Pat Waldrop retired Athens, Alabama UAP Manager and part-time consultant, says cotton growers in northern Alabama are inclined to plant cotton a little earlier than most other growers. And while the decision to replant a less than optimum stand is one of the toughest a grower has to make, it’s something he sees growers do fairly often. Waldrop says the rule of thumb is that if a grower has enough cotton left to make the replanting decision difficult, he probably has enough to avoid replanting. But in 2005, for practically all cotton growers in the area, the decision to replant apparently wasn’t all that difficult, because 126 out of 127 growers did decide to replant.
“I’ve seen N-Hibit™ used on at least 5,000 acres in north Alabama, with the obvious benefit being healthier cotton. Where it was applied in 2005, the cotton didn’t struggle as badly to get up and growing. Last year, 126 large growers in five counties up here had to replant a good portion, or even most, of their cotton. That isn’t all that unusual here, because we plant cotton early. But practically every grower up here, except the one who had put N-Hibit on his 4,500 acres, had to replant. And that was the only difference: He had applied N-Hibit and the others hadn’t. That really gave him a head start most of the others didn’t get.
“I believe the secret is in the proteins in N-Hibit. Those proteins are produced by disease-causing bacteria that attack the plant. But those proteins are not part of the disease. Instead, they serve the beneficial purpose of alerting plants that they’re under attack. This causes a systemic response that initiates self-defense reactions within the plant. The result is a healthier, growthier plant that can withstand disease and other stresses better. Plants have many ways to fight off and grow through stress situations and attacks from parasites such as nematodes. I think the protein in N-Hibit triggers one or more of them inside the plant, and that causes the plant to act just the way nature intended, which is to keep itself healthy.
“I think we’ve seen enough N-Hibit used, and we have enough university research under our belts, that growers can see the benefits of this product are real. It isn’t the only thing we need to do, but in a crop rotation with corn or soybeans and used along with Temik® and Vydate®, N-Hibit ought to be a part of a grower’s program if his soils are infested with reniform or root knot nematodes. I mean, when practically every grower up here, except the one who had applied N-Hibit, had to replant, that tells you something.”
“And at only about four dollars an acre, I’d like to see more growers accept it as a normal practice because this can pay real dividends.
N-Hibit is a trademark of Plant Health Care, Inc. Vydate is a registered trademark of DuPont. Temik is registered trademark of Bayer CropScience.