Some heavier amounts of rain fell in northern Isle of White, Suffolk and in the southern part of Southampton on Thursday marking the most rainfall we have received since early June. Cotton that was planted in April has finished blooming unless it has been irrigated or is in a rare situation of extremely good soil or has received very isolated rainfall during July. Some of these fields have a decent boll load and some of them where not able to hold many bolls because of the extreme heat and drought. 

 

The cotton planted after mid-May continues to have some more squares at the tops of the plants which hold the promise of more bolls, and with adequate rainfall, has some hope of even higher yields. All of our cotton appears to be at least two weeks ahead of normal maturity. We will see bolls begin to open in the next couple of weeks. It will not be a surprise to see all of the bolls open on sandy hills by the end of August and by the first half of September we will likely have a lot of cotton ready for defoliation. The game changer is heavy rainfall in August produces more foliage that hides the advanced state of maturity.