Many cotton fields have substantial variability in vegetative growth. Some areas of the field may require vegetative growth control, while other significant areas of the field have stressed plants. In six variable fields plant height was shown to be related to plant vigor and early fruit retention and thus a good indicator of the need for Pix, a cotton growth regulator. The retention of the bottom five first fruiting positions was directly proportional to plant height. Small, medium and large plants had 90, 76, and 56 percent retention of the bottom five first fruiting positions, respectively. Variable rates of Pix were applied to different groups of cotton plants depending on plant height. The taller the plant, the higher the Pix rate, Two variable Pix rates were compared to two uniform Pix rates and a control with no Pix. Across six locations for a total of 36 replications, the variable rates were not significantly better than the fixed 1/2 pint per acre rate. Even though these were extremely variable fields the 1/2 pint per acre fixed rate gave an economic yield increase of 45 pounds of cotton lint per acre.