So when I was in Oklahoma a few weeks ago, I went over to see Retail Partner Parker Christian in Cordell, which is in SW OK. When I was there last spring, I reported that there was going to be quite a bit of cotton planted. And there was. After a good growing season, it looks like there will be a good crop. This field was just ready for harvest, and Parker likes what he sees. Especially when it was fertilized with AgroLiquid. Parker sold quite a bit of PRIMAGRO P for cotton, due to excellent handling and anticipated performance. Well as you can see, performance was excellent.
A common application was 3 gal/A PRIMAGRO P + 7 gal/A of High NRG-N + 1 qt/A Micro 500 applied 2x2. (That's in a band placed 2" over and 2" below the seed with the planter). Remember this is dryland Oklahoma, and rates are usually low because of this. But in a good year with some rain, production can be be high. Look at all of the beautiful cotton awaiting harvest.
We looked at several Agro-fed fields and they all looked full of soft, fluffy cotton. The growers were pleased with how the AgroLiquid handled during planting and with how it looked now.
Now here is another field with some long-time AgroLiquid growers. But where is all of the soft, fluffy cotton? Well cotton is not like other crops where you can wait for it to mature naturally, at least up here where there it can freeze. Cotton is a plant that starts flowering on the bottom branches and succeeds up the plant. The pollinated flowers turn into bolls that open when mature, revealing the cotton fibers. But later developed bolls at the top will still be closed at the time of boll opening at the bottom. Well, once it freezes, the bolls will stay closed and you can't get the cotton out. So you have to spray on a plant hormone to promote boll opening. The most widely used is Ethephon which converts to ethylene to promote maturity. Additionally, you will add something to defoliate the plant of leaves so that the cotton is just open bolls, stems and stalks. This field had been recently sprayed for this.
See the open bolls on the bottom and the closed bolls on top, that will soon be promoted to open. The leaves are already starting to dry out and will drop. Parker also has custom application and sprays a lot of the cotton around here.
Well as a collector of everything, I brought some cotton back to Michigan to show on my desk. Most people here had not seen cotton and were impressed with how it looks at harvest. I have some left if you want a sample to take home.
