Talkin' Cotton Podcast
Welcome to the UGA Cotton Team's Talkin' Cotton Podcast. This is a podcast for cotton growers, county agents, industry partners and anyone else interested in learning about science-backed cotton production and pest management. Our goal is to educate you with the most up-to-date data and information all season long. Talkin' Cotton will feature guests, such as, extension specialists, research faculty, graduate students, extension agents, industry allies and many others! Let's get into the why's of puttin' on, throwin' off and cuttin' out.
Talkin' Cotton Podcast
Georgia Cotton Insect Updates For 2026 And What To Do First
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Jassids didn’t “ease into” Georgia cotton, they exploded across the map. We recorded this update heading into 2026 because what we learned in 2025 changes how we scout, how fast we react, and how we protect yield when a new insect pest shows up and multiplies in summer heat.
We walk through the big lessons from the UGA Cotton Team’s response: how we confirmed what kills cotton jassid, why insecticide rotation matters for resistance management, and what hopperburn tells you before losses become permanent. We also share the field reality that makes this pest so unforgiving: you can’t miss a spray once the threshold is met because the crop can go from green to yellow to red in about two weeks, and red leaves don’t recover. We explain the current working threshold moving into 2026 and the push to standardize scouting by sampling main stem leaf number four so agents, consultants, and growers can make faster, clearer decisions.
Just as important, we zoom out to the full cotton insect management picture. Thrips still deliver one of the most consistent yield responses in Georgia cotton, plant bugs are a major problem in specific regions with confirmed pyrethroid resistance, and whitefly pressure can be influenced by winter freezes. We also touch on practical risk factors like field edges, weak spots, potash deficiency, and why excessive nitrogen can make pest issues worse. If you want a grounded, field ready IPM plan for Georgia cotton, this conversation is built for you.
Why Meetings And Scouting Matter
SPEAKER_01Bringing you all things cotton production and pest management. This is the Talkin' 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 we're here at the end of 2025, but we're recording content, I suppose is what you call it, for the first part of 2026. And really uh these are our updates going into 2026. That a lot of the stuff we're going to talk about at county production meetings uh with growers. And uh, you know, we we want to stress the importance of coming to meetings if you're uh able. Uh, you know, that's that's really we talked about it a little bit last year whenever we did this, but that's really where business happens, and it's not at it's not during the meeting, it might be before or after, whenever we're actually able to talk to growers and kind of uh see how the year was and what they learned and and things like that. But uh, you know, we do want to do this to provide a little more information just because you may miss the meeting in your county, and two, not every cotton team member is coming to every cotton meeting across the state. But uh with me today is Dr. Philip Roberts. Good morning. Dr. Roberts. Hello, of course Sarah's Sarah's here. He caught himself saying good morning. Sarah also said good morning. You know, it is morning here. It's morning right now as we're recording. Yep. Um but you know, Dr. Roberts, we there's a lot that happened in in 2025 uh with respect to insects, but you know, there's some there's some other things we need to talk about before we get into into the good stuff, right? Into jazz, which is what everybody wants to talk about.
Scout Schools And Field Readiness
SPEAKER_00Well, everybody needs to hear about jazz. But uh, you know, just kind of to kick it off, you know, I think the jazzed and the fact that we have it in the state of Georgia, this is really gonna mandate that every single field of cotton is scouted. And uh, you know, well scouted well. And and and you you know, it's not overly difficult to scout for insect pests. It's time. It's time. But one of the things I I would mention is that each year we do have scout schools. We have two, or one in Tifton, which is the first Monday in June. So that'll be June 1st. And then we also do one at the Southeast Research and Education Center in Midville, and that's always the second Tuesday in June, and that is June the 9th.
SPEAKER_01So the first Monday in June. First Monday. It's June 1st, and then the second Tuesday. Is that June 9th? Okay. I'll just make it sure.
