The Section 18 for Transform has officially been approved for lygus control in California cotton. The product will be available for use through October this year. The availability of the product will be important this year, as environmental factors created a concerning situation the presence of lygus.
“As always with any pesticide, we hope we don’t use it, but the environment is lining up for us for this to be a pest year,” said President and CEO of the California Cotton Ginners & Growers Association (CCGGA), Roger Isom. “This year we’ve had a wet winter and kind of an extended spring. We know the foothills are loaded, we know the roadside weeds are growing, and you’re going to see those pests that are in those grasses and weeds start to move. Again, I hope we don’t see a single lygus, but we need this tool if we do.”
While the Section 18 provides temporary assurance that Transform will be available for use, CCGGA will continue to work closely with Corteva to see that the product achieves a full registration with cotton on the label in California. “Transform is an effective tool for lygus, and it’s not fully registered yet. It’s still going through all the process, so we applied for a Section 18,” said Isom.