A field experiment was conducted during the 2002 growing season to evaluate a central Arizona grower’s method of addressing cotton fiber micronaire based on the management and timing of his agronomic inputs. The success of his inseason management, irrigation termination decision combined with his method of defoliation has led to a consistent production of premium fiber micronaire in recent years. Steps to accomplish crop defoliation and the subsequent mixing of seed cotton from the top (younger) and lower (older) bolls achieved at harvest are intended to keep the micronaire at premium levels and further prevent discounts on the crop. A companion study was conducted at the University of Arizona Maricopa Agricultural Center (MAC-1,175 ft. elevation) in an effort to duplicate the grower’s late season crop management operations. This study consisted of two treatments, a control (conventional) which received an application of 10 oz. Ginstar combined with ½ pt. surfactant in 20 gal./acre carrier and a treatment which received the conventional treatment in addition to a pre-defoliation Accelerate and a post-defoliation Gramoxone applications consistent with the grower’s methods. Plant growth and development measurements taken inseason revealed that height to node ratio (HNR) and fruit retention (FR) levels estimates were similar for both sites (grower fields and MAC study). Lint yield estimates indicated no difference between the conventional defoliation and the treatment receiving additional compounds at MAC. Results of the analyses performed on final micronaire data also indicated no significant difference in micronaire values between the two methods of defoliation and late season management at MAC. Fiber micronaire values exceeded the premium level (>5.0) for both treatments at MAC. However, results obtained from the cooperator-grower gin records revealed that average fiber micronaire for all of the fields monitored in this project were at premium level (<5.0).
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/197730 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Silvertooth, J. C., Galadima, A. |
| Publisher | College of Agriculture, University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ) |
| Source Sets | University of Arizona |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text, Article |
| Relation | AZ1312, Series P-134 |
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