Thrips Control Is Not Optional
SPEAKER_00So at those, we spend half a day. Uh we'll work with Mark Abney, our peanut entomologist, on that, but we will go over insect identification and how to scout and show a lot of images of damage, and we do that for cotton, soybean, and peanut. So it's a good day to learn about insects, and uh you know, it's gonna be so, so important as we go to 2026 that that everyone is scouting each and every field. Before we uh move to jazz, uh, you know, I do want to talk about some other insects. And uh, you know, everyone's concerned about jazz, but there's a lot of other things that we have to do. And we've learned over the years. And and we'll just start at the beginning.
SPEAKER_01Well, and I think it's important, right? Everybody wants to talk about jazz, okay, but we can't forget other stuff that we still got to handle.
SPEAKER_00We gotta handle. And and we can go to something as as simple as thrips. Most consistent insect pest we deal with. Most consistent insect pest we deal with. And uh, you know, it's it's just something that we have to do. And it's the only insect we actually recommend a preventive treatment. So we have to do something at planting for thrips. Why do we do that? We know they're gonna be there. We see such a consistent yield response to thrips control. Yep. I mean, it happens every time here. And uh, you know, we're just looking, you know, we were neck deep in jazz, but at the end of the year when we picked some of our thrip straws, we had these huge responses this year, higher than normal. Bale of cotton. You know, that's a lot of cotton.
SPEAKER_01I think it's a lot of cotton.
SPEAKER_00So, you know, everyone out there listening knows how to manage thrips. We just got to make sure we do it. And uh, you know, as we go into 2026, you know, the economic situation and you know where we are, it's it's still gonna be tight, Camp. And uh that's not a place to cut. You know, we just need to be reminded of that. And uh and everybody wants to cut up front, you know. You know, you can't cut up front. Yeah, you know, you if you plant it, you gotta make it. You gotta make it. And uh, you know, it's I I admire growers. Most of our growers, once it's planted, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Once it's in the you're all in. That's right. We can talk all winter long about, oh, well, I'm gonna cut this or I'm gonna do this or whatever. But at the end of the day, once it's once the seed is in the ground, these guys want to make it. It's go time.
Plant Bugs, ThryvOn, And Diamond
SPEAKER_00You want to make the best crop you can. Oh, yeah. And you need to watch your budget and be smart. Oh, of course. You just gotta make good decisions. And hey, while we're talking about that, to be successful in any business, it's all about making good decisions. Yep. Talk about insect management and cotton. How do you make a good decision? You've got to know what's out there. Hire scout. Hire a scout. Hire a good scout. Good scout. One other insect I think is worthy of mentioning, and uh did a lot of work on it in 2025 before Jasset's. Before Jasset's his, but it's tarnished plant bug. And we could also put uh clouded plant buck in there. But in parts of Georgia, particularly the western side of the state, maybe a little north of Tifton and southwest corner, plant bugs were far greater of an issue than Jassets. And uh, you know, folks who are in these problematic plant bug areas, they need to give some thought to how they're gonna manage plant bugs in 26 right now. Yeah. And uh in these problem areas, I think there's there's two technologies growers really need to consider. They need to be looking at thrive-on technology, and again, that's a trait. Um you know, it's not a cure-all for plant bugs, but it uh definitely takes the pressure off. We still need to scout thrive on for plant bugs, we may still need to treat thrive on for plant bugs, but it does give us a little more flexibility in our timeliness. Right. Another thing on Thrive On is you know, it does just do a really good job at protecting cotton from thrips. So, you know, you look at planting dates and and when you're, you know, how you're gonna place that technology, you can you can get some additional advantages there. Yeah. If you choose not to use Thrive On and you're in one of these uh problematic plant bug areas, we need to look at a product called diamond. And I know in 25 there was a lot more diamond used than in 24.
SPEAKER_01There was a grower that told us the other day every trip he made across the field, diamond in a tank.
