Early Squaring Decisions For Georgia Cotton

Cotton can look “quiet” in early June, but the decisions you make right now decide how well the crop holds onto fruit later. We walk through a boots-on-the-ground Georgia cotton update from the UGA Cotton Team, starting with where planting and squaring stand, then moving straight into the practical pest management choices that protect retention and keep you from creating problems with the sprayer.

We dig into cotton aphids the way scouts actually see them: present in every field, sometimes melting down a plant or a small spot, and often tempting people into a spray that does not pay. The key is understanding how broad-spectrum applications for other pests can wipe out beneficial insects and accidentally flare aphids. We also talk jassids and the identification reality check: immature lookalikes show up on multiple hosts, you need adults to confirm the two black spots on the wings, and hopperburn clues can help you decide when suspicion is justified.

Then we pivot to real-world farm management issues that matter just as much as insects: uneven growth across fields, how planting date and early stress change growth potential, and when PGR applications make sense without overdoing it. We also cover deer damage, permit headaches, and why repellents are complicated, plus how tank mixes and timing research may make those tools more efficient.

We close with breaking news from June 10: jassids are detected on okra in Tifton, and we lay out exactly how we want growers and scouts to look, document, and report through their county agents so we can track movement by county. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app, share this with a scouting crew, and leave a review so more growers can find these updates. What are you seeing in your cotton fields this week?

Transcript

Planting Progress And Crop Outlook

SPEAKER_01 0:08

Bringing 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. Hey, good crowd today. Good crowd. Small crowd. Everybody else is busy, but not well, we're busy, but we just made time to be here, Dr. Roberts. We did. Right? So, and Sarah.

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Yep, we're here.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

Yep, we are here. It is the truth. Uh I pulled up the crop progress report, and for the week ending June 7th, which would have been last week, we were 85% planted, which is just a hair behind. We're five-year average, 87%. So we're doing pretty good there. 13% squaring, Dr. Roberts. I think that's that's about right. A lot of the stuff that was planted up to the first second week of May is getting there. It's getting close. So uh that's a little bit ahead of our five-year average, which is 11%. And then I did look at the uh the crop condition, and we're 86% fair to good. So we're in a pretty good spot right now, it seems like to me, and we're just you know, in a lot of places trying to finish up. And I think we may have talked about it on the last one. There's there's some folks that normally are done at this time of year that are still going a little bit. And so I got a call from some agents yesterday that are that were planting a variety trial. So on the on the uh west side of Worth County there. So lights going on, some folks still out there planting, and you know, right now it seems like folks are spending a lot of time in the field if they can get in the field, you know, but it's pretty slow right now.

Early Season Pests Quiet Down

SPEAKER_01 2:04

Kind of seems like. Yeah, just kind of a people are busy. Oh, yeah, people are busy. We're you know, I feel like people have kind of made their decision on what they're doing in terms of finishing up planting, not getting as many of those phone calls anymore. The thrips, they just ain't, you know, we're out of that, right? We're out, we're out. The grasshoppers out of that. Out of that. Chinch false chinch bugs.

SPEAKER_00 2:32

Yep. Just we're actually doing a lot of work on them. It's a really difficult insect to kill. So we're doing a lot of little bioassays just probing other AIs that may have activity there. But yeah, just something to do to stay busy while we're waiting.

SPEAKER_01 2:47

I went and perused your petri dishes one day. Oh, good. I saw some of them were all on their backs with their legs up. That's good. And then I saw some of them were still crawling around. That's good too, if it's untreated.

SPEAKER_00 2:59

That's good. So doing a lot of good work out there right now, but well, really, uh, I have had a few calls, maybe half a dozen calls on cotton aphid.

