubt, no doubt that pulling stocks or shredding stocks is a way to break the cycle from one season to the next and to stop uh in a large way reproduction and feeding. What we're working on now is, especially in a year like 2026, is the dollars and cents. Right. You know, if you do this, what is the advantage going into the season? And what we hope the advantage would be is that you could you could get more any tactic you use as far as nematocide, you get more benefit out. You may not be able to give up using a nematocide, but your nematicide is going to work better for you because you have less pressure. Right, right.

Jassids Versus Potassium And Lookalikes

SPEAKER_02 11:41

Well, I'll say I'll say this again because I got jacid envy. Um, you know, if when I look at those pictures, and even when I was not at Pulgas this year, if I if I had not known Camp, if I had not known there were jacets out there, I would have identified, misidentified the jazzed injury as potassium. Because in my mind, I would have said, well, what else can't it doesn't look quite right, but what else could it be? It's got to be potassium. And so I would be thinking potassium, I'd be thinking stem philium leaf spot, which we do see on jacid cotton too. This we do the stem philium leaf spot. So um, in my world, stem fillium leaf spot is probably the most important foliar disease that I can't do anything about with a fungicide. Right. You know, we're gonna we can talk about uh areolate mildew, how important it is, and how unfortunately now a zoxystrobin doesn't look like it's gonna work. We can talk about target spot, but really, if I'm honest with myself, uh stemphilium leafspot is is much more of a problem, widespread problem, but it's caused by potassium.

SPEAKER_00 12:39

You know, whenever this this stuff with Jass it started happening and everything, and it was like, oh, it looks like potash deficiency is like, man, that's gonna be a problem for us because we see so much, right? We're farming on these sands, and and I mean it just doesn't hold potassium very well. And uh, even where the potash levels are good, there might be something else going on where the plant's not getting it, right? Um, and so that again just kind of illustrates the importance of scouting, getting out there and making sure what your problem is. Yeah, whether it's potash or stem filum, which are tied together.

SPEAKER_02 13:17

And what I'm what I'm worried about is if someone just yeah, if I can understand, and man, I can't be wrong, I'm gonna error on the side of caution. Every time I see reddening leaves, yeah, I'm just gonna assume it's jas, and we're gonna spray. Yeah. That's not yellowing, that's not true.

SPEAKER_00 13:32

And that's what I was gonna get to was that just because a field is turning yellow doesn't mean that it's Jacid. Right. Correct. Uh it could be a fertility issue, whether it's nitrogen or potash or sulfur, it could be nematodes, it could be, you know, any number of things, right? And so that again just shows the importance of getting out there, looking, having a scout, calling your county agent, like all these things, because we don't want to make unnecessary crop protection applications if we don't need to. That's exactly right.

SPEAKER_02 14:07

We can't we I don't think we can't afford to. Yeah, can't afford to. And so when they say, well, Bob, what's Jass got to do with you? Well, it in my world it does because the misidentification. Well, Jacids have to do with you because you're jealous. Yeah, I am well, I am very jealous. Obviously. There's a reason they're called jazz. That J is jealous. Jealous Bob. So um, you know, I'm Rodney Dangerfield kind of. But I I would say that let's just make sure we get it right. Well, Bob, if you if you're so worried about stem philium least, what you're gonna do about it. Well, there's not much I can do other than say watch your potassium levels. But what I can say is make sure that that disease which we control through potassium, make sure we know what we're fighting and what we're not doing.

SPEAKER_00 14:46

That's right. That's right. Yeah, for sure.

Nematode Symptoms You Cannot Fix

SPEAKER_00 14:48

So, real quick, you know, kind of back to nematodes, we were on that. I saw you give a talk two days ago, I guess it was, and you showed the symptoms, right? Yeah. And you talked about how some people don't necessarily agree with what the symptoms are. Yeah, there's some there's some misunderstanding, I would say.

