50 Growing Sea Island Cotton Under Florida Conditions 



Don't use excessively heavy applications of fertilizer. Fer- 

 tilizers with excessive nitrogen content will produce too much 

 stalk growth. About 300 to 400 pounds of a well balanced 

 fertilizer per acre plus a side dressing of nitrate of soda of 

 about 75 pounds per acre will pay handsomely. A mixture 

 of phosphoric acid, cottonseed meal and kainit will give prof- 

 itable results. If excessive leaching of fertilizer from heavy 

 rainfall occurs during the early growing season side applica- 

 tions of at least 100 pounds of a 9-0-12 or 9-0-15 mixture will 

 give good results. 



Don't plant Sea Island cotton late. In weevil infested areas 

 the crop must be planted during the first half of March. If it 

 ijecomes necessary to replant and this operation cannot be 

 done until April, plant the land to some other crop. Remem- 

 ber the crop must be matured by the date of the annual wee- 

 vil migration — about July 15th. Success in growing Sea 

 Island cotton in Florida depends mainly on early planting 

 and the successful poisoning of the over-wintered weevils. 



Don't plant Sea Island cotton without some fertilizer under 

 it as it is most important to get the plants up and growing 

 as quickly as possible in order to produce a profitable crop 

 before the annual summer migration of the weevil. 



Don't cover the seed more than one inch at planting time. 

 It is better to have the seed half covered than covered too 

 deep. 



Don't let the young cotton go backward or turn yellow and 

 get ofi'-color. When young plantlets show off -color or a gen- 

 eral slow down in growth stimulate with about 50 pounds of 

 nitrate of soda per acre. 



Don't fail to leave ample plants on the ground at thinning 

 or chopping time. Two plants at about 16 to 18 inch inter- 

 vals on thin soils and 22 to 24 inch intervals on heavy soils 

 in four foot rows appears to be about the proper spacing. 



Don't fail to have on hand ample supplies of Calcium 

 Arsenate and molasses well in advance of the date of the 

 first poison application. 



Don't fail to begin the weeklj^ poisoning or mopping when 

 the plants reach the "pre-square" stage. The "pre-square" 

 stage is reached when plants have about 10 leaves or the 

 week before the first squares appear. 