SPEAKER_00Well, yeah, he was pretty aggressive, but but again, uh, you know, growers are are learning about that technology. In other parts of the belt where plant bugs are an issue, diamond's on about every acre. So we'll talk a little more detailed at a grower meetings. Uh you can look in our production guide, you know, we'll have a little more information on the proper use of diamond.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And uh, but again, it's not a cure-all, but it will help us manage the pest. Yeah. It's almost like using a pre-emerge in weed management systems. Right. You know, or knack. Or knack on white flies. Same type thing. They're not cure-alls, but they sure help us manage the manage the pest. And on ThriveOn, there's newer varieties. Newer varieties.
SPEAKER_01One of them, one of them this year, uh, in some of the data I've seen on OVTs and even like down in some of those plant bug areas, there's some of those uh consultants that do larger variety trials. I mean, one of those Thrive On varieties did really good. Oh, yeah. So I mean they're it's coming. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00It's coming, and and still, you know, the number one thing when you select a variety has got to be yield. Yield, yeah. Yield all day. Um I will talk about these problem areas just a little more. Um for the last several years, we really talked about early planting dates, is where we tended to see more plant bugs, and that holds true on plant bugs that infest squaring cotton. It's pretty consistent. Yeah. And I think those plant bugs just aggregate on squaring cotton. Once cotton begins to square, it's very attractive to a plant bug. But another thing we need to consider, and and what's been most problematic the last couple years is late season plant bugs. And uh, so then it tends to flip-flop. Our later planted cotton really can have some high populations, you know, in August and September. So you got to balance that out a little bit. And you know, one of the things that we've noticed talking to agents, consultants, growers, you know, we if we're in trouble with plant bugs, the way we get out of trouble camp is to tighten a spray interval. That's really hard to do in our production environment. You know, a lot of our growers are are set up and and kind of design uh just their plan of growing cotton on you know 12 to 14 day interval. That's hard to do with equipment that operates correctly. That's right. But you know, this is where we get in trouble. We've got to tighten that interval down. Four or five days. And that's a hard thing. Yeah. And and that's where the thrive on and diamond may allow us to stay out of a situation where we have to drop right back in back to back. But hey, we're still learning, our growers are still learning. Um just need to get out there and see what we got and make good decisions. Yep. Yeah. But that's uh, you know, of the insects we deal with, I mean, we'll we can cover stink bugs in 15 seconds. Yeah. Hey, people know what to do on stuff. People know what to do, and we do a good job there. Yeah. But, you know, those are just some basic things that we still need to consider. Is there anything else we need to talk about?
Whiteflies, Freezes, And Snail Problems
SPEAKER_01I don't know. You want to talk you normally talk about like aphids or spider mites or something. Claron mites, it's the cost of doing business with plant bugs. Yeah. Aphids, so we just don't see a consistent yield response. That's true. Yeah. Um I'm trying to think. White flies. Yeah, white flies. You can talk about white flies. Well, I mean, it is what it is. It is what it is.
SPEAKER_00We take it as it comes. Cold weather's been good. Cold weather's been good. We've had two good cold events, so that's good. Um, two good cold events, maybe we'll get a few more. I really think when we have these sporadic hard freezes, and I would say we had we've had two for sure. Two hard freezes, you know. It seems to me like in years past where we get multiple hard freezes, that really helps us uh with white flies. And the the reason that is, is these white flies, they're just surviving on wild host plants. Um, they do survive on some cultivated plants like brassicas. Yeah. But when we get a hard freeze, if you have immature whiteflies on a winter weed camp, or not a winter weed, but just a weed that's sensitive to cold temperatures, we kill it. Yeah. And those immature white flies are. Every immature white fly on that leaf is gonna die. So, you know. So we hope for some more cold weather to help us not only with white flies, but maybe another insect as well.
SPEAKER_01That's right. That's right. Well, you want to what? Hey, you want to talk about snails at all? We can. I mean, you got real into that before the judge.