SPEAKER_02 15:06

And I'm only speaking for me in Georgia right now, but but whether you call I caught tiger striping, whether you caught tiger, sometimes it looks like a watermelon rind, you know. But that that and the official word is intervenor chlorosis, but absolutely, absolutely that intervenoclerosis is tied to the southern root knot nematode, and also a similar, very similar symptom to uh rheniform nemathode, and in some degree sting nemathode. So there's some, you know, some debate among some people, not me, that this is for what that symptom is. The more important thing is is to recognize that symptom, which I call tiger striping. Yeah, right. But but is to recognize that that's a strong indication. If you don't believe me, go ahead and pull those roots up. Look at the roots and see the knots on them or the galls on them. Uh the most important thing about recognizing that is you realize what a problem is in your field. The second most important thing is can you do anything about it when you see tiger striping? No, you cannot. It's over with. Yeah. What you can do is recognize that, hey, for next time I plant cotton in this field, yeah, you know, I need to be careful. But uh recognizing that symptom. You know, I'm a little ashamed to say it. It's I almost get a good feeling when I see because oh, there's there's something I do. But uh but recognize if you see that, it's uh you know, that's a very strong diagnostic tool. Yeah, yeah.

Seedling Disease And Planting Temperature

SPEAKER_00 16:23

So, you know, even whenever it comes to seedling disease, another decision you have to make at planting or our seed treatments have really improved over the last, I don't know how long you've been here, 25 years? Yeah. So that I mean, and that helps out a lot, but there's still people that make a decision to put a little something extra out there. Is that decision mainly based on field history or you know, the the conditions at planting, if you decide to plant early or whatever? Uh what goes into that decision? Great question.

SPEAKER_02 16:56

So the first thing to say is let's try to avoid seedling disease to begin with. You know, when I do a lot of seedling disease trials and and really those seed treatments that already come on commercial seed are doing the heavy lifting. Yeah, right. It's right, it's I'm not saying there's not advantage to ask adding something extra. There can be, but really our seed treatments we get now are really, really good. Uh but the biggest thing a grower can do to help themselves is don't plant in temperature in soil where the soil temperature is below 65 degrees. Or don't plant where you've got a cold front coming through. Just do yourself a favor. Yeah. And and before you even think about seed treatments or infrarofungicides or anything like that, just don't plant if the soil's gonna be colder than 65 degrees. And don't plant if it's gonna be, you know, you've got a cold front coming and rain coming. Just don't do it. Yeah. Well, they don't have a choice, Bob. Well, you know, you gotta do what you got to do. But you gotta get started with the code. But but you but you uh but you made that call. Yeah, that's right. So if, but let's say you don't, let's say you don't have any choice, you gotta plant, then the seed treats, why there are additional seed treatments, but more than likely, what I'd recommend is an infraro, if you can put an infraro fungicide spray. Uh the most, the biggest cotton seedling disease problem we have in Georgia is rhizoctonia. Yeah. Year in, year out. We got two that's Pythium is one and rhizoctonia, but rhizoctonia by far. Yeah. And so if you say, well, you know, Bob sits on his University of Georgia extension budget and he doesn't have to worry about, you know, growing cotton. He could sit there and do it. He could drink his Coke Zero and talk about me spending money, but he doesn't have to do it. Um, what I would say is that that uh yeah, that's that's true. I mean, but uh, and I do like Coke Zero, but um no advertisement there. But that Azoxystrobin or our cotton growers, rhizoctonias are most likely going to be our problem. And Azoxystrobin, uh sold in the names of quadrus and A-frame and whatever else, it's extremely effective. And in my research, it's not that digital seed treatments aren't valuable, they are, um, but that uh the most effective on top of a seed treatment has been the liquid infraro. And most growers are set up to put out uh azoxystrobin or put out a liquid infraro, and so that would be a suggestion. Additional seed treatments are fine, yeah, right? But if I had the opportunity if I had one shot and I was worried about the conditions, or you know, I'm worried about my rotation. I grow peanut cotton, penis cotton. If both are susceptible to uh rhizoctonia, then a liquid infraro of asoxystrobin would be at the top of my list to put out there. Yeah. Cheap insurance. Nice and yeah, and that's it is it is inexpensive fungicide. Yeah. I think it's six ounces per acre, and so it's uh something to consider. Yeah. But again, that's you know, I sound like a broken record, I know, Camp, but all those chances, you know. You get one. You get your variety selection, you know. You with your variety selection, you can have nemathode resistance, you can have bacterial blight resistance, uh you you pick it and say it.

