Management efficiency in cotton can be improved by implementing strategies that may be adjusted in response to expected or realized changes in plant growth and development. This calls for a sensitive means of accurately monitoring plant growth and development such as the nodes-above-white-flower (NAWF) monitoring technique which has recently been introduced across the Cotton Belt. Successive counts of main-stem nodes bearing sympodia with a flower in the first position provides a practical and dynamic measurement of plant development. Of particular importance is the smooth progression of development of the boll load and the balance with plant vegetative growth. This paper provides a review of the theory, the physiological basis, and the justification for the critical value of the NAWF technique, and use of the technique to detect variation in levels of selected factors on the growth and development of the cotton plant. Detailed descriptions of the NAWF technique are given by Bourland et al. (1992) and Oosterhuis et al. (1992).