Cotton Aphids And Spray Side Effects

SPEAKER_00 3:10

Really? And uh, you know, cotton aphid is something we're gonna deal with every year. Uh we did a scout school in Midville yesterday, had a real good, real good day. Yeah, you've done two since our last podcast. But anyway, when we when we think about aphids, one of the things I tell every scout uh during scout school, every field of cotton that you check is gonna be infested with aphids. Mm-hmm. You know, a couple years ago uh we we did a lot of aphid work when the that virus showed up. It was interesting. We we uh Sarah, we checked a lot of plants. And one of the things that was just interesting, a hundred percent of the plants we checked in two years in ten counties had aphids on them. And you know, so they're coming. But uh what I'm getting calls about now is people are seeing individual plants or little single spots in a field that are just melted down. Yeah. And we see that every year.

SPEAKER_01 4:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:10

We see that every year, and that's kind of one of the initial plants to be infested by weaned aphid that flies in. And they just reproduce really fast, and that plant gets melted down. You know, if the whole field looked like a melted-down plant, we'd have a problem. But that's generally not what happens. And so we just need to, you know, watch these things and uh well, and it's important to know where they are for other issues.

SPEAKER_01 4:39

Well, that's right. Right. That's right. But if you're out spraying plant bugs, well, you need to know if aphids are there. Yeah, you need to know if they're out there because you don't want to create more of a problem.

SPEAKER_00 4:49

Right. And you know, if we look at our plant bug sprays, and there's a little bit of plant bugs have been treated in the last week, uh, not a lot. But uh when you have aphids in the field and you put a use a product that with zero activity on aphids, guess what? Especially if that product's broad spectrum, you're fixing to increase your aphids because you're gonna kill the beneficial insects. I mean, it's pretty simple stuff. Sometimes. Sometimes it's pretty straightforward. Yeah. But when uh you know I go back to many years ago, even before we revisited aphids following this virus, but we just can't get a consistent yield response from spraying aphids and cotton.

SPEAKER_01 5:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:33

But that doesn't mean we want to make them worse and don't worry about it. We want to try to keep them, you know, at at manageable levels, keep them at low levels. But it's just not a consistent response.

Jassid Lookalikes And How To Confirm

unknown 5:45

Right.

SPEAKER_00 5:45

But but on the insect front, that's quiet. Um still the the most frequent call or text I get is involving Jassid. Really? Yeah. And and hey, it's great. Um people are looking. A lot of people are looking. And uh I need to learn how to copy a text message because I get pictures of immature legal.

SPEAKER_01 6:14

Hey, I got one of those, and I'd response impossible to know. Well, well, you got a follow-up picture, and it was in the day. Oh, no, no, no. I got another one. I got another I got two yesterday.

SPEAKER_00 6:24

Uh well, but I just want to remind our listeners, number one, keep looking. A lot of people are looking. Where are they looking? I had a picture uh this morning from Okra. Okay? It looked just like a Jassed nymph. But we don't know because we cannot identify the immature stage of that insect. We have to have an adult. Now, one of the things we do, we try to keep the nymphs on leaf tissue in a uh plastic bag and see if we can carry them to an adult. But that's the only stage we can identify. But but everybody needs to keep looking. Yeah. But we really need the picture of an adult with the two spots on the wing.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

Well, and I think it's important too to say that it's great that people are looking for jazzed, but don't look so hard for jazzed that you miss something.

SPEAKER_00 7:16

Well, that's the yeah. Well, again.

SPEAKER_01 7:19

Because there's a lot of people that may not have like dealt with other issues in this time of year.

SPEAKER_00 7:27

Yes. You get what I'm saying? I understand. You know, this plant bug thing. Yeah. And you know, people that have history with plant bugs, I like that term. Yeah, I know you do. And uh, you know, they're they're gonna take care of plant bugs, but the the thing that uh gets a little iffy is these fringe areas who haven't really dealt with plant bugs, and uh they don't need to overlook that. You know, once you're squaring a swing a sweep net, look at retention and make sure. But I do want to circle back one thing on the immatures, suspect jazzets. Mm-hmm. If you're in a cotton field and you see an immature jazzet on a leaf, most likely you'll see hopper burn on that leaf.

SPEAKER_01 8:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:11

That early subtle damage. So my colleague doctor If it's a jazz. If it's a jazzet. And if it's a different leaf hopper, there's not gonna be hopperburn.

