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Demonstrate IPM Best-Management Practices for BollgardII Cotton in the Lower Savannah Valley
| Name | Tommy Walker | | Situation | Genetically engineered cotton varieties offer significant opportunities for growers to improve profits with reduced insecticide inputs. However, these new varieties are offered to the market before the cotton community has had an opportunity to evaluate them in the multi-year,
multi-environment manner to which we have become accustomed. One such genetic manipulation, BollgardII, offers the probability that cotton growers will not be required to spray for caterpillar pests. This reduced spray environment opens the door for non-affected true bugs (stink bug, plant bug, and flea hopper) to become primary pests.
| | Response | We (Drs. Mike Sullivan, S.G. Turnipseed, Dan Robinson, Tommy Walker)
established three BollgardII plots in Hampton County as part of an ongoing effort to demonstrate IPM best management practices in the lower Savannah Valley. Plots were 1.5-4 acres in size and were planted side by side with "parent" lines, e.g., DPL 5415RR, DPL 458BG/RR, and DPL 468BGII/RR were compared. Plots were scouted by Tommy Walker and Lonnie Bull and sprayed for grower best dollar return. Plots were harvested by commercial pickers, seed cotton was weighed and lint yields established with gin samples run by Dr. Mike Jones.
| | Impact | These plots in Hampton County demonstrated the effectiveness of the Bollgard II technology against caterpillar pests, but also showed the need to monitor and control piercing-sucking pests such as stink bug. Non-B.t. cotton was sprayed 5-6 times, bollgard cotton was sprayed 3-4 times, and Bollgard II cotton was sprayed 2-3 times. All Bollgard II sprays were for stink bug. This information was presented to Monsanto and became a part of a Beltwide report given by Dan Pitts in San Antonio, TX, in January 2004. We presented our preliminary results to cotton growers at our annual growers meeting in Estill. All growers in the greater Hampton County area are aware of the need to scout for and spray piercing-sucking bugs in Bollgard cotton varieties and can weigh the value of these cottons against the cost of the technology fees.
Names and brands appearing in this report are supplied with the understanding that no discrimination is intended and no endorsement of products by Clemson University Cooperative Extension Service is implied.
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Last update6/26/2007
This website is maintained by Lisa Terry.
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