Source: NCSU COOPERATIVE EXTENSION, 7/9/21


Tropical Storm Elsa brought us a needed slow, soaking rain that will likely benefit most growers across NC. Although there were few comments from growers leading up to Elsa’s arrival, we were in the early stages of noticeable drought stress in many areas of the Coastal Plain as of July 7th, even in those areas that received rain within the last week. It’s important to keep in mind that regardless of rainfall amounts or intensity, we are never more than a week or so away from a significant drought. This scenario is more common on sandier soils, especially when daily high temperatures exceed 90 degrees.

With that said, most growers are in good shape at the moment with soil moisture, and hopefully flooding or wind damage was minimal. There have been several more reports of cotton beginning to bloom since the early reports that came in around July 1st, and several more fields that are about to enter the blooming period soon. Cotton growth has surged noticeably after the last 10 days or so, and now that most fields have been top-dressed, so we can expect a significant surge in growth within the next week to 10 days as a result of the moisture that Elsa brought us. Questions about PGR management are likely to come flooding in over the weekend, so we hope to address some of them in this article. The PGRs we refer to here are mepiquat chloride based PGRs.


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