Monitoring Plant Growth and Yield in Short-Season Cotton Production Using Plant Map Data

Juan A. Landivar, Steve Livingston, and Roy D. Parker


 
ABSTRACT

The cotton production season in the Lower Coastal Bend Region (LCBR) of Texas is limited to approximately 140 days from emergence until harvest. Limitations are imposed by cool temperatures during the seedling establishment period, water stress and late insect pressure during the boll filling period, and by the risk of hurricane rains in late August. Early season management practices are being successfully used in the LCBR to enhance maturity. These practices include early insect control, the use of plant growth regulators and harvest-aid chemicals. Cultivar selection is however, the most important factor for successful cotton production in short-season production environments. Selections should be made based on the ability of the cultivar to cut-out at a date that maximizes the utilization of available resources during the production season. Management of cotton crops in short-season production environments requires the quantification of the effects of the environment on plant growth and yield. Plant mapping is a powerful technique for analyzing the fruiting patterns and for estimating potential lint yield of cotton crops. The objective of this paper is to present a crop monitoring system based on plant map data to assist in the management of inputs for short-season cotton production. The procedure requires the collection of plant mapping data at four key stages of plant development and use of the Plant Map Analysis Program (PMAP) to summarize and analyze the data. The plant mapping procedure discussed here is currently being evaluated in the LCBR of Texas for research and commercial purposes.



Reprinted from 1993 Proceedings Beltwide Cotton Conferences pp. 1201 - 1205
©National Cotton Council, Memphis TN

[Main TOC] | [TOC] | [TOC by Section] | [Search] | [Help]
Previous Page [Previous] [Next] Next Page
 
Document last modified Sunday, Dec 6 1998