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Organic Cotton Production (Summary)
Organic Cotton Production (Summary)
Cotton
sold as "organic" must be grown according to the federal
guidelines for organic crop production. Soil fertility practices
that meet organic certification standards typically include crop
rotation, cover cropping, animal manure additions, and use of
naturally occurring rock powders. Weed management is accomplished
by a combination of cultivation, flame weeding, and other cultural
practices. A wide variety of insects attack cotton. Management
options include trap cropping, strip cropping, and managing border
vegetation to encourage high populations of native beneficials.
Certain biopesticides using bacteria, viruses, and fungal insect
pathogens are available as insect control tools. This publication
discusses specific insect management strategies for cutworm,
cotton bollworm, tobacco budworm, pink boll- worm, armyworm,
loopers, thrips, fleahoppers, lygus bugs, aphids, whitefly, spider
mite, and boll weevil. Seedling disease, soil disease, and foliar
disease management are also discussed. Pre-harvest defoliation
methods that meet organic certification are mostly limited to
citric acid, flamers and frost. The publication concludes with
sections on marketing organic cotton and the economics and profitability
of organic cotton production. 24 pages.
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Last Updated December 28, 2007
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