By Clint Thompson
Increased rainfall over the last two weeks helped alleviate dry conditions in South Georgia. But it was also unfortunate timing for a cotton crop in the final stages of its production season.
“This is not what we want to see in September. I’d just be honest with you, I’d rather it be dry and this crop be opening up and us getting ready to defoliate and harvest some. This is just slowing us down,” said Camp Hand, University of Georgia (UGA) Extension cotton agronomist.
“We’re still ahead of peanuts I think, in terms of maturity and getting the crop ready to go. At the end of the day, the thing is we just can’t get in the field to do anything. We can’t get in the field and defoliate the stuff that’s ready and the stuff that’s been defoliated; there’s a little bit out there, but we can’t pick it because it’s been raining. The clouds and the drizzle are not helping any.”
Excessive Rains
According to the UGA Weather Network, Tifton, Georgia, received 5.74 inches of rain from Sept. 6 to Sept. 12. Increased moisture over the previous week has made the state’s cotton crop susceptible to boll rot.
“The one thing that concerns me with these type of conditions is boll rot. This (weather) is ideal for rotting bolls off the cotton plant,” Hand said. “The rain and humidity, we could start to pick up a little more boll rot in some of our later stuff, which is abnormal.”
Hand encourages growers to take advantage of any dry weather next week. That mainly includes defoliating the crop ahead of harvest.
“Once we get into next week, you’re talking 30%, 40% chances of rain. Hopefully, we’ll be able to get in the field and do some stuff,” Hand said. “Once we get out of this little pattern we’re in now, I think if we’ve got days that the sun will come out and we’ll see some blue skies, then we need to defoliate some of this cotton that’s ready. I’d really like to see three days worth of sunshine after we defoliate a cotton crop. The sun just helps it work better.”