SPEAKER_00 19:49

But when you close that furrow, so I I was gonna bring up variety selection, you

Variety Traits And Resistance Packages

SPEAKER_00 19:54

know. You come to you come and listen to me talk, right? And it's like all I talk about is yield, and you get, you know, you don't get upset with me, but it it might hurt your feelings a little bit. You know, yeah, you're you are sensitive, that's okay. But you know, I show a variety trial slide, and the thing at the top is, you know, whatever it is, and it may not be a nematode variety, right? And we always talk about it. Oh, it usually is not a nematode variety. Almost always not. Yes. And so, you know, we always talk about, hey, nematode varieties are a great option for nematode fields, right? And so that's a variety selection decision. Of course, bacterial blight, of course, those bronze wilt-like symptoms that we've seen over the last couple of years, 2025 wasn't as bad. But, you know, kind of moving from there and talking about in the in the production guide, which I've updated, I try to contact all of our industry colleagues and and make sure that a lot of that stuff is up to date, utilizing, you know, data from across the belt to ensure we have um bacterial blight resistance listed in there, the new nematode and rheniform packages that are out there, and and you know, I I think that it's gonna get more complicated making these decisions because so many companies are utilizing these these native traits, is what they call them. But you've got rheniform, root knot, and bacterial blight and combinations all three, right? And so we have got to be clear. If you have a rheniform problem, here's the varieties you need to choose from. Just because a variety is nematode resistant doesn't mean it's resistant to all of them. Correct. And so uh we got to be clear on that. And and of course, you know, there's a lot of data out there the OVTs, the industry trials, R trials, stuff like that to make those kind of decisions. But there's a lot of stuff that goes into choosing a variety.

SPEAKER_02 21:55

Well, I think you and I can agree on two things on those. The first thing we can agree on is if you got sting nemet, though. Yeah. You need to know the difference. We don't have resistance to that. Right. We don't have it. It doesn't matter what you plant. Yeah. The second thing we can agree on, I believe, is that the worse the ing the more you have a nemathode problem, the higher populations of root diet or reniform in the field, the more benefit you're going to get from a resistant variety. That's right. And I would be, I would echo you and and and and uh say that if you don't have much of a nemathode problem, you know, be do you really want to plant a nemathode resistant variety? Now there's there's a at least one variety out there that seems to do really well, even if there are no nematodes. Right. Um but for the other ones, they continue to improve and yield, they continue to look good. But if you don't have a nemathode problem, do you really want to plant them? But where I go is that if you plant that nematode-resistant variety, you save on the cost of a nematicide. You do not build the nematodes up very much if it's root nine nematode. Reniform nematodes a little bit different, but you don't build them up. So as we look, so with the way cotton is right now, Camp, our decisions we make this year are not only for this year, but they're for growing cotton into the future. And so anything we can do to reduce nematode pressure makes next year's cotton better if we're going to grow cotton in the same field. So admittedly, uh you when you look at your data, and your data is very good, it shows that not all the time and often not the root night reniform or the root-night nemathode or reniform resistant are not at the top of your list. Right. The question to be asked is were they conducted in nematode fields? And if they were not, it's still important data, but it should not be the final decision. And a lot of times growers will leave with a snapshot in their mind of what those top three varieties at your at your uh data or the county agents data. Very important. But if you look at data that comes out of a nematode hellhole, right, then it the interpretation might be different.

SPEAKER_00 23:53

Yeah, and it's I I think it's you know potential in those situations, right? And so if you have a nematode situation, if you plant the variety that's at the top of the list and it's not a nematode variety, what could you have made, right, if you had planted a nematode variety? You know, if you get a sample back and you've got 600, you know, root knot nematodes or whatever, it's like, man, you could really use one, you know. So what would your yield have been if you had gone with a root knot variety, right? And then that's going to knock your populations back for the next year. And so it's a you know, there's a lot of decisions that go into that.

SPEAKER_02 24:31

So and I and I come back to that that most famous field in Georgia, they're in a bend in the road on the way to Athens in Bishop, Georgia, you know. Yeah, um, they're smart, they've been growing cotton for a long time. And in in their situation, a reniform resistant variety is what fit for them. And all I would ask at our GSC, why what would you say at the grower meetings? I'm not there to dictate anything. Yeah, I'm saying just make sure you choose carefully. If you choose not to use a nemathode resistant variety, that's your decision. But just make sure you make it understanding what the pros and the cons are.

