Sorghum Tips

Rain & Sorghum (South Plains) & Sugarcane Aphid Arrives (High Plains)

South Plains
Huge Rains & 8 Days of Clouds – Impact on South Plains Grain Sorghum

Recently, most of the South Plains region from Lubbock South received 4 to 8 inches of rain, and areas north of Lubbock received 2 to 5 inches. Needless to say, the question “When can I stop irrigating grain sorghum” is now a moot point. What I expect to see in the field is significant delay, up to a week, in maturity for sorghum in some fields. A Dawson Co. field on Monday appears to have been about complete on flowering on main heads prior to the rains and cloudy weather, but tillers appeared to have all but stopped development, so the few days difference we often see between main head and tiller head maturity may become more pronounced.

Sucker head potential – I do think the heavy, wet weather with clouds could trigger a higher level of sucker head development, e.g. tillers from further up in the stalk. These tillers often get in the way of grain harvest. Ideally you can harvest before these heads flower and develop any grain, thus they will pass through the combine, but sometimes you have to delay harvest until after a freeze or use a harvest aid to dry this parasitic foliage down.

 High Plains
A Few Sugarcane Aphids Found in High Plains

One early September report from Floyd County confirmed the presence of some sugarcane aphids, and last week sugarcane aphids were also confirmed in Garza, Lubbock, and Crosby counties. An initial summary, after the Floyd Co. report was posted, is in the FOCUS on South Plains Agriculture newsletter by Dr. Pat Porter, extension entomologist in Lubbock (806-746-6101, pporter@ag.tamu.edu). This morning Dr. Porter reports that in all four counties we have sugarcane colonies reported, but he notes we still don’t know whether there is a potential for a significant increase, in part because we don’t know how the cooler temperatures recently will affect the aphid.

I note that we are late in the season, all grain sorghum is in some stage of grain development (or even mature), and there is little expectation that most acres could be negatively impacted (but remember the temperatures). Although some colonization has been reported, at this time neither Dr. Porter nor I have heard of any scouting reports that indicate the threshold of 100 aphids per leaf being achieved, and there has been no spraying. A recent media inquiry asked “How much of the Texas High Plains grain sorghum crop is being (negatively) affected?”, and the current answer is none. If you have further questions about this insect in the South Plains contact Dr. Porter or our Extension IPM agents located in Dawson, Hockley, or Hale counties.

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