SPEAKER_01 8:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:22

And we've seen what Mason and others tend to call fakes. Fakes. You know, I don't know what species they are. Yeah. Uh but there's a lot of different There's a lot of leaf hoppers. Yeah. A lot of leaf hoppers, and and I'm telling you, I've got pictures that look identical, but they're all nymphs. Yeah. I've got nymphs off sunflowers, nymphs off cotton, nymphs off okra. You know, just a lot of, but we can't be sure.

SPEAKER_01 8:47

Well, and it's like that one that you alluded to that I got yesterday. It if it would have had the spots, it's a no-brainer. Yeah. But it didn't have no spots. But they had a good picture that was in focus. Yeah. I asked them to take a second one. Yeah. And so that because the first one was real blurry, and I was like, hey, that's really hard to tell. And and he said, Well, I sent my scout back out to find another one. And took a better picture and no spots. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 9:13

My colleague at Florida, Dr. Isaac Escaval. Superstar. Yeah. Well, he's gonna try to identify some of these fakes. Yeah. I think that's a good idea. Well, it's beyond me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can't do it. Yeah. And I didn't realize this, but all the keys on these little leaf hoppers, you can only identify males. And you have to uh dissect them. Dissect out the genitalia. Yeah. I can't do that. But I'm not gonna do it. Uh but but anyway, so that's all good. And uh you know, every day we go without detecting jazzets. That's a good thing. That's a good day. Good day. Yep. So you know, that's about where we are, and just not a lot

Early Squaring Watch List For Plant Bugs

SPEAKER_00 10:05

happening. Yeah, and uh that's good too. Yeah, yeah. But we do need to watch this early squaring cotton. You know, historically we tend to concentrate some plant bugs on the early cotton, and uh we'll just see what happens.

SPEAKER_01 10:18

Well, we uh we wrapped up planting on Friday, Dr. Roberts, and I went and looked at that cotton yesterday it was, and that stuff's coming up. Oh wow. So it's uh you know, we're we're moving right along here on the experiment station. I wrote over a lot of cotton a couple days ago, and I mean this stuff is is kicking, but you know, one thing that I I wrote my specialist speaking yesterday and for July, right? So you gotta you gotta be thinking about it. What July is. Well, I'm not I'm not into predicting the future. I'm not into talking about what may or may not happen. At all. Yeah, I'm not I'm not gonna do that. Because it may come back and get me. It could I won't do that. So, but I was writing about how you know, whenever I was in the sprayer on Monday, like I I just noticed, you know, you just see stuff, right? And you can you ride over a field and it's like, man, something this field looks really good, and then you cross the road and just something ain't right. And I don't know what it is, but some of that cotton in that one in that first field, it's like, man, we don't need to do nothing here. This stuff is rolling, like we're good. But then that second field, it's like, man, we this thing needs a little kick in the rear. Like we need to kick this stuff in gear a little bit. And so trying to figure out some of that stuff, and you know, I think that's just a good opportunity to to troubleshoot some stuff. You see stuff from that tractor cab, and it's like, man, you you identify places in a field that might be a problem, and you you try to correct that problem this year if you can, but a lot of times it's making notes and saying, hey, we're we're gonna pull samples or do whatever if it's a nematode issue, if it's a fertility problem, whatever it is, and and try to correct that going into 2027, you know, thinking thinking far enough in advance to try to get some of those things corrected for the next time you're in that field. So, you know, just noticing a lot of stuff and riding over cotton, I think, helps us in the future. But let's see, I'm trying to

