Nematodes, Thrips And That Haircut
On Dec. 7, 2021, at 5:30 p.m. Clyo, Georgia time, Clayton Waller parked his cotton picker, filed some miscellaneous paperwork and headed to city to deal with the one factor woefully not on time — a haircut. After a protracted harvest, he was getting somewhat shaggy, and everybody round him appeared to agree.
Waller grows cotton, soybeans, corn and wheat (100% dryland) together with his father close to Clyo, 40 miles north of Savannah. All issues thought of, 2021 was a fairly productive yr.
“The climate cooperated for probably the most half,” Waller says. “You possibly can hope and ask and pray for lots of issues going right into a rising season, however if you happen to’re a dryland farmer, climate is at all times the important variable.”
Since a grower can’t management the climate, it at all times comes all the way down to managing inputs. For Waller, that begins with an trustworthy evaluation of his manufacturing technique by contemplating the earlier season and the various seasons that got here earlier than.
“Like several grower who has been on this enterprise for many years or generations, one of many benefits of expertise is hindsight,” he says.
Earliness
“Since I used to be somewhat child, I knew that getting a crop to leap out of the bottom and race towards the end was what you needed it to do,” he says. “Numerous variables issue into that course of, and early season pest management is likely one of the most crucial.”
There are at the very least two early season pests with a few b-team bugs Waller is aware of he can rely on to point out as much as wreak havoc — nematodes and thrips. Then there are pesky aphids and mites. “Nematodes and thrips are those that may hold you awake at evening questioning in case your little vegetation are comfortable and rising,” he says.
For the previous two years, Waller has returned to a tried and true at-planting enter to handle early season pests — AgLogic aldicarb pesticide. Previously marketed as Temik, the in-furrow granular pesticide has greater than 50 years of scientific proof to again efficiency claims.
Nematodes
Root-knot nematodes are a relentless nemesis alongside the Georgia coastal watershed. There are a whole lot of benefits to dwelling near the seashore, however nematodes flourishing in sandy soils isn’t on the record.
“A couple of million years in the past, this farm was most certainly a spot you’ll traverse through boat, not by a planter,” Waller says. “Sand is a actuality and root-knot nematodes find it irresistible. It’s a unending battle to maintain them at bay.”
That’s the place AgLogic aldicarb shines when the planter hits the sector, based on Waller. “You should utilize handled seed, resistant or tolerant varieties or anything you’ll be able to consider, however AgLogic is the one factor that basically stands out yr after yr,” he says.
That turned obvious concerning the third yr Temik (now AgLogic) was briefly unavailable, based on Waller. Within the absence of an in-furrow nematicide/insecticide, crop vigor, particularly throughout the early season, started to noticeably decline, notably within the sandier parts of fields.
“There was little doubt it was because of nematodes,” Waller says. “Throughout these years, we simply didn’t have our ‘go-to’ product to take them out of the equation. When aldicarb turned accessible once more beneath the title AgLogic and we began utilizing it once more, we noticed above the soil floor what was happening within the root zone.”
Thrips
One other problematic challenge within the absence of aldicarb was thrips. “You already know they’re coming,” Waller says. “They eat up your cotton and your time attempting to handle them — particularly if you must resort to spraying when each different downside goes loopy. An in-furrow insecticide that provides you about six weeks of management makes it so much simpler.”
Handled seed is an choice, and foliars will assist, however there isn’t any substitute for realizing what’s going to work.
“Once we misplaced Temik aldicarb for a couple of years, we had been caught in a rut,” Waller says. “We couldn’t yield something above a mean of 700-750 kilos per acre for our total planted acres at greatest. We would have some spots the place cotton yielded over 1,000 kilos per acre. However different spots or fields would barely make 450 kilos in the identical yr. Now with AgLogic aldicarb we’re taking a look at yields that common 150-300 kilos increased throughout the board.
This improve might pay for a much-needed journey to the barber. And a visit to the seashore to go to sand the place it belongs.
Brenda Carol contributed this text on behalf of AgLogic.
