We had good temperatures for planting last week ,and lots of the folks I talked to were planting hard. It is fairly common to have high temperatures and good cotton planting weather the last week or two of April. It is also very common to see a cold front come in around the first of May and make it difficult to get a good stand.

 

Using the weather forecast from News 14 in Raleigh and the Weather Channel (days 8-9) we have the following DD60's predicted for the week.

Monday April 30 - 12.5 DD60's

Tuesday May 1 - 16 DD60's

Wednesday May 2 - 11.5 DD60's

Thursday May 3 - 3.5 DD60's

Friday May 4 - 5 DD60's

Saturday May 5 - 6.5 DD60's

Sunday May 6 - 8 DD60's

Monday May 7 - 7.5 DD60's

Tuesday May 8 - 7 DD60's

 

For planting on Monday you would have an estimated 5 day DD60 forecast of 48.5 DD60's. For Tuesday it would be 42.5 DD60's. As you can see in the chart below, these conditions are considered good for cotton planting. As you see above, the estimated 5 day DD60 forecast for planting on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday would be 34.5, 30.5 and 34 DD60's respectively. This is not the greatest planting weather, but it is not that bad, and hopefully will be the only cool front we have during the planting period and will not last too long.

 

 

Predicted DD60 accumulation for five days following planting	Outlook for planting
< 10	Very poor
11-15	Poor
16-25	Marginal
25-50	Good
>50	Very Good