Deer Permits And Real World Damage

SPEAKER_01 12:29

think. I did get a call last week about deer. I had I got a phone call about an issue in East Georgia where a grower who had successfully been obtaining DNR permits uh got denied one this year. And uh for like 10 years, he had successfully been getting permits and and a grower, it wasn't the grower that it happened to, it was a different grower who heard the story and called me about it and said, hey, like I don't know what we can do about it, but we need to dig into this and find out what happened. Well, come to come to find out, I did text somebody and um with DNR, and they said that it was actually a mistake on on their end. The system's changed a lot. It's complicated to get one. I applied for one, I've got one this year. It's not the easiest thing in the world to do, but uh it's easy to you know make a mistake whenever you're doing that. And this particular situation, this grower submitted the form twice and they denied the duplicate, but they never approved the original. And so by the time I had texted the contact I have at DNR, that situation had been remedied, which is a good thing. That isn't right. So um, you know, if you find yourself in a situation similar to that, we can do everything we can to try to help out because we know that you know that grower called me and he was like, man, we're gonna lose 300 acres like if we don't do this, you know, if we don't get this fixed. And so I'm glad we were able to. I I wasn't real confident that whatever I could do was gonna help, but it got fixed. So that's a good thing. And so if anybody finds themselves in that kind of situation, but you know, Dr. Roberts, this this grower also told me that they are spending a lot of money on some of these deer repellents and they rotating between three of them, right? And I've heard all three of them, I've looked at all three of them, and you know, it's kind of tough because it's hard to do work on them. You and I've piddled with them in the past, but it's you know, it's complicated. It's complicated, and I mean it's really complicated on a whole field basis. I mean, it's complicated. Well, and we've only sprayed them really on soybeans. Right. Because they deer love soybeans, they just do. And when you plant soybeans next to cotton, guess what? They're gonna eat soybeans. I mean, they just are. But, you know, at the end of the day, whenever you've got them in soybeans and you spray a repellent on half of those soybeans, and then not on the others, what are they gonna do? They eat where you didn't spray. Yeah, so it shows that they don't really like the repellent, right? Yeah, but when that's gone, guess what? Yeah, what do they do? They eat where you sprayed. Yeah. So it's just it's kind of complicated, and I mean it sucks because it's like it's a tough situation with the deer. Like, I mean, you you want to do everything you can, and it's gonna take a uh multi-pronged approach just like it does with any pest, right? I mean, you you know, when it comes to let's say white flies, Dr. Robert, oh yeah, you gotta make a lot of decisions that are gonna help you on white flies. And one thing you don't want to do is plant a hairy cotton. Right. Right. And so, I mean, that's one decision you make when you plant, and then you make decisions while you're controlling other pests and stuff like that to not put you in a bad situation. But you know, you gonna and using these repellents and stuff like that. I mean, you you still gonna have to get out there at nighttime and and do what you what you have to do.

SPEAKER_00 16:13

Well you know, if you just use an analogy of white flies, I mean, where we are today and how we manage white flies. I mean, that didn't just happen overnight. Yeah, I mean, that is a continuum of twenty plus years, thirty years of research. Yeah. You know, a lot of that was done in Arizona. Yeah. And, you know, we basically in Georgia, we are using a program developed out there. I mean, we tweaked it for a regional, you know, to make it work. But lots and lots of research goes into coming up with these management programs, and we're just not there on deer. You know, it's just you know, it's hard to work with them.

SPEAKER_01 16:58

It is.

SPEAKER_00 16:58

I mean, I go back, was it two years ago, we set up a field of soybean six or eight acres or something. It took us half a day to spray it every Monday. Yeah, eight Mondays in a row. I don't know if we had any damage at all. There wasn't a deer track out there. No. They worked. I mean, you can say that, but but it just, you know, it's just the complexity. You know, with the white fly, we're gonna have white flies.

SPEAKER_01 17:29

But it wasn't well, I mean, what would you say? 300 yards from that field, we had 16 rows of soybeans planted, and they just annihilated them. Annihilated them. And it's like it's just a tough thing. Yeah, they're complicated. I mean, they just are. And there's a lot of them out there. If you're a deer hunter listening, you should do your job during hunting.

SPEAKER_00 17:49

Well, that's just like the you know, instead of plant, you know, on white flies, we don't want to plant a hairy variety. Hey, if you're hunting on that place, maybe shoot some more does. You know, that's something you do. Or invite Dr. Roberts to shoot some more does. Well, you know, we can do that. But hey, it's a tough one. It's a tough one. And uh, but you know, just do the best you can and and we'll get there.

