Weeds and Hot Weather

Warm weather and water make the cotton, and the weeds grow.

Can you see the dark flecks int eh furrows? Those are pig weed seedlings that sprouted because of the water from last week's irrigation. If we leave them alone they will be three feet tall in a month. So, we fired up the tractor...

and started cultivating the cotton.
   Both of these pictures are taken from the same spot in the field. I didn't move an inch. In the first picture I looked down at the weeds. In the second picture I looked up toward the tractor.You can see the stems at the top of the top picture are in the bottom of the bottom picture.
   We are running two passes of the tractor. In the first pass we use a rolling cultivator to loosen up the soil. For the second pass we use a fixed cultivator to shape the beds for the next irrigation in a week or so.

It got to 111F this week. Fortunately it has cooled off. The old hands tell you cotton likes heat. That is true up to a point. The plant is a lot like me, it shuts down at 95F. University studies show the stoma on the bottom of the cotton leaves actually shut down at 95 to protect the plant. Ideal temps for cotton are between 65 and 95. Below 65 the plants won't grow and above 95 the shut down. See, just like me, I operate better when it is warmer than 65 and cooler than 95.

I y'all have a great week.

P