SPEAKER_00Sarah's here, so you know. So we did a lot of work on plant bugs this spring. Number one, hey, we confirmed plant bugs are resistant to pyrethroids, whether you're in Grady County, Kiff County, Jefferson County, all over the state of Georgia, a pyrethroid would not control a plant bug. Yeah. So some of you folks in East Georgia who don't deal with plant bugs, is this if you get into a situation, we're gonna have to address them a little differently. And I, you know, that's an important point that people need to know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
Jassid Arrival And Rapid Spread
SPEAKER_00Um and I think we knew that last year, but you proved it. We proved it. We we we hypothesized if we want to use a scientific word, but we were pretty confident. Yeah. And we just put some numbers to it. And uh so, you know, we had devoted a lot of time doing that. And we devoted a lot of time looking at snails. Yeah. And uh the way we're gonna leave the snails camp, if you have a situation where snails are a problem for you, call your county agent. And uh we don't need to go into a lot of details here because we'll forget about it because we do know snails are more of an issue in reduced tillage environments. Yeah. Kind of makes sense. Yeah. Um but we do have some options, yeah, or a option. Yeah. Um, but it's got to be done right, and there's a lot of little details that we can go over with the county agent. Yeah, right. But uh, you know, after you know, we I was just thinking back talking to uh to our crew, and they were called the snail six team, I think is what they called themselves. Because we did a lot of work on snails and and learned a lot. You know, shortly after or during the snail effort. Snail and plant bug effort. It kind of changed. We refocused. For the most part, 90% of our program started focusing on Jassid. We didn't have a chance. Just 90. Well, it was probably like 120. So yeah. But yeah, but we will we do need to talk about jazzes because that's what people want to hear. That's right.
SPEAKER_01And uh don't forget, you know, again, that that other stuff, you still gotta plan for that stuff, you still gotta take care of those issues if they come up. But I mean, you know, all anybody wants to talk about is jasses because it's the new kid on the block and all this, but but I mean, we still got stuff that we we're gonna have to deal with outside of that.
SPEAKER_00If you got a bunch of stunted cotton from thrips and the weeds get bad and you can't get up under that cotton. If plant bugs come in there and knock off half your fruit, you know, you're behind. I have other problems, yeah. And uh we you know we when we talk about jazzes, it's it's probably we want to make an efficient crop. I don't like the word earliness. But but the the the if we can reduce the time we need to protect cotton from jazzeds, you know, that may save us a spray or something. But uh but again, back to jazz. First jazz we found was July 9th. Yeah. And uh Justin owed them down in Seminole County. And uh you know what's amazing to me is by September there were jazz in every county in the state of Georgia where we grow cotton. So this thing literally spread across the whole state in just a couple months.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Ran up the East Coast to the Virginia line, yeah. Um, ran into Mississippi, and then we got spots of jazz in Louisiana, Tennessee, Texas. So the insect has really moved. And uh, you know, when I think of kind of how me and Sarah and the rest of the cotton team, we kind of approached jazz and our Southeast entomology working group, you know, a great group of guys, Isaac Escall at Florida, Scott Graham at Auburn, Jeremy Green up at Clemson. I mean, we all work together so much. But uh, you know, we kind of directed our program to answer three questions, and these have kind of become cliche, but but they really kind of give us a path to follow. And the number one question was how do you kill the insect? That's the number one question I got. Hey, what do we do? What do we do? And uh you know, we started within days after we found chassis down in Seminole County and uh doing bioassays in the lab. Then we did on farm trials, just little efficacy trials. And in a really in a period of maybe a week or two, um once we started spraying stuff on the farm, we pretty much had an idea of what would work. And we can kill this insect.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
What Kills Jassids And Insecticide Rotation
SPEAKER_00Now we've got a lot to learn about resprays and you know when those occur and and how long can we make it um on a spray. But we have a we have a lot of products that are active on this insect. Uh we used a lot of a certain product last year, it was bidrin. Um but there are a lot of other options too. Yeah. Uh we uh use quite a bit of argile, quite a bit of a cell. Then we started using carbine, which is very good on this insect. Uh we have several of our white fly insecticides are active on this insect. So when we talk at grower means, we're gonna talk about what I'm gonna most likely call like a top-tier product. Yeah. And then we have other products with activity that have a lot of utility. And uh, you know, if you have to treat plant bugs and jazz that are out there, let's use something that that helps us on the jazz a little bit. But uh but you know, I think step number one was probably the easiest one to answer. Yeah, or maybe question number two. But step question number one was really easy, it just took time, effort, resources. Thanks to all our crew. The snail six, they turned out to the Jassid Six, but uh um you know, they did a lot of work counting jazz and growers, county agents, growers letting us work on their farms, you know, county agents, and our county agents did a great job just helping us understand where chassids were. Because when this thing was first going, you know, I really stressed to uh our agents we need to know where this thing is. Yeah, and we do.
