Abstract
Clarifying the amount of pest damage that can be tolerated without justifying insecticidal control will be useful in reducing insecticide use and in development of integrated pest management (IPM) systems. This study investigated the ability of irrigated, high‐yielding cotton ( Gossypium hirsutum L.) to recover from artificially applied damage simulating that of early season insect pests. Six experiments were done across five cotton‐growing seasons. Damage included defoliation, terminal damage, and flower bud removal in a range of timings, combinations, and intensities. Crop yield was unaffected by defoliation applied before first flower buds appeared, even when 100% of true leaves were removed on three occasions (Nodes 2, 4, and 6). Crop maturity was affected by sustained high levels of leaf loss with a peak delay of 10 d after 100% defoliation three times. Up to three light tip damage events or one heavy damage event had no effect on yield and only a slight effect on crop maturity (<5‐d delay to harvest). Heavy early fruit loss (100% fruit removal from the first four fruiting branches) did not affect yield but caused a delay in maturity of ≈7 d. Equations describing the relationship between damage type, intensity, and repetition and the yield and maturity of cotton were developed and used in sensitivity analysis to define tentative damage thresholds for IPM systems in cotton.
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Claims 7
Claim · model-written summary
Defoliation applied before the first flower buds appeared did not change cotton yield.
- Taxon
- cotton
Gossypium hirsutume0 - Treatment
- defoliation applied before first flower buds appearede1
- Outcome
- Crop yielde1
- Direction
- unaffectede1
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Verbatim
e0“cotton ( Gossypium hirsutum L.)”
e1“Crop yield was unaffected by defoliation applied before first flower buds appeared”
Claim · model-written summary
Sustained 100% defoliation three times delayed cotton maturity by a peak of 10 d.
- Taxon
- cotton
Gossypium hirsutume0 - Treatment
- 100% defoliation three timese2
- Outcome
- Crop maturitye2
- Direction
- delaye2
- Value
- 10 de2
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Verbatim
e0“cotton ( Gossypium hirsutum L.)”
e2“Crop maturity was affected by sustained high levels of leaf loss with a peak delay of 10 d after 100% defoliation three times”
Claim · model-written summary
Up to three light tip damage events or one heavy damage event had no effect on cotton yield.
- Taxon
- cotton
Gossypium hirsutume0 - Treatment
- Up to three light tip damage events or one heavy damage evente3
- Outcome
- yielde3
- Direction
- had no effecte3
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Verbatim
e0“cotton ( Gossypium hirsutum L.)”
e3“Up to three light tip damage events or one heavy damage event had no effect on yield and only a slight effect on crop maturity”
Claim · model-written summary
Up to three light tip damage events or one heavy damage event had only a slight effect on cotton crop maturity.
- Taxon
- cotton
Gossypium hirsutume0 - Treatment
- Up to three light tip damage events or one heavy damage evente3
- Outcome
- crop maturitye4
- Direction
- slight effecte4
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Verbatim
e0“cotton ( Gossypium hirsutum L.)”
e3“Up to three light tip damage events or one heavy damage event had no effect on yield and only a slight effect on crop maturity”
e4“only a slight effect on crop maturity”
Claim · model-written summary
Heavy early fruit loss (100% fruit removal from the first four fruiting branches) did not affect cotton yield.
- Taxon
- cotton
Gossypium hirsutume0 - Treatment
- Heavy early fruit losse5
- Outcome
- yielde5
- Direction
- did not affecte5
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Verbatim
e0“cotton ( Gossypium hirsutum L.)”
e5“Heavy early fruit loss (100% fruit removal from the first four fruiting branches) did not affect yield”
Claim · model-written summary
Heavy early fruit loss caused a delay in cotton maturity of about 7 d.
- Taxon
- cotton
Gossypium hirsutume0 - Treatment
- Heavy early fruit losse5
- Outcome
- maturitye6
- Direction
- delaye6
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Verbatim
e0“cotton ( Gossypium hirsutum L.)”
e5“Heavy early fruit loss (100% fruit removal from the first four fruiting branches) did not affect yield”
e6“caused a delay in maturity”
Claim · model-written summary
Equations relating damage type, intensity and repetition to cotton yield and maturity were developed and used to define tentative damage thresholds for IPM.
- Taxon
- cotton
Gossypium hirsutume0 - Outcome
- tentative damage thresholdse1
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Verbatim
e0“cotton ( Gossypium hirsutum L.)”
e7“Equations describing the relationship between damage type, intensity, and repetition and the yield and maturity of cotton were developed”
e1“to define tentative damage thresholds for IPM systems in cotton”
The same questions in other papers
pruning · yield · Gossypium hirsutum (cotton)Results differ
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- no effect
- positive
- positive
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See all 76 papers →light · phenology · Gossypium hirsutum (cotton)Positive and negative results
1 in the opposite direction
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light · yield · Gossypium hirsutum (cotton)Positive and negative results
2 papers in the same direction as this paper · 3 in the opposite direction
- positive
- positive
- positive
2 papers more in this group
See all 6 papers →pruning · phenology · Gossypium hirsutum (cotton)Positive and negative results
2 papers in the same direction as this paper · 4 in the opposite direction
- negative
- positive
- positive
3 papers more in this group
See all 7 papers →Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.