"Dusting in" cottonseed is essentially planting cotton very shallow in the top layer of soil when there is insufficient moisture at the optimum planting depth. With dusting in, cottonseed is planted but must wait for a rainfall for germination and emergence to occur. While dusting in cottonseed is often a recommended practice, there are several things to consider:
1. Where are you in the planting window calendar? The earlier you are in your area's desired planting window, the more likely you are to have rainfall amounts that will result in a successful stand.
2. How dry is the soil? If the soil is very dry several inches deep, you run the risk of germinating the crop with a small rainfall and then having the seedling dry out and die if there is no additional rain. Because cotton normally sends out a taproot rather quickly, the risk is minimal in normal years. However, it is a possibility worth considering especially during years of extended severe drought.
3. What are the alternatives? If you are late in the planting window, planting soybeans might be less risky than cotton because they can be planted later. It is often less risky to plant soybeans deeper in order to reach adequate soil moisture for establishing a stand.
4. Do your soils crust? Planting deeper than the optimum range is much more risky in soils that crust. Because of this, cotton is often dusted in where soils crust, while on other soils, planting deeper into moisture may be more successful. If you plant too deeply on soils that crust, cotton seedlings may expend so much energy that they cannot break through the surface crust. The soils that crust enough to cause stand problems in cotton are usually the lighter colored, sandy soils of the Southeastern Coastal Plain. If you are dusting in cotton on these soils, you may need to bust or break the crust in case of subsequent rainfall causes crusting prior to emergence.
