Variety Trials Results for 2001

All of our trials are irrigated. Yields were good as we expected. The trial at Clarkton was replanted on May 23. This needs to be considered when evaluating the data. With the great growing season and high number of DD60’s received, over 2600 as compared to the average of 2200, later maturing varieties were favored. Bronze wilt was almost non existent this season. Conventional herbicides were used in all trials except the Roundup trial where high rates of Roundup were used. We had a good top crop since the weevil was absent.

The fiber length is long as compared to usual. I have no reason to suspicion an error since the fiber was tested at the International Textile Research Center at Texas Tech in Lubbock. The school was founded for textile engineering and has worked on fiber quality for seventy-five years. In fact the high volume classing instruments that the USDA uses were evaluated at Texas Tech before the USDA would accept them as the standard for cotton classing. Fiber length across the Delta has been short this year but long in our trials. One contributing factor would be that all of the test plots were properly irrigated. At flowering and for three weeks afterward the fibers are elongating and the length is determined. It takes water to elongate the fibers, just as it does any other cell in the plant. This is seen when water stress reduces the height of the plant. In this case lack of water causes the cells in the stalk to not elongate properly and plant height is reduced. When the fiber is full length, the micronaire is usually in desirable. When the fibers are shortened such as in a dryland field without proper rainfall one can expect that micronaire will be higher than normal. This year as of last week twenty-five percent of the Missouri crop had a high micronaire of 5.0 or greater. The late planting date of the Clarkton trial is reflected in the low micronaire.