SPEAKER_01Well, it was funny, you know, it was funny to me hearing stuff like, oh, well, Cliff Collins in Burke County went to his grandma's house in Augusta. Yeah, there they were. She had okra in her backyard and he found them up there. You know, and it's not we don't we don't grow cotton up there, but they grow it right across the river.
SPEAKER_00We grow real near it, yeah. It's important. And uh, you know, the reason it was important, uhsides are gonna be sensitive to cold temperatures. Now, to what extent, we don't know. But we do need to know if they're in a county. So, you know, next spring or summer, you know, if we can find if we can't find jazzeds in a county, hey, maybe we understand a little more about how they were able to survive the winter. But we learned how to control the insect and uh got a lot more to learn. One of the things I'm gonna go ahead and say right now is uh jazzed has a very short life cycle. Um in the heat of the summer, they flip generation in about two weeks. Now, if you read about jazz in other parts of the world, primarily in India, Pakistan, over in that area, jas are resistant to basically every class of chemistry that we have. Um we're gonna have to talk about rotating insecticides. Yeah, we cannot use the same product over and over and over.
SPEAKER_01And we, you know, 2025 was different because we were just trying to make it. Well, in 2025, we were just trying to survive.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And uh, you know, part of the challenge uh we as an industry had was just recognizing that this is a problem. I mean, it took us time to say, okay. And we made several trips. I drugged you to East Georgia. Yeah. And, you know, the first time is like, well, the second time it's like, okay, here we go.
SPEAKER_01We we went to Apple County to a field that had already been depraved, and they put some picks in the tank, too, I believe. Right. And so that cotton was green when we went there. And I was like, what are we looking at, man? Like we had drugged your spider from Tifton to Midville to Baxley, and then torrential rain. Yeah, and it was pouring rain, but then it I think it was the next week. Yeah, we went back. I was at home keeping keeping our youngest, and you called me, you were like, Hey, you gotta come with me this afternoon. Like, but this time is for real. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So I was like, Again, we just needed some more eyes. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And um and I mean that that trip led to some other stuff, right? We answered some more questions on that little on that little drive. But any the the the
SPEAKER_00The other thing I'll say, and I'm so proud of everybody. Our agents, our growers. I mean, we handled this insect. Yeah. And uh and did so without adding too much. Without adding too much. We didn't add trips. We changed up what we sprayed. And uh I've got a couple growers who've just hammered into my head that adding a trip or saving a trip has got so much value on the farm.
SPEAKER_01Well, and that might be why the plant bug thing, right? You come back to that, why that's so difficult. Because you add a trip in five days as opposed to coming back in 10 or 14, right?
Yield Loss, Hopperburn, And No Missed Sprays
SPEAKER_00Yep. But you know, the insect was a good teacher. Yeah. Um, it was very easy to see the damage. Damage showed up on the edges. Yeah. And once you train yourself to see it, you can unsee it. Insect says, here I am. Uh-huh. Here's what I'm about to do. Get ready. Get ready. All right. So the second question that we want to answer is, does it matter? And when we say does it matter, at the end of the day, what we're saying there is, does it impact yield? Yes. Uh, yes, it does. So we uh we're still got a few more trials to gin to get some more yield data, but I think we've got nine data points, nine trials right now, camp, and we're sitting on 18% loss. Um we had a range from 1% up to 46%. That's a good range. That's a good range. And you know, it can be devastating. Uh my colleague in Florida had some trials that, you know, even it was 90 plus. It was bad.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And that was some late planted cotton, just had real high jason numbers and truly untreated. Yeah. And that's something I'll say about our trials, Camp. You know, of those nine data points, at least half of them is not a truly untreated.
