by Dr. Camp Hand
Looking at the weather this week, the number one question is what to do around the rain. Luckily to this point we haven’t had to think much about rain-free periods as it relates to these defoliants, but it will be a little more important this week and next. Attached you will find the one pager I carry with me to defoliation meetings and agent trainings in August and September. There are tables on here that have much of the information you guys need provided in there, with rainfree period being one of those. Of course the one that sticks out is Dropp or thidiazuron at 24 hours. Including Folex in the tank mix (which 99.9% of people are doing) reduces the rainfree period of Dropp to 12 hours. It shouldn’t start raining until late tomorrow, so we should be clear to spray today.
Now the question is to spray before the rain or wait until after it passes. The number one thing for me is looking at the temps before and after this front comes through. Next week we will see dramatically reduced temps, with the highs not reaching the 80s for the forseeable future in South Georgia. So, I wouldn’t stop spraying because of the rain. The main reason being is that as of the next few days the defoliants we apply will be working faster than if we sprayed them next week.
In terms of harvesting, if your growers can get what they can before the rain I would encourage them to do so. But once the front moves through, I would encourage them to wait a couple of days to get started back picking. Cotton is an amazing/finicky crop for multiple reasons, but after a rain if we can get two to three days of clear weather the cotton will brighten back up. So losses in color would be negligible if your guys are concerned about that.
Recipes for the week:
3-4 oz Dropp, 10-12 oz Folex, 42 oz Prep
6.4 – 8 oz Ginstar, 42 oz Prep (add more Dropp if needed)
I know these recs haven’t changed a ton, but starting next week they will. We will start losing efficacy of some products and need to take that into consideration.