Regula: An APP for Plant Growth Regulator Management in Cotton

Plant growth regulators (PGR) are largely adopted by cotton growers in a wide range of growing conditions around the world. In large cotton fields, the timing between plant monitoring and decision-making must be short and a smartphone application (app) could help growers in the management of their fields. The purpose of this work was to present step by step the use of a smartphone application (REGULA) for PGR management in cotton fields. REGULA was built in Android platform. In the main menu the user is able to register the farm’s name and size, field’s name and size, crop year, PGR type, tank of spraying, plant sampling, rate calculation and re-applying and growth report. For plant sampling, the user must select the farm, field and crop year to start the measurement of plant height, node number and the length of the top five internodes. Collected samples can be accessed in the Consult tab by clicking the Refresh button. All samples available for each field can be viewed in this screen. For PGR rate calculation, the user has to select the farm, crop year, field, PGR type, tank, the sample and finally the cultivar maturity group. The rate will be displayed in the same screen, as well as the total amount of PGR needed for that field. Also, it is possible to consult the complete information about PGR type and rate and amount per field used in each application. REGULA also provides an option for reapplying PGR rates in cases of losses by rainfall, by just inserting the time without rain if it was used adjuvant. Additionally, it is possible to monitor plant growth, using a growth parameter to compare. Finally, a report for PGR rates  shows the number of collected samples and the total amount of PGR applied in the field.