SPEAKER_01But you had products that weren't effective, right? Well, or you know, let's just as effective.
SPEAKER_00As an example, uh we did a trial in Brooks County with a cooperating grower. We made counts for two weeks. And we had a strip trial right beside it. We made counts for about 10 days. And once we were done taking our data camp, the grower immediately dropped in and sprayed the field where we were working because he saw the effects that we had had. And uh, but what that shows you is you cannot miss a spray. Yeah. And we can call it the first spray or any spray, but you cannot miss a spray.
SPEAKER_01You just can't get behind.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you cannot because there ain't no catching up. Yeah, and I mean, growers saw how a field went from green to yellow to red, and it could happen in two weeks. And if that field is red, based on what we know, that field's not doing well. It ain't hitting on much. It ain't hitting on much. I mean, you know, it's all about photosynthesis. Yeah, hey, that red leaf's not very good. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And uh it's doing about 20%.
SPEAKER_00Doing about 20% when it's red. And once that leaf's red, it ain't coming back. So that's one of the things as we go into 26, we just need to be on top of this. We don't need to be overly aggressive. Yeah. I mean, that's the you know, the worst thing we can do. Yeah. But we don't want to miss it either. Right. It's kind of like white flies.
unknownYeah.
Threshold and Scouting Method
SPEAKER_00You can't get behind. And uh, you know, if you're gonna err, let's err on being aggressive. Yep. Okay, so we know it matters in terms of yield. And and the third question is when does it matter? And and when I say when does it matter, what is a threshold? What is a population of jazzids where we need to react to preserve yield? Now that one's going to be a lot harder to answer. And it's interesting, um, you know, when this all started happening, one of the first things we do is read. You know, read all we can about the insect in other parts of the world. Other parts of the world, like in India, they've dealt with this insect for a hundred years. And they have thresholds. And if when you read the literature, the threshold per leaf range from one to five. Okay, well, I don't like to spray cotton, so hey.
SPEAKER_01Let's not be super aggressive.
SPEAKER_00Let's not be super aggressive. So we started off and we would say, okay, maybe we'll spray it five. Yep. Five jacids on a leaf. And uh Sally Taylor with Cotton Incorporated came down, and we were over in Appling County, and by the time we got back to Tifton, I think we stopped in Colquit County and looked and looked around in Tifton. We had dropped to three in one day. Yeah. My colleague in Florida had a trial and and we converted some stink bug regional trials we were doing as part of our working group into threshold trials. And he called me and says, Man, I'm seeing yellowing, and I'm at almost at two jazzes per leaf. What'd I do? And I says, spray. Spray it. So based on those observations, we went to two. And that was probably over a two-week period period. Yeah. And we were just getting more and more aggressive. And as we go into 2026, we're gonna be sitting on one jazz per leaf. And you know, one of the things that I you there's things that we did right with jazz. There's probably things we did wrong. Yeah. But one of the things that I think we did good as an industry and as extension is we standardized what this injury looked like, Hopperburn. So when I talk to an agent on the phone, um, I've got hopperburn. It's got a little red on the tips of the leaves. I knew exactly what he was talking about. Yeah. Um we did a lot of work uh just to try to understand where we should sample the chassis. I I say a lot, we did some work. Yeah. But we thought it was important that everybody's on the same page. So we settled looking at main stem leaf number four. Yeah. And that's how we just standardized. So is that the best place to look? I don't know yet. Yeah. But it's a place we all looked in 2025. So if I talk to um Will Brown in Appling County, he says I'm running, you know, 2.6 Jassets per leaf, I say, he's looking at fourth leaf, there's 2.6 jazzets. Uh-huh. I knew what he's talking about. Yeah. And we were able to make decisions. And, you know, we're going to stick with sampling in that way. Yeah. But as we move into 2026, and we said this a lot in 2025, this is an evolving situation. And it's going to continue to be, or it's fluid. You've used the word fluid. And you know, last year, and we'll continue to do this this year. All the information we sent out, we directed through our county agent. Yeah. So as a grower, make sure you're on your email list of your county agent. If you're with the industry as a consultant. A consultant.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00The information is going to flow through the county office. And uh, you know, it worked. County delivery works. And uh we have a strong extension system, so that's how we're going to continue to deliver information. But right now, we're going to sit on a threshold of one per leaf.
