The benefits of irrigating cotton in humid environments are quite clear but unfortunately initiation, timing and terminating each irrigation event is often less than clear. Fortunately, there are a large number of devices currently on the market which provide very good insight into crop water status and can serve as a guide for triggering each irrigation event. This presentation will help consultants, county agents, producers, and other practitioners in the Mid-south and Southeastern regions understand the basic concepts of evapotranspiration and some of their options for gaining insight into crop water status. Specifically, viewers will learn: the framework for a single crop coefficient calculation of evapotranspiration, standard crop water use curves, approaches to increase water use efficiency (WUE) and gain some basic knowledge of a few of the currently-available irrigation scheduling tools. By the end of this presentation the viewer should know more about the seasonal trend of crop water use and what tools are currently available to help schedule irrigation events.