SPEAKER_00 25:04

So we we talk a lot about that field, and I mean those growers, they you know, they weren't planting reniform varieties for a long time and were wondering what was going on. Switch to reniform varieties, and it's like, oh man, you know, this changed the game for us. Right. But they uh almost cannot get away from a reniform resistant variety, you know.

Reniform Versus Root Knot Decisions

SPEAKER_00 25:24

Well, what's the difference in rheniform, I guess, reniform nematodes and reniform resistance compared to root knot?

SPEAKER_02 25:33

Great question. Um and there is a big the the similarities are obvious, is that if you plant a reniform resistant in a reniform field or in root knot resistant root knot field, then you do not need the you don't have to use the nematocyte either, right? And so that's a savings on cost. The the big difference that comes into them is that the root-knot nemathode resistant variety almost shuts reproduction down. So if I go into a field and we say we come back at the end of the year, we have a susceptible variety and we sample, we've got six or seven hundred root-knot nematodes per 100 cc of soil. We might have 15 with the resistant variety. Yeah. Okay. So that's if we go in with the reniform variety, what we're seeing is if we come back with 2,000 reniform nemathodes at the end of the season. For Alabama, that might be a low number, you know, covered up in them. But for us, 2,000 would be a healthy, healthy uh number population. Our resistant variety may have 600. Yeah right. So it does slow reproduction down. You don't have quite the reproduction, but it's not the same level of that of of inhibition of reproduction that we have in root knot. But but that does not mean we continue to see even more so sometimes in the reniform, a pr preservation of yield. That yeah, that the reniform resistance may not shut the reproduction down as much as the root knot resistance would, but it preserves yield, protects yield as much or better than the root knot. That's our experience in Georgia. We see that over and over again.

SPEAKER_00 27:04

So would you feel safe if somebody called you and said, All right, I planted a root knot variety last year and I know the impact it had on the populations, it knocked them back. This year I'm gonna go to a non-resistant variety, right? A racehorse or whatever. Would you recommend the same thing on a reniform field?

SPEAKER_02 27:25

Because it doesn't have the same question. Let's listen. That's an excellent question. That's the hardest question I get. So let's back up just a minute. Okay. Grower says I planted uh root-not nemathode resistant variety, I have a root knot nemathode field, I'm going into that field again this year. Can I get away with using out using a resistant variety? So planting a root-knot nemathode resistant variety is about the same as having a peanut crop in there. Right. Okay. So I would really want to know what the numbers were. You know, I would say, yes, you knocked the populations down, but without having an end-of-the season nematode count for me, I really I'd be lying to you if I could make, if I could sleep at night just saying, yeah, you don't have to worry about just plant a susceptible high-yielding variety. Yeah. It's not that easy. Yeah. At best, what I would say is a year with a resistant variety is like having a year of peanuts in there. And if that's the case, do I have confidence to tell you you're free of nemathodes? You're not. Root not nememides. You're not free of root-not nemathodes. Uh at best, what I would say is you might want to go out there. If you didn't take nematode samples, the best I could offer you is a susceptible variety with a nematocide. Yeah. Knowing that your population is down, knowing you're going to get more out of your nematocide. Now, let's say reniform. Yeah. Okay. Because of the fact that reniform-resistant varieties protect yield and look beautiful compared to a susceptible variety, but do not knock the nematode populations down. Even more so, I'd be hesitant to tell you what you could do without a nematode sample out there. So let's say you're at an Alabama off-the-chain level of 25,000 reniform nematodes, and let's say it cuts it back to 9,000. Well, by my you're still in the woods. So that's the big difference. You have less likelihood of a nematode problem, rooting on nematode problem after resistant variety than you do after reniform. But what they both do is they both help you in season with protecting the crop with in the absence of an amino side.