Making Repellents Practical With Tank Mixes

SPEAKER_00 18:15

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:16

We're we're doing some stuff this year looking at tank mixes with these repellents and trying to uh optimize their use, right? Because I mean the the best way to do it is to throw it in the tank with something else. You adding trips across the field ain't helping nobody. No. And so, you know, if we can throw it in the tank with some of our early herbicide applications or squaring, you know, herbicides or insecticides or growth regulators or whatever, then you know, we can we can probably be more efficient with those things or more efficient with a with a tank rather. Right. And then uh some other stuff that we're doing, we're we're really trying with some of this cage stuff to determine when you can terminate repellent applications and still preserve yield. And so, you know, we're just trying to do some stuff to to more these guys are using these things and and we just don't know much about how to use them, you know. So we're trying to learn uh some of that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_00 19:15

Again, that's so that sounds so simple what you just said. We're trying to figure out how long before we can terminate. Yeah, but it's like it's very complicated. I mean, I know what you're doing.

SPEAKER_01 19:25

Yeah, whenever you see uh, I mean, for instance, we're gonna pull a cage off at like first bloom. Yep. Right? I mean, if the deer are hungry, they're gonna eat every leaf off of that blooming plant. Now, I mean, the big problem is right now, like on newly planted stuff that's coming up, they mess up your stand. Like, that's whenever you really are thinking about it. But I mean, you've seen it, and I've seen it too, and Sarah's seen it too, where at 41 that year you stop spraying repellents and they just strip all the leaves off. Yeah, crazy. So then what does that do? Right? The plant goes back vegetated, it's taking taking resources and trying to go back vegetative whenever it should be, putting putting energy into bowl production, you know. So we just don't know.

SPEAKER_00 20:15

Well, it's good a lot. I mean, this is a problem for a lot of people. A lot of people, not only in Georgia, but other states too. So I'm I'm glad you know your group's working on this and a couple other folks in in the southeast working on this.

SPEAKER_01 20:29

So it's uh Josh Lee called me the other day. He's gonna spray some repellents, so he's he's working on it over there at Auburn. So we need some good help over there. Yeah. You know, we think of repellents, that's the easy way out. It is, because you put it in a tank and you just go.

SPEAKER_00 20:44

But I don't, you know, that's what people want. That I know. Well, they would rather have something that didn't cost anything.

SPEAKER_01 20:50

And that they ain't gotta do well that yeah, and didn't require cheap repellent that you can spray once and not spray no more. Well, that's what hey, ideally you come up with something like that. I think you could be a millionaire if you guess what like that.

SPEAKER_00 21:04

If you could spray it once and not worry about it, uh it wouldn't be cheap. No.

SPEAKER_01 21:11

Well, and then the the putting something in a sprayer is easy because people are already going over with a sprayer, right? And that's the that's the easy way, right? And it's just gonna require a little bit more nice.

SPEAKER_00 21:25

You know, that kind of reminds me of an an analogy. Dr. Mike Tays, our associate dean for extension. Yeah, he used to be a a scientist with us down here. Oh, he still is, but he was our research entomologist, and uh it reminds me when he first got started, we visited a lot together, and you know, we were a good team. And uh this deer thing and what you talk about repellents kind of jogged my memory. And when I would talk with Dr. Taves, you know, we would talk about our roles. Mm-hmm. And his role was to find a solution. Mm-hmm. Or maybe keep us out of a problem. Yeah. My role was to fix a current problem that we're dealing with. I mean, we worked together and he did some of all of that. Right. But a solution and a fix are two different things.

SPEAKER_01 22:19

A solution would be like preventive. Right. Or it's like before it becomes a problem, you've got a fix for. But your fix is like Jassid showed up and we just got to figure out how to make this thing. That's right.

