California cotton off to late but picture-perfect start

California’s cotton crop is off to a late but fast start, based on reports late last week (see our May 12 issue of MiteFax: SJV Cotton).

Successive rains throughout much of March and April delayed planting. When growers could finally jump into the field in early May, the weather turned relatively favorable. In many cases, cotton is emerging to a stand in less than a week and hitting first true leaf within another week. The crop still has a long way to go. Upland varieties may not be affected much, but there remains concern that Pima varieties, which need longer growing seasons, could be in jeopardy if they run into a cooler fall. Earlier, it was projected that California growers would grow more Pima than Upland varieties this year for the first time, but that seems unlikely now, based on more current estimates.

More will be known about that on Tuesday, May 23, at the fifth annual Pima Cotton Summit in Visalia. Jeff Elder, vice chairman of Supima’s board and vice president of cotton marketing for J.G. Boswell Co., will give an overview on the crop size and condition.

Harry Cline reported in Western Farm Press on May 5 that the “most optimistic” projections now are for 250,000 acres (compared to 290,000 that USDA had been projecting) At one point, there were predictions that Californians might grow as much as 325,000 acres this year. Some observers, Cline noted, say that with all the weather delays the final Pima crop might only equal last year’s 230,000 acres.