Rocket: Cotton Harvest Aid Adjuvant

Selma, AL Sept. – Oct. 2020 In Association with: Dobbins Cosby

DESCRIPTION:

ROCKET™ cotton harvest adjuvant helps to improve cotton boll opening, defoliation, and promote earliness. It can lower overall defoliation/boll opening costs by allowing pesticides to work more efficiently.

ROCKET™ improves penetration and translocation of the boll openers/ defoliators, and then disrupts the hormonal transport system of the cotton leaf that inhibits leaf abscission, allowing therefore the defoliation.

ROCKET™ it is used with Def®, Dropp®, Ginstar®, Prep® or other registered products. It has no activity when used by itself.

ROCKET ™ allows increased boll opening with many tank partners. By interfering with auxin transport, Rocket™ does not open bolls but allows other plant growth regulators to open bowls at a faster rate. Research has shown that $9 per acre is saved in higher lint weight and quality for every day gained at harvest.

Using ROCKET ™ Cotton Adjuvant with Def® is worth $30-$50 per acre more than Def® alone by boosting earliness, activity and efficiency. Savings with Ethephon and other tank mixes are only slightly lower.

Increased yields are another advantage of Rocket. The cotton plant does not abort top bolls but opens them for ~5% increase in yield. By setting the plant up for maturation, ROCKET ™ allows the plant to retain more bolls and open them than treatments without ROCKET ™.

ROCKET COTTON TRIAL 1:

The purpose of this trial was to test the boll opening and defoliation properties of the GrowSeven product, Rocket, versus that of the Loveland product, Boll Buster.

PROCESS:

In this trial, two comparative applications were made. Rocket was applied over two fields: 24oz/acre over 13 acres and 32 oz/acre over 17 acres. Boll Buster was applied at 32 oz/acre over 18 acres. All products were applied by self-propelled sprayer combined with GinStar cotton defoliant at 4 oz/acre on September 27th, 2020. Defoliation photos and data were collected between October 18th and 24th.

RETURN ON INVESTMENT:

In Alabama during the 2019 harvest season, cotton yielded 928 lb/A statewide with an average annual closing cost of $0.6428/lb. All ROI is based on these values.

ROCKET COTTON TRIAL 2:

The project consisted of 14 treatments in 5 trials at 5 locations in 4 rows by 100-foot-long plots. Sites were selected by participating consultants and treatments were selected by participating companies. Trials were conducted in Miller, Houston, Appling, Lauren, and in Terrell counties. There was a considerable difference in treatment performance at some locations but the overall analysis show no statistical difference in the treatment means.

Ratings were made at all locations at 6 and 12 days following application to measure speed of defoliation, desiccation, green leaf removal, boll opening, and regrowth. As the ratings indicate, weather conditions were near ideal to promote boll opening, except in Terrell County where treatments were not applied until 9/26. All locations had excellent yield potential. Also, the clear and dry conditions were not very conducive for promoting foliage regrowth.

Greatest differences were noted in terms of desiccation and in green leaf removal. Failure to adequately defoliate green leaves is of more concern that desiccation since gins can remove most dry leaf trash but have a more difficult time with green leaves which may result in stain. Green leaves also present stain and moisture problems in modules. Less than 85% green leaf removal would be considered inadequate under most circumstances.

Kent Taylor, October 11,2001