SPEAKER_00 22:33

That's right. That's right. So I don't know. Enough on deer. Yeah. I'm trying to think of what else been.

PGR Timing Based On Field Potential

SPEAKER_00 22:43

Hey, within the next two weeks, there's gonna be some PGRs going out. Yeah, that's what I was gonna. I'm gonna I'm think I'm gonna put some on our little fire tower field.

SPEAKER_01 22:53

Well, I was gonna ask about the fire tower. I uh you know I don't have a stand where I planted the other day.

SPEAKER_00 23:00

Do you not? I lost my moisture.

SPEAKER_01 23:03

Yesh. Yesh. That's tough.

SPEAKER_00 23:05

So, but that's okay. It's a late planting date. When it rains, it'll come up. Yeah. Unless it's done sprouted and dead. It could.

SPEAKER_01 23:13

It looked okay, but so I I I read the newsletter. Yeah. You know, I I try to write stuff for the newsletter, but I try to read it to you. And you know, Dr. Schnyder's been writing a lot about the differences in growth rates and in April planted cotton versus May planted cotton. And I kind of have observed that over the last few years, and and even in your fire tower, I think it's very interesting that you've got some stuff that was planted in March, and you did that for a reason, and we're not going to tell anybody to ever do something like that. That's right. Because it did it it hey, it got a little banged up. A little it's had a tough start to his life. It survived. It did survive, and it's blooming. Been blooming. But I don't think it needs growth regulator. I do. Myself. You do. You just want to turn it green. I do. It's right by the road. I don't think it needs to, but it's you you know, looking at Dr. Snyder's newsletter articles, it just has grown so much slower. Oh, yeah. But it's because the thrips wore it out and the frost got it and all this other, and it just hadn't, it just hadn't grown right. You know?

SPEAKER_00 24:25

Yeah, and we got really high retention. It probably doesn't need it, but guess what? You want it to be dark green. Well. Blue. We've we've calibrated my plot sprayer, and we we need to have a practice run with with some folks on there to to help when we're making applications. So it's probably gonna get a little light, light deuce. But what you gonna four ounces? Oh no, I'd do a little more than that. But uh, but you know, even I went and looked at the bowing farm. Hey, that cotton's getting it now.

SPEAKER_01 24:58

Well, that's what so that's some of the cotton I was talking about whenever I was talking about riding over it, which is where some of it's getting it, and some of it just ain't. And I mean, as it's not in a spot where I would think that it that it would have a problem, you know? So like if you go up in that northwest side, the field closest to the woods is kicking it. I mean, it's moving. The field on the right side of the road is just not. And I don't know what the deal is. It's a little more litter. Chicken litter. Well, in that oh you remember? Sure enough I've got notes. Sure enough, that's what it is then. Yep. Because I mean that that first field closest to the woods is uh is moving. Yes. And I just I called Steven, who's kind of the interim farm manager out there right now, but uh he fertigated some more yesterday. Because I was like, man, this cotton just ain't it just ain't doing. It just ain't doing right. But there is a little there is a little more litter. Well, maybe we need to put it we maybe we need to start putting four tons out on that place. Maybe not. Because hell, I mean, it looks like cotton's supposed to look to me.

SPEAKER_00 26:14

That other that other stuff but it comes down towards south end, just those fields on the left, just a little bit, but like that one field you're talking about next to Bob's field. Yeah. That's where we have four tons. That makes sense. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:30

That cotton that's coming up where we spread six tons is green. Six tons. Hey. That field was sorry, though. It was sorry, and that was a load of litter, and that's what it worked out to be. And that young man, I can't remember his name, but he drove over that field a lot. That's all right. Oh gosh. But we uh yep, we planted that field, and that that's the one that I was talking about. So you think Boeing needs a little shot, huh? A little front of the car? Not yet. As far as it won't be long.

SPEAKER_00 27:04

Yeah. But that's a that's a tough one.

