Carolina Cotton Notes - Planting Into Dry Soils

I am getting a lot of questions on wether cotton planting should continue as the soils are getting drier and drier. What is the best course of action depends on the weather in the future, which we do not have any control over. What I am doing is dusting in cotton and waiting for rain to bring it up.

Option 1. Dust it in and wait for rain. This is the most desirable option in my opinion and over the long haul will produce the most consistent desirable results. Cotton seed can sit in dry soil for a long time and still germinate when it rains.

Option 2. Plant deeper than normal, like 1.5 inches, to get to moisture. Sometimes this works well. The biggest problem with this is that if we get a rain and the soil crusts before the cotton emerges you end up with a bad stand in soils that are likely to crust. I would consider this option more likely to be successful if: the cool germ for the seed is good, you are hill-dropping, you can consistently plant into moisture and you think the cotton will emerge before it rains.

I would be careful with this option if you are planting deep to get into questionable moisture on sandy soils. The seeds may swell and by the time the radicle emerges the moisture is gone and the cotton dies.

Often when people try to plant deep to get to moisture they get to moisture in some parts of the field and not in others, resulting in uneven cotton and poss

Option 3. Quit planting and wait for a rain. Wether this is a good option depends on how much cotton you have to plant and how quickly you can plant it. The worst case scenario is that you wait until it rains and wet weather sets in and you are not able to plant cotton on time.

Growers may want to consider there herbicide programs when planting into questionable moisture. For example if growers can use Roundup Ready cotton without using Cotoran as a pre-emergence herbicide, they will be able to plant soybeans if they fail to get a decent stand of cotton

Below is a link to a past Carolina Cotton Note on the topic of crust busting.

http://lenoir.ces.state.nc.us/newsletters/ag/ccn_94_5b.html