Weekly in-season Updates
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INFORMATION |
May 9, 2005 Talkin’ Cotton
Cotton planting has started in Southwest Oklahoma this week. After a period of cool moist conditions last week, the weather has cleared, and planters are rolling. Soil temperature at Altus this morning was 64 degrees at 7:30 am, and weather predictions are for some really warm weather, then chances of thunderstorms after mid-week. I would like to review some “planting rules” for getting a stand of cotton. Depth of planting should be 1 to 1 ˝ inches, but more importantly, the seed should be pressed into firm, moist soil. In conventional tillage systems, the soil should be worked shallow, ideally to the depth of planting. If you have limited rainfall following planting, soil that is tilled deep will dry out to the depth of tillage. Seed that is planted into this loose soil will often germinate and dry out, causing a loss of stand, or emergence of weak and stressed plants. We are not behind the eight ball yet on planting date. Research done by Dr. Laval Verhalen at OSU over a period of ten years has shown highest cotton yields were obtained from planting during the period of May 10-20. There were slight decreases in yield after May 20, but after the first week of June, yield drop was much higher.
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