By Clint Thompson
Cotton planting is slated to begin near the end of April. The Georgia Cotton Commission and University of Georgia Extension Cotton Team encourage Georgia producers to look over their planters and make any necessary modifications now.
University of Georgia Precision Ag Specialist Wes Porter outlines a few tips for growers to consider in advance of planting this year’s crop. Modifications are especially critical when transitioning from planting corn or peanuts to cotton.
“What will happen is we’ll probably plant corn here soon, and we already are in parts of the state. Then we’ll move to either cotton or peanuts depending on temperature and depending on fields. It is extremely critical when we switch from corn and peanuts over to cotton, to adjust population appropriately; adjust depth appropriately; adjust our doubles eliminator appropriately for our new seed plate; and then adjust downforce appropriately for cotton,” Porter said. “Cotton is one of our smallest seeds we’re going to plant. Our optimal seeding depth is one inch. We want to make sure we set that planter up to get it at one inch.
“If we try to plant it moving forward from corn or peanuts, we’re just going to automatically put the seed too deep in the profile and it won’t come up. If we start our first field and haven’t changed our population, we are a lot lower on population in cotton than we are in corn and whole lot lower than peanuts, so we’re going to be overseeding dramatically.”
Georgia’s cotton producers will start planting at end of April or first of May and will continue through the middle of June.