SPEAKER_00 29:23

So why are the numbers so much higher on reniforms and root like do they just have a higher reproductive potential? Or, you know, you see like 2,000, right? And it's like, oh man, that's a lot of reniforms versus five or six hundred root knots, and it's like, holy cow, that's a lot of root knots. So what, you know, you get what I'm saying? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:41

Must have something to do with the biology, but it also has to do with uh with our threshold levels, right? So when we talk about a threshold level for the southern root knot nemathode on cotton, it's 100 juveniles per 100 cc of soil. With reniform, it's 250 per 100 cc of soil. So the first thing is 250. That's lower than I thought it was. Yeah, 250 is our action threshold for reniform. And that simply says we recognize that well, what's our threshold for sting? One. Yeah. Yeah. We under what it interpretation is one sting nemathode, a hundred root nut nemathodes, or two hundred fifty reniform nematodes are all at a damaging level. Now, why do we see so many more? Why does our population go, you know, we're not surprised to see 2,000 reniforms like wow, that's pretty impressive. Yeah. But we don't ever see that really in root nine. So it's it just has to do with the difference in biology, difference in the reproduction. It may have something to do with the difference too that that rhinoform are what we call uh pseudo ectoparasites. And what that simply means is in in the uh or pseudoendoparasites, in the root knot are endoparasites. So the reniform never fully embeds itself in the root, whereas the root knot nematode does, the female does. And so it may have something to do with that biology as well. Just speculating, but yeah, clearly there's a difference in our population expectations from reniform versus root nut. Interesting. Just again, curiosity.

Fungicide Timing For Cotton Leaf Diseases

SPEAKER_00 31:04

But uh all right, so we've talked a lot about nematodes, we talked about seedling diseases, and those are things early early in the year, right? Variety selection. So those are things, hey, you get your one chance, once it's in the ground, it's over, right? And bacterial blight the same way. Yeah, bacterial blight, and then that's but that goes in the in the variety selection decision and and things like that. But what about any updates on foliar diseases? We talked about stem filum, right? Manager potash. But what about things like target spot, aerolate mildew, stuff like that?

SPEAKER_02 31:36

Yeah, so so the target spot surprised me last year. You know, I in my research and my expectations, uh, target spot, you know, 50% of the time we're gonna see it depends upon your growth, depends upon your rotation, but about 50% of the time we see a nice yield response with a fungicide on that. It has to do a lot of it has to do with when it comes in, when we see it, what the conditions are. Aeriolic mildew, almost always, unless a field is compromised such a way as the yield's already shot. Right. You know, the yield is broke, it doesn't matter what the disease does or doesn't do. The yields already go, it could be because of drought, it could be because of nematose, it could be because of porphyry, whatever it is. Um, but if you have good growing conditions, and areolic mildew comes in early enough, and when I say early enough, that probably means later in late July, early August. We always see a yield advantage. And so I I never hesitate to say to spray for either one of those diseases. Uh you got a better opportunity with the uh Ariolic mildew to make a yield response outright. Uh but I also say this going into 2026 is unlike peanuts, where 30 days or 45 days, you better put fungicide out. Uh in cotton, I wouldn't I wouldn't automatically spray. I would want to have somebody looking at me wanting to listen to where it is. Your county agents will have a good idea where it is. I would not automatically spray. An example is this. Last year, aerial at mildew, for reasons I don't understand, maybe the drier weather, it didn't come in till late. Uh aerial at mildew in my trials was very late coming in, disappointingly late if you're doing a trial. And and it really didn't cause that much damage. So if we automatically go out, Bob says our four, I mean, fourth week of bloom, we better put a fungicide out. Bob doesn't say that. Bob says when your cotton starts to bloom, it's time to be prepared to that there could be an advantage, a benefit to putting a fungicide out.

SPEAKER_01 33:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:22

And so Ariolip Mill is a perfect example. It's more aggressive than it was, it is more damaging than it was, it's more widespread than it was. But last year it was quiet. A target spot came in. The biggest news, unfortunately, Dr. Hand, is that uh while we can still use Azoxystrobin on target spot, but Pyraclostrobin or headline's better. Yeah. Um we got better functions. The uh uh Miravis Top is better, preaxor is better. But with the Aerial at Mildew, we have been until a couple years ago, we were able to do uh well enough with Azoxystrobin abound quadrus. Uh thanks to work done by our county agents, uh lot of work done in Colquick County, a lot of work done in Bullock County. We've seen the erosion of that. We've seen that what's happening now is not everywhere all the time, but as oxystroben, which was attractive because it was cheap, not the best, but it was cheap. Um really we're not seeing much difference between doing putting that out and not doing anything at all. Yeah. So if Goris says the last thing in the world I need is a new disease or an eating disease, or uh Bob says 50%, I'm gonna roll the dice, say I don't need it. Well, yeah, make a decision. But recognize that certainly with the aerolic mildew, there's advantage to be made. It's not hard to control as long as you get out there and put a fungicide out. Right. But I recreationally spray? No, I would not recreationally spray. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:46

So, you know, I I guess that started cropping up a couple years ago with the aeriolate mildew, and and there was some discussion about it being a different species of the fungus, right? That we were not used to dealing with. Is that has that held up or is it resistance in the same one, or kind of how what do you think?

