By Ken E. Legé, Ph.D.
Panhandle:
It looks like many of us received some much need rainfall these past several days! Additionally, the 10-day forecast currently shows more chances to come.
If you are already planting, please make sure to keep an eye on soil temperatures and the ever-changing forecast. As the attached shows, the forecast does not look good for cotton germination today, but there are some opportunities otherwise. I suspect many of you will be waiting on fields to dry enough only to have another shower sometime this week…a good problem to have, but a problem nonetheless.
I have also attached a factsheet addressing the question ‘how late is too late to plant cotton?’ Bottom line: plant as soon as you can, as yield tends to deteriorate later in May. However, the yield decrease is rather small from week to week throughout May, so you can still make similar yields throughout the month. Yields greatly decrease for fields planted after May 28.
Southern High Plains
It looks like many of us received some much need rainfall these past several days! Additionally, the 10-day forecast currently shows more chances to come.
If you are already planting, please make sure to keep an eye on soil temperatures and the ever-changing forecast. As the attached shows, the forecast does not look good for cotton germination today, but there are some opportunities otherwise. I suspect many of you will be waiting on fields to dry enough only to have another shower sometime this week…a good problem to have, but a problem nonetheless.
I have also attached a factsheet addressing the question ‘how late is too late to plant cotton?’ Bottom line: we have quite a bit of time remaining that we can plant cotton and expect to make very good yields and fiber quality. It’s not quite time to panic yet, but take every opportunity between showers to put some seed in the ground when conditions are good.