Check out this week’s Cotton Defoliation Update from Cotton Specialist, Camp Hand
Across the state, it looks like this is the last “hot” week in the foreseeable future. Upper 80s statewide with lows in the 60s-70s. Defoliation should be fairly straightforward for this. Major things to keep in mind:
- Spotty rains leading up to the weekend, with rain Saturday and Sunday. If your growers are going to defoliate this week (which I would do if I had cotton ready), they likely need to wrap up spraying on Thursday so rainfree period is not a concern.
- As mentioned, it looks like it is going to cool off for a while starting after the rain this weekend. While this rain is much needed (particularly to facilitate harvest of dryland peanuts), if I had cotton that was 60% open or more, I would try my best to defoliate it this week because the cool temps next week will definitely affect what we spray from here on (think higher rates/different products).
Rates for the week:
3-4 oz/acre thidiazuron (Dropp/Freefall/Klean-pik/etc.)
6-10 oz/acre tribufos (Folex/Def/etc.) – lower rates on high temp days, less foliage to remove. Higher rates as we approach the weekend prior to rain/cool down.
32-42 oz/acre ethephon (Prep/Super Boll/Setup/etc.)
Reminder – if you are going to use a PPO to target morningglories, pull the tribufos from the tank (i.e. don’t add ETX or Aim to the three-way… asking for trouble in my opinion).