SPEAKER_02 35:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:06

So so when we first we're no in Georgia, we're no stranger to aeriolate mildew.

SPEAKER_02 35:10

I've been seeing aeriolate mildew since I got here.

SPEAKER_00 35:13

Hey, people in other parts of the cotton belt, they're just now learning about this stuff. Well, you know, we hey, we've had we've had we've been dealing with this.

SPEAKER_02 35:19

It was almost a harvest aid, right? We it it stayed primarily east of I-75. It came in late, it dropped the leaves, uh, didn't do much. But uh since about 2017 or so, it's become much more widespread. Yeah. We do recognize that there's a second species here. What we don't know is when it ever came, because Camp in 2005 or four, when we were doing some fungicide studies and saw it, we just assumed in the literature it was one variety and one species. I had no reason to doubt that. I never went and checked, did it? You know, if it's quacks like walks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it's a duck. Yeah. Since then we found out that there is a more aggressive species. How long has it been here? I don't know. But we're finding it almost exclusively, if not exclusively, over what we thought was here twenty years ago. Yeah. Is there a replacement? We can't say that because we never checked. But what we do know is there's a more aggressive species. It's one that's common in Brazil. Uh I believe that has something to do with with the disease we're facing now. I don't think it has anything to do with why we're seeing a it's not a change in species that allows us that it's a reason for the fungicide efficacy. That I believe is purely selection. Yeah. Selection.

SPEAKER_00 36:33

Spray and more, yeah, spray and more abound, right? Because it's the more economical option. Of course, you select for resistance by doing that, and then you know, kind of wind up in the situation that we're in. Correct. So okay, so uh let's see, foliar diseases. Well, what else, man? What else you want to talk about? Well, the better question is You said R4, you want to talk about soybeans?

SPEAKER_02 36:56

Well, but the better question, yeah. No, I don't. The better question is what don't I want to talk about?

Boll Rot Limits And Virus Risk

SPEAKER_02 37:01

I know. It's your favorite. Because there's that that that should go unminited.

SPEAKER_00 37:04

Hey, hey, but we you know, 2025 was a good year.

unknown 37:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:08

See, uh for those of you all listening, he knows exactly what I'm talking about. It's the it's the bull rot. In fact, if you come to one of my cotton meeting, I'm gonna start with a picture of bull rot on a beginning slide and say, So just so you saw it. Yeah, just so we didn't see it. Yeah, say if uh if anybody's gonna be disappointed that I don't have a cure for it, you I want you to be disappointed from the beginning. Okay. Um the good news was is it's last year with our conditions. If there was any silver lining to very warm, dry conditions, this bull rot goes away. Yeah. Um we're still it's gonna be, we're at the mercy of the weather. Yeah. We're at the mercy. The you've done and hats off too, you've done a lot of work. You know, the question is, well, what about skip row? What about this? What about that? We still see we have it. We have excellent fungicides. If you put this fungus on a these bolrot pathogens on a petri plate and amend that auger with fungicide, we we s kick the snot out of them, right? We do a good job. But the problem is we haven't found a way to get enough fungicide down there long enough, deep in a canopy, around a three-dimensional bowl, to protect it. And and what happens is those sutures, the this the cracks, if you can't get fungicide in there, that's where that pathogen is going to find ways to get in. So it's uh and and by the way, it you know, that that young lint is like a sugar cube for uh for a fungus, right? It's a sugar cube. And so it's it's it's tough.

