Page 16 - 08 Cotton SA March 2016

Article as it appeared in the 22nd January 2016 edition of Cotton Seed Distributors’ “Facts on Friday”; Australian
publication
Finishing the crop with limited

water

Water budgets are once again tight, and crop
managers are seeking to optimise yields from what FIGURE 1
water they have available. There are a couple of
characteristics of the cotton plant which can be
exploited and will enable crop managers to extract
the most from every last drop.

WHAT WILL WORK AGAINST YOU
Excessive Growth: In limited water scenarios the number one
enemy is excessive growth apparent in two ways; firstly, the crop
is forced to be prematurely shut down and the nutrient demand
is higher than the yield requirements and therefore the crop
continues to put on extra nodes which will not contribute to the
yield but continue robbing valuable resources which could have
gone into filling bolls.

Secondly, extra bolls which have grown but do not have the
required time or resources to mature, can sometimes be difficult
to open at maturity despite high rates of Prep. In these
situations, select and commit to the last effective flower on the
plant (that flower may be already there).

Work out how many days of water are remaining and work
Continue on p 17

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