Them Old Cotton Fields

Crop is maturing...

All this rain can't be good for the cotton farmers.  It's about time to harvest -- most of the bolls are open and fluffy bits of cotton are lining the roads alongside cotton fields.  Cotton is harvested by machine nowadays, thank goodness, and has been for quite a while.  I can remember, though, being taught as a child how to pick it by hand.  I had accompanied a neighbor on a trip back home to Mississippi and Louisiana to help watch her babies while she got the crops in with her family.  Us bigger kids helped pick beans, but generally stayed away from the cotton fields.  One day, however, in the interest of our further education, we were all handed a tow sack as tall as we were and hustled out into the cotton.  My fingers prickle to this day when I remember trying to fill that bag with weightless white fluff.

Cotton has been cultivated in Southeast Texas since settlers of European descent first arrived, though the plant is native to Mexico.  It has a pretty flower, reminiscent of the hibiscus, mallow and okra, to which it is related.  The flower is creamy or pale yellow when it is newly opened and fades to a deep, rich pink.  It's odd to see both yellow and pink flowers on the same plant, but it happens all the time.

Cotton Boll Weevil Trap

Did you know that the cotton boll weevil, famous in song and story, is almost completely eradicated in the South?  Growers banded together to solve this problem, beginning in the late 1970s.  Each field is ringed with pheromone traps, which are monitored regularly.  When the traps indicate that the insects have reached a "trigger" population level, insecticides are applied to the fields.  Previously, farmers sprayed according to a timetable, regardless of insect population.  And the boll weevils are notoriously hard to control, since only the adults, outside the boll, are affected by insecticides.  You can always tell a cotton field, even when the plants are the tiniest seedlings, by the bright green traps hung on wooden stakes around the edges.

This cotton has been defoliated

Once the "bolls" or seed pods are mature, the cotton is normally defoliated to make harvesting easier.  In my neighborhood, some of the fields have been defoliated and some are still green.  It's hard to get the equipment into the fields when they are wet, but my guess is they will be harvesting very soon.

King Cotton

Wondering how organic cotton growers combat the boll weevil?  They piggyback on the success of conventional farmers in eradication zones:  if the conventional growers have eradicated a great number of boll weevils, it stands to reason they are less of a problem in organic fields.  They also use short-season cotton, hoping to get the crop in before weevil damage occurs.  There are a few natural predators of the boll weevil, but they are not readily available commercially.  Organic growers also use pheromone traps, and if weevils are discovered, they use pyrethrum as an insecticide and diatomaceous earth as a repellant.  As a last resort, the boll weevils are picked off the plants by hand.

Black Spot: Live With It

This is black spot, a fungal disease particularly common to roses, caused by the organism Diplocarpon rosae.  It's a summer problem:  the fungus needs at least 7 hours of temperatures above 74° and moisture.  Does that sound like Houston or what?  I think we are in for another 3 months of temperatures above 74° and the humidity here is enough to cause fungal problems on inanimate objects.

Black spot is a problem for roses because eventually these leaves all turn yellow and drop.  A bad infection can cause defoliation of the entire plant.  The disease is most pronounced on new leaves, and young plants can be killed outright. 

Fighting black spot requires good cultural habits.  Try not to get water on the leaves of the roses, and space them far enough apart to ensure good air circulation. Remove diseased leaves from the plants and keep the fallen ones raked up and out of the compost pile.  The organism that causes black spot can overwinter in garden debris and jump right back up when temperatures warm up.  Select resistant varieties if you can -- more and more rose breeding is focused on disease resistance.

There are conventional fungicides that can be applied to control black spot:  Synthetic protectant-type fungicides can be used in small quantities and don't appear to contribute to the problem of resistant disease organisms.  Systemic fungicides tend to promote resistant diseases and often negatively affect soil micro-organisms.  The most frequently recommended organic solution is sulfur, which has problems of its own.  Yes, it's organic and yes, it's been used for thousands of years.  But it only works while a film of sulfur remains on the leaf and thus must be frequently reapplied.  Sulfur also tends to build up in the soil, and can burn plants if applied when the weather is hot (like it is when black spot is a problem).  It can also cause problems with non-pest and beneficial insects.  And sulfur mining's not the most environmentally friendly thing you can do either!

So we're left with disease-resistant roses.  Bear in mind that disease resistance doesn't necessarily mean disease-proof.  I've seen black spot on Knockout roses and every other kind of resistant rose.  The strong ones fight it off, but if you're looking for picture-perfect foliage, skip the roses.  In our climate, you'll be resorting to some pretty heavy chemical weaponry to maintain perfection.

Here are some great pictures of sulfur mining and here are the rose cultivars that have been awarded Earth-Kind status, in part because they are resistant (not immune) to black spot.