Carolina Cotton Notes

There were storms in various areas of the state on May 14th, some of which included hail. Hail can be very damaging to young cotton. On the bright side we are still early enough that replanting is a viable option. Often hail storms occur in early June when replanting decisions are much more risky.

Cotton usually recovers from hail damage, at least to some extent. Often early hail damage will not result in a yield loss. Cotton is a perennial crop that is capable of “suckering” from any node to continue growth and reproduction. If the cotton is cut off below the cotyledonary nodes then the cotton will die, there is no auxiliary bud located at the node to produce new growth. If there are any nodes left the cotton has a chance to recover, even if the leaves are completely removed

If there are no nodes for continued growth a producer should decide wither to replant cotton or to plant the field to another crop. In most cases if there are nodes left on the plants, one should wait a week to evaluate if new growth will appear. Old timers often say you should go to the beach for a week after a hail storm. The extent and speed of the recovery is related to how much leaf area remains following the storm and how badly the stems have been damaged.

Growers often are tempted to want to do something to help hail damaged cotton recover. The only thing I have ever noticed appear to help is cultivating where crusting was caused by the excessive rain that usually accompanies a hail storm. Many growers are tempted to try foliar fertilizers or growth regulators to help hail damaged cotton. I have never seen anything like this help out. The cotton needs heat and time to recover. If you think about it, the healthiest thing going for a hail damaged crop is its root system. With a healthy root system and little leaf area to support and little leaf area for absorption of nutrients, foliar fertilizers do not seem to be off any economic advantage to hail damaged cotton. If a tremendous amount of leaching rain occurred then N replacement may be necessary, but that will primarily be through root absorption.

Growers may have some fields where parts of the field may justify replanting. The problem with this has always been uneven plant size for post-directing herbicides or the older cotton having more than 4 nodes for Roundup Ready cotton. The uneven cotton size would be less of a problem in Roundup Ready Flex varieties.