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Storage of Seed Cotton After Four Harvest Aid Treatments

A.D. Brashears, J.W. Keeling and T.D. Valco


 
ABSTRACT

Defoliation of leaves on the cotton plant is necessary before the plant is harvested with a brush roll stripper. Although some desiccation of the plant is necessary, it is desirable not to completely dry the cotton plant prior to harvest. Complete drying of the plant will significantly increase foreign matter, in particular sticks and fine trash. It is necessary to sufficiently dry the seed cotton to permit storage for 3 to 4 week periods prior to ginning without loss of fiber quality. Four harvest aid combinations which included defoliants, desiccants and boll openers were selected for this study and were compared to a nonchemical treatment that was harvested after termination by a freeze. One module of seed cotton, harvested from each harvest aid treatment, was ginned immediately after harvest while a second module of each treatment was stored for 34 days before ginning. Moisture content of the seed cotton before storage was less than 8.5% for all treatments. An early application of Prep (ethephon) plus Def (tribufos)(1.3 pt/a+0.5 pt/a)(P+D C) followed by an application of Cyclone (paraquat)(1.5 pt/a) along with the treatment of Ginstar (thidiazuron+diuron)(0.5 pt/a) applied at an early date followed by a late application of Cyclone(1.5 pt/a) (G C) had significantly higher moisture contents after storage than the other harvest aid treatments. Sticks and fine trash in seed cotton at the feeder apron were less for the stored cotton than for the non-stored for all harvest aid treatments. Eighty percent of the color grades for the cotton moduled but not stored were color grade 11, compared to 73% of the grades for the stored cotton that were color grade 11 or better. The treatment that received no harvest aid treatment and was harvested after a killing freeze had higher levels of sticks and fine trash and lower fiber qualities than the harvest aid treatments. This was due to the additional exposure to the weather. This study indicates that chemicals are available for harvest aids to prepare cotton for stripper harvest on the Texas High Plains and that the cotton can be stored with no significant loss of fiber quality. It also indicates that early harvest using harvest aids gave consistently better fiber quality than waiting to harvest the cotton after a killing freeze.



Reprinted from Proceedings of the 1997 Beltwide Cotton Conferences pp. 1609 - 1612
©National Cotton Council, Memphis TN

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Document last modified Sunday, Dec 6 1998