A lot of cotton is ready for defoliation in our region. Several farmers have begun defoliating some cotton. Close to a third of the cotton is ready for defoliation currently and over the next 10 days more than 50% of the cotton will be ready. Cotton bolls are fully mature when the seed coats of the cottonseed have turned a dark tan color. That usually occurs on bolls as much as 4 nodes above the highest cracked boll. The key component for defoliation mixtures this year is going to be Dropp which does an excellent job of removing juvenile growth as well as mature leaves in sunny warm to hot conditions. I have been recommending 2 ounces of Dropp mixed with Finish or FirstPick. If you use Prep then mix about 3 ounces of Dropp plus 6 to 8 ounces of Def. A lot of cotton fields have added new very young bolls from late August blooming and while I would not expect a bloom to have enough time, there is a chance that warm September and October conditions could mature out small bolls by late October. Squares are of no benefit this late. Only wait on this late cotton if your projected yield is below an insurance yield and you have a lot of the small bolls.
| COTTON # 2 (Dec 10) 89.45s - 0.04 