2018 is a week ahead of normal. 6-20-18 We have 700 heat units since May 1. You get blooms at 800 heat units on 5th position squares. So the first bloom projection for a May 1st planting date and an early variety is June 27th. Somebody post a picture on Facebook or Instagram. 2015 was the last time we got blooms in June and that year we had a bunch of April planted cotton. This year, the heat dating back to May 1st is tied with the previous record in 2015 and before that, it was 2010 so it really doesn’t happen that much. Overall that puts us about a week ahead of average for the last 10 year history. Most of the cotton we plant early tends to be higher fruiting varieties and it was several days into May before we really got rolling so realistically we probably will only have a scattering of blooms in June, but by July 4th, they’ll be everywhere. The primary implication for management relates to growth on this earlier cotton. Once cotton blooms, it is about two thirds grown and a week before blooming, it will probably double. If you have some 24 inch cotton with recent rainfall then it would be an easy decision to pix it immediately. I’m not a big fan of putting much more than a few ounces of Pix on cotton below 19 inches with Roundup if it has really good growing conditions. With good growing conditions, it needs to get Pix on well before 30 inches unless it has blooms. Some varieties to hold up on until just before bloom include 4946, 3522, 490, and 430. 333 is likely the most aggressively growing variety we still plant.
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