Specialists Speaking- Keith Edmisten

Keith Edmisten

NORTH CAROLINA

The cotton crop has come a long way after struggling earlier this season. We thought the crop would be on the late side due to drought early on. The crop seems to have caught up and, for the most part, is on time. With a little help from a rain or two in August, we could go into the defoliation season with a really good crop in most areas.

Defoliation timing is often a difficult decision for growers, especially when drought occurs during the bloom season, as fruit abortion forces them to decide whether to chase a top crop due to fruit abortion during mid-bloom. This should be a much easier decision for most fields this year as the drought was earlier and did not cause abortion during the bloom period. Growers often want to delay defoliation to make use of all the heat units available for crop development. We need to remember to use some of those heat units for boll opening following defoliation applications. Recent studies on defoliation timing have shown that we need to defoliate in mid-October rather than wait until November to maximize yields.

Keith Edmisten

NORTH CAROLINA