{"id":1027,"date":"2020-07-09T08:56:11","date_gmt":"2020-07-09T12:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/tiftcoag\/?p=1027"},"modified":"2020-07-09T08:56:12","modified_gmt":"2020-07-09T12:56:12","slug":"mid-season-cotton-water-requirements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/tiftcoag\/2020\/07\/mid-season-cotton-water-requirements\/","title":{"rendered":"Mid-Season Cotton Water Requirements"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>May planted cotton should be squaring and getting close to bloom, if it&#8217;s not there already. Bloom usually occurs 9 weeks after planting and water requirements begin to approach peak demand during this time. Water is critical during the &#8220;first flower to first open boll&#8221; phase. This growth stage takes place between 9-17 weeks after planting. During this stage, cotton may require up to 1.5 inches of water a week or .2 inches a day. The Soil Water Holding Capacity (SWHC) for most of our soils is about 1 inch\/foot of soil. The crop can only access water where it has roots and of the SWHC only about 50% of the water is plant available. Therefore, a cotton plant with 18-inch rooting depth will have access to .75 inches of water at field capacity, meaning that it will require irrigation every 3-4 days minimum. This is based on rainfall and irrigation efficiency during this stage. Don&#8217;t let your cotton experience water stress during this stage as it can reduce plant growth which in turn reduces the number of fruiting positions. Weather plays a big part in this. If it&#8217;s cooler and cloudier you may not need to water as much as you would when it&#8217;s sunny and hot.  <em>Credits to Cale Cloud, Extension Agent, David Hall, Extension Water Educator, and Wesley Porter, Extension Precision Ag, and Irrigation Specialist.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"767\" height=\"538\" src=\"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/tiftcoag\/files\/2020\/07\/image.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1028\" srcset=\"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/tiftcoag\/files\/2020\/07\/image.png 767w, https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/tiftcoag\/files\/2020\/07\/image-300x210.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 100vw, 767px\" \/><figcaption>This graph should give you a good idea of weekly water requirements through July if you planted your cotton in April-May.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Just so you have an idea of where the state stands as of the end of June below is the current GA Drought Monitor Map. Currently, we are not in a drought anywhere in the state.  <a href=\"https:\/\/droughtmonitor.unl.edu\/CurrentMap\/StateDroughtMonitor.aspx?GA\">https:\/\/droughtmonitor.unl.edu\/CurrentMap\/StateDroughtMonitor.aspx?GA<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>May planted cotton should be squaring and getting close to bloom, if it&#8217;s not there already. Bloom usually occurs 9 weeks after planting and water requirements begin to approach peak demand during this time. Water is critical during the &#8220;first flower to first open boll&#8221; phase. This growth stage takes place between 9-17 weeks after [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":277,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cotton","category-irrigation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/tiftcoag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/tiftcoag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/tiftcoag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/tiftcoag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/277"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/tiftcoag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1027"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/tiftcoag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1027\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1029,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/tiftcoag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1027\/revisions\/1029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/tiftcoag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/tiftcoag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/tiftcoag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}