Virginia cotton probably helped more than hurt by Ernesto

Johnny Parker, agronomist with Commonwealth Gin in Windsor, Va., said that tropical storm Ernesto may have done more good than harm. Here's a report from his web site:

Now that things are returning to normal following the high amounts of rainfall, the initial assessments appear to be mostly positive. In our region, most of the cotton fields received rainfall amounts from a low of 5 inches to over 9 inches in the more eastern areas of the cotton area. There was a little bit of blowing but at this point, the lodging issue that we are seeing is not as bad as some we have seen in the past. The amount of lint that was damaged from this rainfall seems to be pretty limited. In fact, I would expect that the benefit from the rain helping to add weight to the younger bolls will more than offset any damage that could have happened. Outside of a major Storm, the weather that would be the most concerning would be an extended drizzly wet spell. Continued overcast, wet weather or even humid conditions during the boll opening stage increases the incidence of hard lock in cotton. There appears to be a low level of hard lock at this point. At this point the overall situation is encouraging yet cautious as we are still in front of harvest preparation.

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