Response of Cotton to Precision-Guided Cultivation and DSMA in a Dense Stand of Purple Nutsedge

Abstract

Close cultivation (within 1.5 inches of the cotton drill row) accomplished with an electro-hydraulic machine guidance system and an early season application of the herbicide DSMA were evaluated for purple nutsedge suppression in cotton. There were no significant differences in the cotton plant mapping data collected mid - season except that there was significantly less boll retention on the second fruiting branch in the precision cultivator treatments that may have been caused by root pruning during the second precision cultivation that could have shocked the cotton. There were significant differences in seed cotton yield with the precision cultivator treatments yielding more than the standard cultivator treatments. There was an opposing yield trend with the use of DSMA; DSMA tending to be beneficial with the precision cultivator and detrimental with the standard cultivator. We cannot explain this opposing trend. We regard our results as preliminary until we gain more experience with precision-guided cultivators in dense stands of nutsedge.