Sorry I am behind schedule. I was sick last week. Spent Memorial Day Weekend on the sofa with a fever. Took it easy last week so it wouldn't turn into something worse.

Summer's back in town. Temps are up into the 90's. It will get warmer. I shouldn't complain, we have had a fabulous Spring. Lots of sunshine and cool weather. Of course, that has confused the poor plants. I have not checked any degree day records, but it looks to me like the cotton is about two weeks behind.
The old timers will tell you that cool, wet Springs lead to cool, wet Falls. I'll check back with you in October. I could use a warm, dry Fall to catch up on some of this lost time.

We finished fertilizing the cotton last week. Some of the almonds looked a little light. Leaf analysis showed they were short of nitrogen, so we gave them a little more food too. Mites are starting up in a couple of blocks of almonds. We'll have to spray. It's always something.

This week we will start water up in the cotton. Irrigation brings up the question of how we use our natural resources. You can see below a recent op-ed I wrote on the subject. I think utilization of natural resources is one of the big unresolved natural resource issues of our day. Here the issue is water, elsewhere it is other resources. No one is asking permission to rape the environment. But, current policy is so restrictive as to be unreasonable. We definitely need a safe and sane resource policy. We don't have one yet.

I hope y'all have a great week. Please, if you haven't already, take a look below at the op-ed on Job Creation and Natural Resources.
Ciao,
P