SPEAKER_00 38:30

Yeah, oh yeah. It's tough. It is tough. And I mean we're at the mercy of the weather, but we had some last year, but it was very, very sparse and not normally where we see it, right? We normally see it in southwest Georgia. I got some calls out of Dooley County, and even over in Midville, I saw more than I normally see over there. And a lot of that had to do with overcast, rainy weather, and and timing of that. And um, but I mean, overall in 2025, it wasn't as big of an issue. I think that's part of the reason that we're looking at a really good cotton crop for 2025. You know, I I mean we're best cotton crop ever was 2012, and I think we're gonna get close to that. And I think part of the reason is because that August and September was just perfect. You know, we didn't rot what we normally do, and we were able to harvest everything.

SPEAKER_02 39:17

And that probably had something to do with aerial at mildew, too. Yeah, right. For those conditions, and so it's yeah, we can't we that's one factor I tell the growers we cannot control the weather. All we can do is try and anticipate. We put the per the measures out there if we have them to offset the effect of the weather. So that's why we got irrigation, right? Right. But uh but at the same time, there's we did benefit in terms of bowl rod and arrow at most. And there's that one last, you say what there's that one last condition that uh I wish would go away, and that is um cotton leaf roll dwarf virus, bronze, wilt, and but it's a it's a mouthful, and you know, I'm sure everybody knows I'm just trying to protect myself and everybody else. But um again, uh you've got great data on that. Our little buddy Sudeep, the Dr. Bag does. Um my the only suggestion here is, and I'll probably echo what you're gonna say. The first thing is planting earlier seems to be better. Yeah, and the second thing is we there are some high-yielding varieties that growers have planted that get this disease, and in four out of five years, it's a little bit here and there, and you make some top yields. So if you have zero tolerance, if you have if you're gonna if you can't stuff, if it's going to be. I'm scared, you know. If you're monger Bob, um I got I got a good friend over in uh Baring County, right? He gets he makes him furious when he sees. I don't blame him. You've got a list of varieties that you probably want to stay away from. Yep. Um otherwise, the only thing we can say is just plant early and try to avoid it. Yeah. But if I was to ask you, camp, have have we been able to grow excellent cotton with a susceptible variety?

SPEAKER_00 40:59

Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. We have even this past year, right? It was a light year. This year. And as a, you know, it's funny you bring that up. So I did an early planted and a late planted, right? With these susceptible varieties and some that are more likely to show symptoms than others. And uh, you know, I could get up in front of people and say, Oh, we saw 10 times more plants whenever we planted late compared to planted early. And people are like, oh my gosh, 10 times, 10 eggs. Well, then they don't ask the numbers. Right. We saw three when we planted early and 30 in a whole trial when we planted late. Right. That's out of thousands of plants that we counted. You know, and so it's, you know, this past year was light, but you do put yourself at risk when you plant late compared to planting early.

SPEAKER_02 41:45

And that's something that's now for a public for a for a peer-reviewed publication, that that sounds really good, right? Yeah, that's right. But when you're a grower, you really need to you need to ask, put these in context. So when we talk about yield increase or when we talk about disease, you know, percentages are good and great.

SPEAKER_00 42:02

But you need to recognize uh what they are. What the numbers are. Yeah, so uh I know you're big on this. We get to the end of your presentation, you're always like, all right, five things, or you know, however many things, right? You take however many things you want to take. What are the take-home messages for 2026?

Five Takeaways For 2026 Planning

SPEAKER_02 42:19

All right, so the take-home message is this the five things. The first thing is that one chance, right? And so make sure your variety selection, make sure your uh soil temperature, make sure your forecast, your variety selection for disease and nematodes, your forecast for seedling disease. Second thing would be is recognizing what nematocides you might use. If you chose not to use a resistant variety, you got a nematode problem or a sting nematode problem, recognize that that not all nematocides are equal. Uh recognize that they don't give them away. But when you're looking at what the potential lint yield increase is, do you do you really want to do you really want to roll the die and say, I'm not going to put one out? So that's number two. Number three would be is going into it, recognize very carefully that Bob would have been fooled by Jacid's symptoms if he didn't know they were out there. Because I would have said, well, it doesn't look quite like potassium deficiency, but what else could it be? So it must be potassium. And therefore I would have missed it. So make sure you recognize these symptoms. The symptom of what's a symptom of a root-dot nematode, a reniform nematode on the foliage look like? What does a jacid look like versus a potassium deficiency? And just recognize those the symptoms out there. So that's number three. Number four would be is the fungicide benefit from target spot and aerial mill. Do recognize there's research backed, it is important, it does matter, but make sure that uh your A, you're for your sake as a producer, make sure you're timing it when it should be timed. Uh, and make sure you recognize that if you miss the boat and you've already got 30% defoliation out there, uh it may make you feel better to go out there and try to. Punish it. I finally got that word to punish it. But you're not going to punish it. It already punished you. So make sure you do the right thing. And the last thing is just recognize that it's not that I don't care about bowl rutt. I lose sleep over bowl rutt. But there's just really nothing, you know, that's in God's hands. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:17

