Virginia: green light this week for cotton planting

Johnny Parker, agronomist with Commonwealth Gin in Windsor, Virginia, filed the following report today on the gin's web site:

This week could be one of the best starts we have seen in quite some time as we move into an early cotton planting period which is also characterized as a late corn planting date. Daily high temperatures for 10 days are expected to remain in the 70's and 80's. Night time lows will remain above 50 limiting the risk of chilling injury to almost zero.

The main issue we face this week is that there is a good chance of getting rainfall. There is a pretty good chance of rain on Tuesday, then again we could see some rain during the first weekend of May which is about two weeks off. This is a good situation to plan for in that we should maintian a moist seed bed.

Generally these conditions indicate that shallow planting is probably the best approach and with the warm temperatures, we are in good shape to have an early blooming date with the April planted cotton. While we had a lot of trouble last year with early planting dates, this year looks to be quite different. If it was me, I would plant some cotton this week.

Commonwealth Gin provides advice on production and marketing of cotton. Information contained herein is from sources believed to be reliable, but is not guaranteed as to accuracy or completeness. No responsibility is assumed with respect to any statement, nor with respect to any expression of opinion herein contained. All views are the opinions of the author and no statement should be construed as an offer to buy or sell a commodity. This publication is for information purposes only.

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