Weekly in-season Updates
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INFORMATION |
May 6, 2007 Talkin’ Cotton J.C. Banks
Cotton planting is going strong in irrigated areas that are planted to longer season varieties. Moisture conditions (both topsoil and subsoil) are much better than last year and planting conditions have been good. Most of the planting has been with Roundup Flex varieties to help ensure more effective weed control mid to late season. As we start moving into dryland areas, it might be beneficial to review some planting tips for cotton. One of the most important days in the season is the day of planting. The best time to check and calibrate planters is before planting instead of wasting time on the day of planting. Planters should be checked over for worn chains, bearings, opening disks, and disk scrapers. Insecticide boxes should have been cleaned last year, but if not make sure no caked up insecticide is in the bottom of the box. All boxes also need to be calibrated annually. Seed tubes need to be brushed out and make sure the monitors are working on all rows. Depending upon soil conditions, seed should be planted 1 to 1 ½ inches deep and pressed into undisturbed soil with a seed press wheel. With modern planters, we can uniformly space the seed in the seed furrow. Planting rates should be 3-5 seed per foot, shooting for a plant population of 35,000 to 50,000 plants per acre. The ideal time to plant in Oklahoma is May 10 to 20, and it looks like we can take advantage of moisture conditions to get most of our planting done during this period.
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