That's right. So la last thing, you work on four different crops, right? Yeah. No more than four. I count sugarcane too. Do you really? I consider myself the sugar cane panthone. Okay. So that makes it. So, you know, we're we're coming off 2025, which is the first time since 1993 that peanut acres exceeded

Rotation Warning On Back To Back Peanuts

SPEAKER_00 44:38

cotton.

unknown 44:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:39

What's your advice to people that are thinking about going back-to-back peanuts again, maybe three years in a row, versus putting cotton back in that field, even though we're staring down the situation that we're in, right?

SPEAKER_02 44:53

There is nothing good that can come out of Peanuts Behind Peanuts on a you know, you may have a honeymoon, you may get away with it, and that's what you're doing. You're getting away with it. You may get away with it. You got lucky. But you got you got lucky. But yeah, God. But what I'm saying is if we continue to not plant cotton in a traditional peanut cotton rotation, we have to recognize that if we're going to pay for that in terms of increased nematode pressure and soil borne disease pressure and possibly least butt pressure, if we don't find a improve in introduce more corn into it. Soybeans may be a short-term answer, but not a long-term answer. Well, because then you bring in CBR and the nematodes. So if we cannot rotate like we used to, where we had cotton in the rotation, in the short term we can try we will increase our use of pesticides, fungicides, and nematicides. And over time, there is no substitute in any of our chemical controls for rotation, and you will be forced to rely more and more on resistant varieties in peanuts, which we have, whether you want to or not. Right. So having less cotton acreage in Georgia is no friend to peanut acres.

SPEAKER_00 46:11

That's right. That's right. Yeah. I mean, it's I've said it uh again and again, and I I write it in stuff, but it's like cotton is good for Georgia agriculture. Period. I mean, it it helps the peanuts. It it of course we have all the infrastructure and things like that that we have to keep going, but it certainly is helpful to our peanut acres, our peanut growers, and and things like that. So keep that in mind as we're making decisions. And of course, a lot of that may not be your decision. It might be what is dictated by whoever is providing financing or whatever. But you know, if you've gone back-to-back peanuts or three years in a row or whatever, it's time to break that. It's time to break that cycle. We need to plant something else, whether it's cotton or corn or whatever. Of course, we prefer, I prefer you plant you plant cotton, right? So

Meetings And Final Questions

SPEAKER_00 46:58

last thing.

SPEAKER_02 46:58

So if anybody, if anybody listens to this, is a big thing. Last thing, those are Bob's favorite words. I don't I don't I don't need to go to I don't need to go to Bob's preserv presentation now because I heard it. Well, uh I really want to see you, you know. That's right. I want to see you. I figure that the best thing, Camp, about our winter meetings is not the presentations themselves. That's important. It is the interaction, the discussions that happened before and after the meetings, which which really tip the uh tip it towards why we hope people will be there. Right. We have the opportunity to really talk about some things before and after that uh that we might not, we wouldn't have had at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_00 47:36

Yes. And I learn a lot from those conversations at directs, what we work on here in Tifton and throughout the state. So um, yeah, still come to the meetings. Uh, it's a great time to visit. Of course, a lot of times we're enjoying meals together, fellowship with each other, just catch up, see what the year was like. But Bob certainly appreciate it, man. And uh, if you have any questions about this or anything else, reach out to your county agent.

SPEAKER_02 48:00

Thanks, man.

SPEAKER_00 48:02

Thank you for listening to this episode of Talking Cotton with the UGA Cotton Team. If you have any questions about anything we talked about today, or if there's anything you'd like for us to talk about in the future, please contact your local UGA County Extension agent. And as always, you can find us on all major podcast platforms. Be sure to like, share with your friends, and subscribe so you can stay up to date.