However, I think my folks and I are impatient. It's amazing the difference you see in 36 hours! One of my growers has some 3 bale cotton that he sprayed a week later than I told him to, using a "September" rate of 24 oz of Finish and was complaining that eight days later the bolls weren't opening.... On day eleven, he'll see a big difference.

We sure have a split crop this year, especially the dryland. I have had to throw out the window NACB, and just have to decide how many of those upper nodes have bolls that are worth waiting for and pulling the trigger. Yesterday, for example, I had two fields with that split crop. Field one is "moving", that is, the immature bolls are indeed maturing some from last week, and the vegetative condition of the "energy" leaf I call it next to most of those bolls is good, so we are going to watch it another week, probably two. Field two has a similar number of immature bolls, but they aren't "moving", so we decided to pull the trigger on it. It might decide to start raining, and this 555 is already loose in the bur. If we have 800 pounds made, waiting on another 150 may not be a good idea, as you may not get that 150 and lose 200 of what is made waiting to find out.

I hate doing two trips, but it sure works. I like to put 16-21 oz of Finish and 2 oz of Dropp SC on trip number one. On trip number two, another 12-24 oz of Finish (or generic ethephon) with some Aim or ET. Of course, depending on what is happening, I may vary.

If you have a lot of basal juvenile growth, I put out the ET or Aim on trip one, then go with the Dropp on trip two.... If most of your juvenile growth is in the top, go with your Dropp on trip one.

One "trick" that I have used with some success is a mix of Ginstar + Finish + Generic ethephon. I'm using a lot of 6 oz Ginstar + 16 oz Finish + 16 oz ethephon. I find that using half and half rate of enhanced ethephon / generic ethephon like that works just about as fast (or as fast) as straight Finish, and you save three or four dollars an acre. Last month, I did a lot of 4 oz Ginstar + 12 and 12.

In some of our trials we have seen straight ethephon open just as many bolls as the premium enhanced products, only it takes four extra days. 

Years ago when we had one of those marginal yield years, and some late defoliation, I remember a grower and I deciding that we'd save that high priced Prep (it cost over $50 a gal then). Well, that was a mistake. You get the leaves off, there are more bolls there to open than you ever realized. Another thing that became vivid is that ethephon is so much more than a good boll opener, it is a good defolilant as well, especially when heated up with a little something else. An ethephon product (Finish, First Pick, Prep) and a thidiaziron product (Dropp, Ginstar) go out in every recommendation I write, with varying rates depending on time of the year and the situation. One of the "leaf drop" products, ET, Aim, Resource, Def/Folex, whatever may go with it about half the time. I'm more likely to use one of those in a two shot run than a one shot. The one shot runs are when I may use Ginstar + ethephon...

Isn't this business great? Those grain boys don't have nearly as much fun as us cotton folks!