Source: Charlie Cahoon, NCSU COOPERATIVE EXTENSION, 4/25/19


Charlie Cahoon and Wes Everman, Weed Science Extension Specialists, NC State University; Alan York, Professor Emeritus, NC State University; David Jordan, Extension Peanut Specialist, NC State University; Eric Prostko and Stanley Culpepper, Weed Science Extension Specialists, University of Georgia

The fall of 2018 is one many growers want to forget. With two hurricanes and other seemingly endless rainfall events, a considerable amount of cotton in South Carolina and Georgia, and to a lesser extent in southeastern North Carolina, was never harvested. That raises questions on the potential for volunteer cotton plants to come up in 2019.

We expect the vast majority of cotton seed lost viability over the winter. However, we know a few seeds can survive the winter and come up the next spring. A good example is the volunteers often seen where modules were built and some cotton was left on the ground when the module was moved. Rough math will show that 11 million seed can be produced by a two-bale crop. If only one-tenth of one percent of those seeds remain viable and emerge this spring, that would mean 11,000 volunteers per acre.

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