Keys to Successful Cotton Defoliation

“Cotton’s pretty unique,” says James Hill, Helena Sales Manager in West, Texas. “It’s a pretty hardy plant for the most part.”

For the uninitiated, raising cotton is unlike any other row crop. It follows an aggressive schedule, and success hinges on quality as much as quantity. As the plant develops and reaches bloom, immature bolls appear. Everything hinges on maturing those bolls to a healthy size with good lint, seed and quality. Growers use plant growth regulators to push the crop toward maturity, and as bolls open, they ready the fields for harvest. More and more, growers are using defoliation to remove leaves and other crop residue, leaving only the fluffy white cotton lint to be ginned. The sense of urgency is driven by the environment. As Hill explains, in heavy cotton producing areas like South Texas, late summer weather brings hurricanes, and rain spells disaster for open bolls.

Cotton is graded on a variety of factors such as color and cleanliness, meaning the higher the quality, the higher the price. Today, harvesting is done predominately with cotton pickers, but strippers are still used in some areas. Rather than only picking the lint, a cotton stripper takes everything off the plant, including the boll, lint and any leaves left on the plant. Defoliation helps to ensure fields are as clean as possible for harvest if well executed. According to Dr. Michael Kenty, Helena Product Specialist in Memphis, Tennessee, the key to successful defoliation is timing.

“We can have all the science, but really, it’s an art,” says Dr. Kenty.

Dr. Kenty explains, there are several techniques used to determine when the time is right to defoliate. There are also a variety of factors to consider in addition to the maturity of the plant such as environmental conditions and choosing the best products for the application. For Dr. Kenty, there are two components he never leaves out of a defoliation tank mix: quality adjuvants and Flash®.

“If you get that recipe just right and you incorporate Flash, it can be one and done,” says Dr. Kenty.

Flash is a specialized formulation of ethephon with a novel harvest technology designed to aid in transport of hormonal defoliants into the plant system. By promoting the speed and degree of uptake in the plant, it helps reduce the number of days from green to open boll. Unlike other ethephon products, Flash maintains a low pH solution to regulate ripening and provide faster, more complete boll opening with less regrowth. It also enhances the compatibility and performance of other defoliants from what Hill refers to as “synergy.” In his experience, growers can get their pickers or strippers in the field three to seven days faster with Flash.

“You get better leaf drop, a cleaner field, and we're beating the weather,” says Hill.