Frost and Freeze on Cotton

The last frost we had burned most of the leaves on the cotton still left in fields and more cold weather is on the way. The damage was much worse for the later planted cotton that had quite a few bolls left to open. If you cut these bolls open and they’re brown, the boll was damaged by the frost and won’t open.

In some fields the top of the plant was burned and the bottom still green. Some farmers chose to apply a defoliant in this situation.

At this point for cotton still left in fields, boll development and maturity for 2014 are at an end. Long term weather data and cotton maturation experience based on this data tell us that the risks of leaving cotton in the field beyond this point outweigh the benefits. Fields should be harvested as soon as possible.

Last week, thanks to Lamar Turner, I was flying over one of my cotton research plots to take aerial pictures. The below picture is of one of the Telone cotton plots at the Boyette’s in Appling county. The arrows are where the Telone was applied. You can easily see the stripes through the field. I’ll post the yields when harvested.