By DR. RASEL PARVEJ, DR. BRENDA TUBANA, AND DR. SYAM DODIA
LSU AgCenter Soil Scientists
Mid-America Farmer Grower
Cotton in-season nitrogen (N) status can easily be tracked by different methods such as crop sensing (vegetation indices), measurement of leaf chlorophyll content, and petiole (leaf stalk that connects the leaf blade to the main-stem) testing for nitrate-N (NO3-N) concentration. Monitoring petiole nitrate-N concentration is the best tool of tracking in-season N status in cotton. This tool allows producers and crop consultants to predict the yield potentials dictated by soil nutrition and environmental conditions and adjust in- season N supply, if needed, to help achieve the highest potential yield.