Weekly in-season Updates
|
INFORMATION |
July 15, 2007 Talkin’ Cotton J.C. Banks
With warmer weather, cotton has been rapidly growing and all mid-May planted cotton should be producing some blooms. Mepiquat based growth regulator applications have been applied to unstressed cotton. Areas in the field that have been severely waterlogged should be coming out of the stress at this time. Many low areas that have been extremely wet are continuing to show chlorosis and stunting due to excessive water. These areas might benefit from a cultivation of the middles, but be careful not to cultivate close to the plants. Cotton that has been too wet will have a shallow root system due to a lack of oxygen deeper in the soil. The only root system these plants have is shallow, if they are stressed at this time. Cultivation close to the plants has the potential to destroy much of this shallow root system. The plant will continue to place emphasis on root growth until it starts being pulled down due to fruit load, so we should have a week or two to get a good root system going. According to Jerry Goodson, we have been having some aphids show up in some fields. In these fields, Jerry also has been observing a build up of beneficial insects so hopefully the beneficials will be taking care of the aphid population. Spraying for aphids at this time will also decrease the beneficial insect populations, and could possibly set the cotton up for some more sprayings later in the season. Earlier damage to the squares by fleahoppers will delay the crop somewhat, and in these areas, an application of growth regulator may be needed to keep the plant from developing too much vegetative growth. Remember, the primary goal of a plant growth regulator is to help in fruit retention which should make the crop earlier and more easily harvested due to more compact plants.
|