Specialists Speaking- Brian Pieralisi
Brian Pieralisi
MISSISSIPPI
It’s been unusually warm and dry in the Mid-South for this time of year. Mississippi growers were timely in planting both corn and soybean and optimizing their planting windows. As for cotton, despite the latest “cool snap,” we have had great planting windows to plant early. Most places have gotten a little rainfall to keep planting in moisture. There was a point in late April that it was too dry to plant.
As for early season pests, managing thrips will be a concern. Thrips tend to be worse in dryer years. Intrepid Edge and ThryvOn technology are the best in-season management options. There are some places in Mississippi that get adequate control with acephate. Monitoring the cotton jassid will be important this year in Mississippi. The big questions is will our current management of insect pests also control jassid? There are still some questions to be answered, and active monitoring will be required to address this issue. Otherwise, we seem to be off to a good start to the cotton growing season and hopefully cotton market prices will keep trending upwards!
Brian Pieralisi
MISSISSIPPI
