So late last week SAM Jacob Nowakowski and I made a return visit to the cotton fields around Tahoka, Texas. Our loyal readers will recall the post from June 15 that showed pictures of the torrential rains that occurred while we were there. Rainfall amounts of over 5 inches fell in just a few hours leading to tremendous field runoff. And then on top of that, a foot of rain fell a few weeks later over the 4th of July. So it has been a wet year from the beginning with late planting. Although in this area, it was getting pretty dry. So the cotton needs a push, and that is where foliar applications of ferti-Rain have been playing a part. The Liquid sales rep for the area, Brian Durham, showed us around. Fields that were planted with Agro-Culture Liquid Fertilizers already look better than those that had conventional fertilizer, and those with ferti-Rain look even better. It's kind of hard to see it in the picture below, but the rows on the left received an application of 3 gal/A of ferti-Rain plus Pix growth regulator several weeks ago. The rows on the right received a recent application of this treatment due to mud and water in that part of the field at the time of the first application. It was reported that differences were very obvious after application where the sprayed rows had much better color. They look similar as far as color goes now, but the later treated rows are taller and not as bushy as the rows that received the Pix and fertilizer earlier. So it appears that this is a good combo application. With the cotton being later than normal this year, it is a good opportunity for foliar ferti-Rain.
I told you it was getting dry in this area, which is a good condition for this Horned Lizard. OK, we all know that it's better known as a Horny Toad, so everybody can snicker now. Poor thing, and all alone besides. We were told to be on the lookout for rattlesnakes too. No snicker there. Didn't see any.
I may have mentioned that we have some replicated cotton foliar research plots about 70 miles up the road in Plainview, Texas. Well they are also having some late cotton issues of their own. Rain prevented planting until June, and the rain continues here. It appears that there has been more recent rain up this way as the cotton looks better. No signs of dry stress. In fact, the night before our visit they received over an inch of rain. Our plots are out there somewhere in the picture below. But the cotton is only now starting to flower, and just received it's first foliar application. We had planned to apply the early foliar fertilizers with the Pix, but due to rain delays and the cotton growing so fast, they had to apply the Pix by plane on the whole field. So the fertilizers were applied separately on the plots. We are evaluating ferti-Rain, as well as Sure-K plus micros and then later applications of High NRG-NR at early boll development when there is usually a demand for extra N. With all of the rain this year, there may have been some nitrogen loss. So this is an opportunity for foliar applications to possibly make up for some of the loss. They normally apply 70 lb of N per acre for 3+ bale cotton. The researchers said that they have only run the pivot irrigation once all summer, which is very rare in the normally dry Panhandle.
Next week my fertilizer mission continues. Any guesses where??? Stay tuned.