Virginia:

Pecking Cotton

By Johnny Parker, Agronomist

Commonwealth Gin, Windsor, Virginia

May 15, 2008 - It looks like over the next 24 hours we are going to have some more rain move through our region.  The forecast is for less than an inch this time and hopefully we will not get a surprise.  Currently our soils are very high in moisture and there is a lot of cotton that has been planted but does not have a good stand yet. 

I have had a bunch of phone calls since yesterday regarding pecking the cotton to help get a stand.  Since most of the cotton has been planted shallow, it looks like we are going to have pretty good emergence on most of it.  A light rain can actually be beneficial by keeping the ground soft which will allow much of the cotton to push on through over the next few days.  However it is likely that we will need to run the pecking rotary hoe on some fields and spots early next week to achieve the type of stands we want on some of the harder land or for cotton that has been planted for 10 days.  Generally you should wait to peck until at least a few plants have already emerged and the plants that have not emerged have developed a root  that is a couple of inches deep.  It probably is of little value to peck this afternoon right in front of a rain.