Virginia:
Cutoff Date For Planting
By Johnny Parker, Agronomist
Commonwealth Gin, Windsor, Virginia
May 7, 2008- There is a lot of
progress being made planting cotton in the state. Nevertheless,
only about 1 or 2% of the crop was planted during April. That means
we will likely be planting cotton during most of the month of May to
finish up.
This brings up the question of when is the cutoff date for
planting cotton. Since cotton development is based on heat
accumulation and not numbers of days, the summer plays a huge role
on how much time cotton needs to reach full maturity. If we have
average summer temperatures, then typically cotton planted in early
May is mature during the second half of September. Based on these
assumptions, you could expect cotton planted during the second half
of May to reach maturity by early October. Of course, we will need
some favorable October temperatures to defoliate and typically we
get this.
There are a number of early maturing varieties that are well suited
for mid May planting. These would include 444, 4427, 375, and 485.
I
would target May 23 as the late date to finish planting. And finish
any replanting during the end of May.
