Weekly in-season Updates
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INFORMATION |
September 5, 2005 Talkin’ Cotton
In our early planted cotton bolls are beginning to open in the lower part of the plant, so it’s about time to start thinking about the use of harvest aids to prepare the crop for harvest. Harvest aids work better when the cotton has slowed its growth and is no longer trying to put on squares and blooms. This is normally referred to as the cut out stage of the plant. Cooler weather and limited late season nitrogen and moisture help the plant to go into cut out more easily. In much of our cotton, late season rains following a drought have resulted in excessive top growth of the plant. This will require a different harvest aid mixture than if the plant were well cut out. More attention will need to be given to a harvest aid mixture that will drop juvenile growth and not allow regrowth. Cotton can be picked if the plant is not completely dried out, but for stripper harvest, essentially all the leaves should be off the plant. In the next few weeks we will talk about crop conditions and harvest aids and combinations that are working in specific areas. Now is the time to start evaluating fruiting loads and how specific varieties have performed in your area. There should be an OSU variety test in your county or an adjacent county and at this time, all but the test at Covington, Oklahoma should have variety signs on them. Call your county extension educator to find the location nearest you. We will try to post any tours and locations of tests on the NTOKCotton.org web site.
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