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AUSTRALIA: Cold Start Bad Start For Cotton |
2003-11-6
Cotton growers are looking to a long, hot summer to help plants set back by early outbreaks of black root rot, Pythium and Rhizoctonia stemming from cold conditions since planting. Recent field surveys conducted by Dr David Nehl from NSW Agriculture and the Cotton CRC and Dr Stephen Allen, plant pathologist with the CRC and CSD, suggest weather conditions have been favourable for the development of seedling diseases. Dr Allen said the length of the season was now crucial to plant recovery. "It''s going to have a significant impact if the season is short or we get a prolonged cool spell and don''t have the day degrees to compensate at the other end," he said. Commenting on potential yield losses, David Nehl said these can be severe, potentially as high as 50 per cent."If you get a cool, wet summer, then the potential for yield loss is higher than if you get a long, hot summer, where the plant has time to compensate," he said. He said that the potential for yield losses is higher in shorter season areas, suggesting a greater impact in southern NSW than in central Queensland.
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