Performance of cotton seed treatments under different planting dates and seeding rates
Shelby Young: Texas Tech University
<div>Seedling disease of cotton, caused by <em>Rhizoctonia solani</em>, is capable of affecting germination of cottonseed, emergence, survival and development of seedlings. Many management options exist for early season pests. Two field trials were conducted in 2017 to evaluate combinations of early season pest management options. Treatments consisted of two planting dates (early and optimal), two seeding rates (2 and 4 seed per foot), and four seed treatments (with increasing levels of early season pest protection), arranged in a split-split-split plot design with four replications. Overall, the application of additional fungicides increased stands over the base treatment by 1.8 to 9.4% at location 1 and 6.7 to 19.0% at location 2. Improvements in yield were achieved with additional inputs in five of the eight scenarios. At location 1, yield improvements of 6.2 to 7.4% were achieved at the later planting date. An opposite trend was observed at location 2, where yield improvements were greater for the earlier planting date ranging from 4.1 to 15.3%. Differences in trends between planting dates at the two locations were most likely due to weather conditions during seedling emergence. Use of seed treatment fungicides, insecticides and nematicides has increased over the past decade as chemical management options have become more readily available. Additional studies determining the risk of early season pest pressure and use of combinations of such products are warranted.</div>
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