Choosing an Insecticidal Seed Treatment or in-Furrow for Thrips in Cotton (Reisig, Collins, Huseth)

Feb 15, 2019

By Dominic Reisig

Lots of folks are wondering what to use downstream for thrips in cotton. It’s critical to not only get the 1) active ingredient from your dealer, but also to get the 2) rate of insecticide applied to the seed (0.375 mg ai/seed is common for most). This is because brand names change and the active ingredients associated with these brands change over time. Once you have this information, you will be able to make a decision. Active ingredients available for thrips are acephate (not a neonicotinoid), clothianidian, imidacloprid, or thiamethoxam (all neonicotinoids). Some of these may be packaged with nematicides, such as abamectin and thiodicarb, that have some activity on thrips.

Seed treatment. Previous to known thrips resistance, tests from Drs. Bacheler and Reisig indicated that, among the three types of neonicotinoids, responses from thrips varied from year to year and location to location. Dr. Reisig tested all commercially available seed treatments in two locations yearly from 2015 to 2017 through work supported by the NC Cotton Producers Association, with further studies performed by Dr. Kennedy’s program (NCSU Entomology and Plant Pathology Department). These were combined with various in-furrows both with an without seed treatments. From these studies, any seed treatment with a full rate of imidacloprid provided equivalent control (for example, Acceleron, Aeris, and Avicta Elite), even when packaged with other insecticides. Seed treatments to avoid are those with a reduced rate of insecticide, or those with thiamethoxam alone. Acephate (Orthene) seed treatment has provided moderate control in our environment and should be avoided as a standalone seed treatment. Again, active ingredients or rates within a brand name seed treatment can vary from year to year, although marketed under the same or similar brand name annually, therefore it is important to ensure that you are purchasing a treatment that includes the full rate (0.375 mg ai/seed) of imidacloprid.

In-furrow. Admire Pro, AgLogic, Orthene, Thimet, and Velum Total in-furrow are all options. All these products in furrow without an insecticidal seed treatment can provide equivalent control to a seed treatment in some cases. Importantly, they can also completely flop without an insecticidal seed treatment in some cases (with the exception of AgLogic which, depending on rate, usually looks as good or sometimes better than a seed treatment). Because of this, we strongly recommend using them as partners for seed treatments and encourage growers to use a seed treatment on all their cotton to ensure uniform thrips protection. Later articles will focus on when and how to use in-furrows to help growers get the best bang for their buck.

Source:ncsu.edu

Video: Seeing the Whole Season: How Continuous Crop Modeling Is Changing Breeding

Plant breeding has long been shaped by snapshots. A walk through a plot. A single set of notes. A yield check at the end of the season. But crops do not grow in moments. They change every day.

In this conversation, Gary Nijak of AerialPLOT explains how continuous crop modeling is changing the way breeders see, measure, and select plants by capturing growth, stress, and recovery across the entire season, not just at isolated points in time.

Nijak breaks down why point-in-time observations can miss critical performance signals, how repeated, season-long data collection removes the human bottleneck in breeding, and what becomes possible when every plot is treated as a living data set. He also explores how continuous modeling allows breeding programs to move beyond vague descriptors and toward measurable, repeatable insights that connect directly to on-farm outcomes.

This conversation explores:

• What continuous crop modeling is and how it works

• Why traditional field observations fall short over a full growing season

• How scale and repeated measurement change breeding decisions

• What “digital twins” of plots mean for selection and performance

• Why data, not hardware, is driving the next shift in breeding innovation As data-driven breeding moves from research into real-world programs, this discussion offers a clear look at how seeing the whole season is reshaping value for breeders, seed companies, and farmers, and why this may be only the beginning.