SPEAKER_01 27:07

That's just a weird that's just a weird place. I think last year, and last year we had all our sprayer problems, but last year it may have only gotten 12 ounces of growth regulator. And we made really good cotton. Really good cotton. And so, you know, that comes back to history, right? But then also, you know, the the potential, the growth potential of a field, right? Right, and the growth potential of a variety. We got a bunch of different varieties out there. One of them I've been told is real aggressive. I've never grown it before. And then another one is something that I would consider not very aggressive. And so it may only need, you know, a single application at first bloom. Right. Right. But then you start thinking about the growth potential of that farm, it's just not very high. And you know, we we don't want to overdo it because then that cotton just ain't gonna just ain't gonna do right. We'll get it just right.

SPEAKER_00 28:00

Oh, yeah, we're gonna get it right. You know how we get it just right? You spend time out there looking at it. You do. No, you do. You gotta spend time out there. You spend that time out there looking at it and you make a good decision for that field. Yeah. Or it could be on that little farm. It may be certain areas get certain things and certain areas don't.

SPEAKER_01 28:20

Yeah, because there's some spots out there where Glenn did some stuff that just really I mean, some of that cotton's dead. And it's like, you don't need no growth regulator right there, you know. But we got some other spots. I mean, ponder's growing pretty good right now. It's I mean, it we planted it what, May the, it was week of May the 15th, I think, and it's at four or five leaf in some spots. I just made the first herbicide application on it Monday. So it's looking it's looking good. I mean, the cotton, cotton on the station's looking good. And you know, I've still I still get some calls about some of that stuff that was planted in the early part of May that you know that's whenever we kind of started catching rain and it cooled off some, and some of that cotton just ain't just ain't moving. And you

Cloudy Weather, Herbicide Injury, And Retention

SPEAKER_01 29:09

know, that's it. It had a tough start, Dr.

SPEAKER_00 29:11

Roberts. It just You know, we go back into May, we had a lot of days where we didn't have much sunshine. Yeah.

unknown 29:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:17

You know, we had rainy days, but we had uh good rain, a lot of rain. Glad we had it. Yeah. But we had a lot of cloudy days too. But yeah. The good news is there, we got a nice little uniform stands up in a lot of places. So that's true.

SPEAKER_01 29:30

Yeah, and then another thing to keep in mind, I did get a call yesterday about some of this cloudy weather is whenever it's whenever it's cloudy like that for a long period of time, the plant is gonna put out some some really tender growth in the top of the plant. And this time of year, we're spraying some herbicides, and sometimes the plant does not like that. And whenever you got tender growth in the top, you're more likely to see some exaggerated herbicide injury. And so I got a call yesterday about that, and I I told the guy he he wasn't from around here. I could tell by his accent, and he could probably tell by mine that I am from the south. So, but he uh, you know, he he was stressed out over this cotton, and and I said, Man, I said, there's just a lot of stuff that's been going on, and that cotton's probably a little stressed, and then you hit it with something and it stressed it out a little bit more. And I said, It's probably gonna grow out of it fine. Just go to the beach, give it some time, go to the beach for about a week and then come on back and it'll look like a different crop. But even some of this tank mix stuff that I talked about with the repellents, we we sprayed that two weeks ago, and I mean it looked Dr. Robert, you'd have called me and said that we killed that cotton. I don't like it. Whenever you put seven things in the tank, just trying to see if you can ding it up, and then you do, right? It's I mean, it ain't good. But I drove over it this week, and guess what? All looks fine. It looks totally fine. It looks like we didn't do nothing. So, you know, it's just kind of the situation we're in and that that delicate growth in the top of the plant. But we do want to keep in mind, especially as we start squaring, that we don't want to ding it up too bad, and then we'll start shedding, throwing off, as they say, Dr. Robert. I know. We hadn't we're putting on. We are. Let's let's let's let's keep it. Let's keep it. Let's keep it. So all right. Well, you you good, Dr. Robert. I am just a little slow time here. Hey, that's good news. It is good news. Um I'm glad that there ain't much excitement right now. So hey that's a wrap. That's a wrap. If you got any questions, call your county agent. Thank you. Okay, so we're back.

