Specialists Speaking- Guy Collins
Guy Collins
North Carolina
As I write this June 30, I think everyone is very thankful for recent rains across most of the state. We went into this year in a moisture deficit, starting back in March and April, and we remain in a deficit. Thus far, we have been growing this crop on “Band-Aid” rains that have been sporadic and in relatively low amounts since before our planting season began. The last weekend in June brought some appreciable rains to many parts of our cotton belt, and we are certainly thankful for it.
Our crop has appeared to be shorter than normal despite most of it being planted on time during May, and some earlier. There was very little late-planted or replanted cotton this year in most areas, yet the general appearance of many fields suggests the crop is behind schedule. Ultimately, the short stature we’ve seen can largely be attributed to dry weather, albeit most fields have a very good root system established, which will serve us more so in late July and August. If we choose to see the silver lining in the dry weather thus far, it would be that our cotton crop has a strong root system and very little of our recently applied fertilizer has been lost to heavy rains. All in all, we’re at a pretty good point for cotton at this time.
There are very few reports of first blooms at this point in time, and that is fairly normal for North Carolina in late June. The majority of our crop will begin blooming over the next two to three weeks. Although the situation may be very different by the time this article is published, we cautioned growers to avoid windshield assessments of growth during late June and early July, and to carefully evaluate plant growth before making PGR applications.
As we approach the bloom period, recent rains that washed in fertilizer spurred some growers to apply PGRs; however, the dry, hot conditions we’ve had throughout the spring and early summer have resulted in some fields with little need for an aggressive PGR strategy, at least for the first application. Of course, there’s always exceptions, and this could easily change by late July or early August.
Cotton is off to a good start for now, so we need to stay on top of insect pressure to preserve yield potential. This of course, includes lygus, stinkbugs, etc., but we’re watching very closely for jassids and paying very close attention to what is happening further south. Jassids did appear in North Carolina late last year, and thankfully were late enough to avoid any losses, but this year could be different. As we’ve learned from our colleagues further south, we’ll need to catch any jassid problems as soon as they appear and address them in a very timely manner. This pest is one that requires attention as soon as it is found at treatable levels. Thankfully, our entomologists are on top of this issue. [email protected]
