The Season is Tracking Some Good Years
7-26
The season is past halfway, and we have the rewards for our work in front of us. Based on the amount of heat units we have had up till now, we are tracking years like 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2016 which were all years with great crops set once September arrived. The more moderate temperatures in July with lower humidity seem like a combination for success with cotton. Even 2016 had a good boll load, only that is a year that experience several tropical events including Hurricane Michael that came in October and by being so late, it was able to clobber the early and the late planted cotton. 2014 was one of these years that stands today as the all-time best year ever for our region primarily because of a growing season like this one with a perfect harvest season all coming together. Some farmers feel like we have a late crop, but in fact, this mildness seems like part of the combination for success. The surprising statistic is that at around 8 inches, our rainfall is not only behind average, but also is behind the other mild seasons for the 4 peanut/cotton InfoNet locations except for Waverly. This might explain why the growth has responded so well to even one application of Pix. Rain has been like Mana from heaven with enough for the day but nothing extra.
The insect front remains on our radar and will continue until cotton has reached a safe stage which is approximately 5-6 weeks of bloom. The strong buildup has not occurred, although there is a good part of our cotton that has either already reached that most sensitive stage to damage occurring between 3rd to 5th week of bloom or will hit that stage over the next week or two. My approach is for detailed scouting during this period or schedule sprays based on crop susceptibility.
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