The Effects of Early Season Physical Injury on Cotton Growth, Maturity, and Yield

Cotton grown in the Southeastern U.S. often experiences early season injury resulting from hail events. The resulting physical damage ranges from seedling death and stand loss to little or no leaf removal, depending on the intensity of a particular hail event. Determining the permanent effects on plant growth, maturity, and yield is often difficult. Experiments were conducted in 2011 in Tifton, GA to quantify the effects of simulated hail damage or leaf removal to applied to seedling cotton. Treatments consisted of a factorial arrangements of true leaf removal (none, and all true leaves removed) and cotyledon removal (none, ½ cotyledon removed, two ½ cotyledons removed, 1 cotyledon removed, 1 and ½ cotyledons removed, and 2 cotyledons removed). All leaf removal treatments were applied to two-leaf cotton using hand scissors and were arranged in a randomized complete block design containing four replications. Preliminary observations indicate that growth and maturity may only be affected when 1 and ½, or 2 cotyledons are removed, along with the terminal leaves. Boll distribution and cotton yield were also evaluated.