Simulating early season thrips damage in cotton in southern NSW

Abstract

Key findings • Complete defoliation of 75% and 100% of all plants in early season cotton reduced plant size, abundance of flowers and bolls. • Defoliation delayed boll maturity by over 10 days and lint yield by over 20%. • Compensation by un-defoliated plants adjacent to defoliated plants in the 75% defoliation treatment were insufficient to offset the loss sustained by neighbouring defoliated plants. • The reason was likely because many bolls in the un-defoliated plants failed to mature at the time of harvest. • This result was different to findings of a similar study in the north; however, more trials are needed to confirm the differences.