By Clint Thompson
The extended drought that impacted the Southeast region meant some cotton growers were delayed in their plantings this year. That puts more pressure on producers with June-planted cotton, says Camp Hand, University of Georgia (UGA) Extension cotton agronomist.
Hand and the Georgia Cotton Commission caution growers who have later-planted cotton this year.
“The thing that we’ve got going for us in Georgia is that we have such a long growing season. That’s one thing that we’ve got going for us that there aren’t many other people in the country that can take advantage of,” Hand said. “But whenever we start planting in the middle of June or even later, that just takes away some of the fact that cotton’s a very forgiving plant. Once you plant late, real late, then that forgiveness kind of goes away.
“You don’t have much room for mistakes. And so, everything’s got to be dialed in. Everything’s got to be done right, because if we have a big screw up, on June-planted cotton, there’s not much, there’s no room for error.
“We’ve got a great environment. You can still make really good cotton in June. You just can’t mess up.”