SPEAKER_01And uh, you know, isn't but how many leaves should you sample? Well, do you know? Well, we don't know. Because it's a you know, one thing that I remember is we went to uh Baxley over there or Surincy, and we were walking a field with Will Brown, and it's you know, you start checking leaves, and it's like sometimes you got one, sometimes you got none, and then you get to one, and there's eleven. Yes, you know, and so it's like how many do you need to do?
SPEAKER_00I think that's an important so yeah, and and that's something that takes time. And y'all were doing 25. We did 25 on plots, and we we did a lot of leaves to try to get that variability out. Yeah. And you know, we're talking about just maybe doing infested terminals. You know, we we've got a lot of other ways that maybe we scout, but we don't have that experience yet. Yeah, yeah. Um so so that takes time, but we do know these insects are concentrated initially on field margins. So you got to get away from the edge. It's important to know what's going on on the edge.
SPEAKER_01And know that it's fixing to happen. Again, it's all about to happen. And they're telling you, like, hey, get out here and look because it's about to go down.
SPEAKER_00Hey, I look with a lot of our growers, the way we're managing cotton, you see edges fire up, it might not be a bad strategy just to go ahead. Yeah. I did that. And and and the yes, and it showed. And you know, maybe we get there, but we just don't. Maybe I'm too conservative. I don't want to overdo it, but we cannot underdo it on this pest.
SPEAKER_01Well, and I think a lot of that comes from I'm not calling you old, but like the old old school, right? You came from spraying bull weevil, and then it's like, all right, we we develop these IPM strategies and don't want to spray. Like, we don't want to spray too much.
SPEAKER_00You know, uh Dr. Steve Brown, yeah, he taught me a lot about cotton when he was our agronomist here, and we had a lot of good conversations, just like me and you, Jeff, Camp. Right. And uh, you know, we used to to talk about you know the philosophy of George growers managing insects. When in doubt, you we don't do anything. Yeah, that's right. Or when we're on the fence, we usually would err on doing nothing. Yeah. And uh, you know, that was for insects we've dealt with. Stink bugs. Yeah. And uh, or you know, a lot of those when in doubt don't anything goes back to when we planted a lot of non-BT cuts, that's right. Because we have beneficial insects that may take more, you know, corneal worm or tobacco budworm out. Yeah. We'd give them a chance. When in doubt, we sat. We sat tight.
SPEAKER_01But now we were also ready to make a move when it needed to be.
2026 Timing Risk And Fertility Clues
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. And you know, it's a different time. On non-BT cotton, we would scout twice a week. And, you know, I remember the days, and some of our consultants remember the days, and our agents, you know, that grower, if he had a farm that was on the fence, he knows when that report's fixing to be delivered. He'd be waiting. He'd be waiting, and he would have juice in the shed ready to go because we pushed the envelope. Yep. And the further you push that envelope, the faster you had to react. That's right. You know, and so I mean, with the jazz, we're you know, still a lot to learn. Yeah, but but again, we survived 2025. We made a good cotton crop. A great cotton crop. And um I think I'm I'm gonna go ahead and make a couple other uh observations we had. Yeah, and I think growers need to think about this. But in 2025, the first field of cotton sprayed in Applen County was last day of July, I believe. Yeah, it was in that last week of July. Yeah, I think it was it was it was sometime in that time frame. But a lot of the jazz we saw in Georgia initially in August were on some of our earliest planted cotton. All right. First fields we sprayed for jazz. When we were just getting into jazz, it was always the earlier planted cotton. Yeah, it was stuff that was cutting out, maybe starting to open. Maybe, you know, fifth week of bloom, sixth week of bloom. And uh, you know, maybe that's just where the jazzids initially got when cotton was up. You know, and they just built generations on that older cotton. But there were situations where there were farms, you know, separated by a road or dirt road. May have been two weeks different in planting date. They were in one field, they were in the old field, not the young field. All right. So I think it's an important point that Jassis came in late, late. And uh the other thing, um, we handled it. But where we didn't spray, it mattered. Yeah. Now, as the season progressed, I really think our greatest yield losses probably occurred on our later planted cotton. Yeah. So we just had jazzes moving from early planted cotton to later planted cotton, and uh, you had to be on top of that.