Breaking Update: Jassids Found On Okra in Tifton

SPEAKER_01 31:50

We were recorded a podcast this morning, but as things happen, things change, Dr. Roberts. Things do change. And so we're here on the afternoon. We're normally here in the mornings. We're here in the afternoon on Wednesday, June the 10th, and Dodd Roberts would like to provide everyone with a little update.

SPEAKER_00 32:12

Well, just a little update. So um our crew was out today and we detected a few jazz. Just uh very, very low numbers. We detected them on Okra. And uh we've been getting a lot of questions on that, so we just want to let people know that we have detected jazzets. Yep. And that was on the station here in Tifton. Um we did look at some cotton and we didn't detect any jazz on cotton. But the main thing is we want everyone to know that they need to be out looking. Yeah. Uh we just sent out uh uh some information to our county agents, and just like we did in 2025, the most current information we have is gonna be with your local county agent, so so lean on them. Get on their newsletter, get on their newsletter, but email list. Yes. But we really want to know where these things are. It's good to know where they're on Okra. But one of the things that uh we've talked to our agents about, we really want to track uh when we find these in cotton by county. So maybe we can understand about their movement, their migration. Um, you know, a little bit of effort by a lot of folks turns into something that has some impact. So no reason to panic. Um you know, today's June 10th, 2025. Justin owed them down there in Seminole County, found them on July the 9th. That's about a month from now. And you know, I visited that okra patch with Justin, and uh, you know, if I just look to the future of what this okra in Tifton may look like on July 9th, it may be similar.

SPEAKER_01 33:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:00

Again, we s found very, very few um in in this patch. I think we did a hundred sweeps and had five. Yeah. Yeah. So it encouraged people to go out and look, look at their okra patches, look at their sunflower patches, high biscuits, high biscuits if you got them, eggplants. I mean, we just want to know that where these are, and we really want to know where they are in cotton.

SPEAKER_01 34:24

Yeah. And you know, we talked about this morning whenever we were recording. People are looking and people are being vigilant, but it just so happens that it happened today.

SPEAKER_00 34:34

I mean, and and you know, I appreciate everyone sending pictures, and just as a reminder, you know, we cannot um identify the immature stage. It's got to be an adult. We've got to see the two spots on the wings. Yep. And uh they can be hard to get a picture of, but that's the only way we're gonna know is to see the adult. Yeah. Or if you're in cotton and you're seeing a lot of nymphs and and there's hopper burn, but if you're seeing that, you should be able to find an adult.

SPEAKER_01 35:04

Yeah, right. But uh but anyhow, yeah, so it's kind of just a little just a little update. Breaking news. Yeah, a few Jassids here in Tifton on Okra. Nobody pressed the panic button. It's like he said, you know, in j on July 9th, they saw it in Okra a year ago, and it was loaded with them. It was loaded. So they had been there for some time, a month, at least a generation. And so, I mean, you're talking three weeks. Yep. And so, I mean, it's you know, very early on here, but everybody just needs to be aware that they have been observed in the state of Georgia on Okra. Yep. And just keep looking, keep an eye out. If you see some stuff that you think are jazzeds, take a picture, send it to your county agent, send it to your county agent, and then that way they know what's going on in the county, and uh they can get that information to Dr. Roberts as well in terms of distribution and spread and all that fun stuff.

SPEAKER_00 36:06

So we'll be working with Dr. Sparks. We're gonna be tracking how these things are growing on this okra patch, you know. When it's on July 9th, we can report back. Hey, this is what it looks like. That's true. On July 9th.

SPEAKER_01 36:18

Well, I imagine here in about two weeks we're gonna record another episode on June 24th, and we'll have an even better idea of what's going on. I think we'll give another update then.

SPEAKER_00 36:27

But that's it. You know, no uh no reason to panic here. Yeah. Just stay at it, keep looking, yeah, and let's make good snooze.

SPEAKER_01 36:35

Keep it in the back of your mind when you're making decisions on other things. That's right. 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.