Virginia:

Cotton Development

By Johnny Parker, Agronomist

Commonwealth Gin, Windsor, Virginia

July 1, 2008 - About 80% of the cotton in the region is growing at an acceptable rate following the last spell of moisture we had this past weekend.  About 10% is behind in vegetative development and will start blooming before it gets very large. 

The other 10% is actually beginning to grow aggressively and would benefit from a pre-bloom Pix application.  Overall, most of the cotton does not need Pix this week.  And it will likely take some follow-up rain before a lot of Pix needs to be applied if it comes soon. 

There is a pretty good chance of rain moving in over the weekend and again next week.  A lot of the cotton is fruiting low and will actually go into bloom with only about 13 or 14 nodes.  That means that we need to be careful on the Pix applications only using it on those exceptional fields that have small squares and large vegetative plants until we get some follow-up moisture. 

Delta Pine 444 is one variety that may actually get tall but is not very vigorous at this time.  It is also a good time to get out and check how well the plants are holding squares.  There are plantbugs in the region, but so far, there have been no fields found below 80% square retention.