Cotton Leaf Blade | Back Paddock Company

Why Cotton Nutrition Needs a Whole-of-Season, Whole-of-Soil Approach

Back Paddock Company — Fri, 09 May 2025 01:26:51 +0000

Cotton growers and agronomists are well aware of the pressure points in-season: picking the right nitrogen strategy, adjusting to weather, managing costs, and avoiding constraints to yield. But when we treat nutrition as a series of isolated decisions rather than part of an integrated soil and crop strategy, we can miss the broader, compounding effects—on […]

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Critical nutrient level for cotton plant tissue declines over time.

Chris Dowling — Fri, 05 Jan 2024 02:30:11 +0000

The critical level in the youngest mature leaf and its petiole typically decreases for N and K as the cotton plant progresses through its phenological stages.

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How long does an N application take to show up in petiole nitrate-N?

Chris Dowling — Fri, 29 Dec 2023 07:00:00 +0000

The nitrification of urea applied in summer is generally not limited by soil temperature or a lack of soil microbial population. This leaves soil water as the main factor limiting its conversion to nitrate-N. Therefore, fertiliser N availability is related to two factors. Too dry for the soil biology to be active in the application […]

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Canopy temperature helps avoid stressed crops at sampling.

Chris Dowling — Wed, 27 Dec 2023 06:02:20 +0000

One of the variables that can significantly affect the accuracy of plant tissue analysis in cotton is plant stress, particularly plant water stress. Currently, this is avoided by limiting sampling to a particular day in the irrigation cycle or after rain and time of day and with some reference to soil moisture probe readings. With […]

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Timing the use of nitrification inhibitor treated N fertilisers in-crop in irrigated cotton

Chris Dowling — Sat, 23 Dec 2023 23:32:44 +0000

The use of efficiency enhancement additives (EEF) in nitrogen fertiliser products in irrigated cotton seems to be on the rise as we experience their benefits, successful use cases and measure successes. EEF technology used in cotton most frequently includes ammonia volatilisation inhibitors, nitrification inhibitors and a combination of both in a single product. While research […]

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Why test petioles for nitrate-N?

Chris Dowling — Tue, 19 Dec 2023 05:18:46 +0000

Some advisers have asked, “why have BPC continued to use petiole nitrate-N” in our in-crop cotton N management service? My answers are sometimes a bit long-winded and technical, but the short answer is that “we haven’t been able to find a technology that is able to replicate the responsiveness of tracking nitrate-N from the soil […]

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It’s go time for cotton sampling!

Chris Dowling — Fri, 08 Dec 2023 05:12:59 +0000

The first leaf and petiole samples from Moree have been tested through the BPC Cotton Plant Tissue system. Early results are posing questions about the effect of preplant N management on starting levels of plant tissue N, compared to previous seasons and established critical ranges. Of particular interest is the effect of nitrification inhibitors and […]

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BPC & Lab Closures 2023

Back Paddock Company — Thu, 07 Dec 2023 23:56:03 +0000

The season is upon us and no doubt you’re busy in field, if you haven’t already sent your samples in to the lab it’s time to get strategic! See the graph above for upcoming BPC and Lab Closures and sample cut off dates. Our suggestion is to keep your samples in the fridge over the […]

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Growing Cotton in a Variable Climate

Brett Pollard — Thu, 24 Nov 2022 04:51:00 +0000

N Management by old 'rules of thumb' could be high risk.

Simple, local options to manage this risk based on measurement and best science are now available with Opterra Cotton Nutrition.

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