She warned growers to be selective in their use of chemicals on aphids to ensure survival of the major control agents - beneficial insects – and to guard against the development of resistance. She said that Industry Development Officers have test kits available for assessing organophosphate resistance in aphid samples, which can help in deciding which control option to use if control is required.
Lewis Wilson, commenting on thrips prospects, said rain through winter and a reasonable amount of vegetation have provided a fertile ground for thrips development.
For growers in the cooler regions, the risk of yield loss is a bit higher; it is about 1 year in 2. In a year like this they might consider actually taking some protection against thrips, whether it is a seed treatment or an in-furrow insecticide option.
In terms of options, the seed treatments and the in-furrow insecticides are much more selective than spraying the crop with broad-spectrum insecticides to control the thrips and are probably the first option if you want to manage thrips.
Coming in later on with a foliar spray is another option but it is potentially riskier, because the sort of products that you will be using such as omethoate or dimethoate will dramatically reduce beneficial numbers and thereby increase the risk of inducing an aphid, mite or whitefly problem.
Dr Wilson also nominated spider mites as a potential problem this season, given the variety of hosts such as adjacent faba bean crops, turnip weed, marshmallow, and many other weeds and thistles.
National commercial cotton seed supplier Cotton Seed Distributors Ltd is to provide to every cotton grower the highest net return potential from the cotton varieties CSD produces.
Cotton Seed Distributors Ltd
marketing@alchempro.com