SPEAKER_01Well, and I mean that's a function of of defoliation.
SPEAKER_00It's a function of defoliation. Um, but maybe they got into later planted cotton a little bit earlier in the bloom cycle. Yeah. And uh we just need to be aware of that. Yeah. And I'm just gonna bring up the question that everybody's got on the mind. When are they coming in? We we can't we can't hide it. When will they show up in 2026? And I'm just gonna be straight up we don't know. Yeah. Uh I will make the comment, I think 2025 is the best case scenario.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And uh so if they come in, you know, August next year, we can handle it. Yeah. They come in in June, different story. Coming in June is gonna be a different story. You know, we did a lot of work. We understand how the plant responded to the insect when they came in late. What happens if they come in earlier? Yeah. Right now, if they were to come in in June camp, we're probably gonna be pretty aggressive. Oh, yeah. We can't allow to have uh leaves turn yellow or red. Not that early. No way. Because I don't know. I mean, I don't know what would happen.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But I can assure you that uh we as uh entomology group in the southeast are are gonna be monitoring jazzets throughout the winter, try to figure out where they are.
SPEAKER_01If you see them on something like a cover or something like that, the word will be out.
SPEAKER_00We're gonna put the word out, the word out, and that cover's gonna be dead, hopefully. Uh quickly. So we're we're watching all that, and you know, all the members of the cotton team are have just really, I mean, they saw this, and everybody's got an interest in their little everybody's bought in, I think. Yeah, Taylor Singleton doing a lot of work with cover crops, she's looking for jazzes in all her different covers. John Snyder. Our physiologist, John, our breeder.
SPEAKER_01Ping. I mean, I I everybody that I know that has any if it can affect anything that they work on, then they're gonna work on it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, one final thing, and then we kind of wrap this up. And this is just more observations. Um, you know, weak spots in a field tended to have more jazz. Yeah. Um when you read in the literature, plants that are deficient in potash show more symptoms. Yeah. I believe I observed that in the state of Georgia also. Yeah. So as we go into 26, we don't have a lot of data here. But the importance of potash, I mean, you we already know that. Yeah, right. This may even make it more important.
SPEAKER_01Um well, and I was talking to Dr. Harris the other day, and I mean, you even think about, you know, it's already turning yellow if it's potash deficient, right? It may just compound it, but also potash has a lot to do with plant defenses, too. That's right. And so is it it could be either way.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, a lot of things. So we don't necessarily need to overdo potash, we just need to avoid deficiency. Right. Um, while we're on fertility, you know, we don't need excessive nitrogen either. Yeah. Gases do a little better on a plant too. Plant bugs do too when you have a lot of nitrogen. So use the nitrogen you need, and uh no use to be excessive, but that's probably a lot there, and uh that may do us there.
Wrap Up
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. Well, again, uh just just a reminder that this is uh, you know, an update for 2026 kind of going forward. Still come to the meeting because there's a lot of questions, especially surrounding Jassid, but also other things as well. So uh come to the meetings, talk with us uh before and after. And uh, you know, if you have any questions about this or anything else, reach out to your county agent.
unknownYep.
SPEAKER_01Thank 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.
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