It is now two years since we advi sed the previous conference on the progress of the trials so will take this opportunity for a further update.

AUSTRALIAN COTTON CONFERENCE ACGRA 1988 members , Agenda , 1988

Determination of the petiole nitrate nitrogen concentration (PNN) in the youngest fully expanded leaf (YFEL) of cotton is a useful indicator of plant nitrogen status.

Four cotton breeding programs have been operating in Australia, three i n New South Wales and one in Queensland .

Well to satisfy everyones's curiosity, r will answer the question straight away. Yes, we can survive resistance! However, in answering it, I shall put another, perhaps even more thought provoking than the first.

The objective of the cotton breeding programme is to breed cultivars which are adapted to central Queensland environments.

As major pests of cotton production, Heliothis spp. are of most concern to growers during the summer when they are active and damaging crops. Once autumn arrives and the crop is picked, Heliothis are soon forgotten.

The Cotton Council has been funding our project, for which we intend to identify cotton varieties with efficiency of dry matter production when irrigation is expensive, or relatively inexpensive.

Currently in Australia there are approximately 700 cotton germplasm accessions located with CSIRO, QDPI and a few private seed companies.

The two-spotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae, ranks second to Heliothis in importance as a pest of cotton. Mites reduce profitability by reducing the yield and fibre quality of cotton.

Yield responses to increasing amounts of irrigation water have been demonstrated in the past by individual trials. In these trials watering occured at varying deficits of soil moisture below field capacity .

This review of the literature referring to A. macrospora indicates the extent of current knowledge about the pathogen and the disease it causes.

As most of you are aware, the Siratac Cotton Management Advisor computer program is being rewritten. There will be those amongst you who are unaware as to why this is being done.

Nematodes are regarded as a major pest of cotton in many parts of the world. It has been claimed that "nematodes cause economic losses to cotton everywhere it is grown" (Watkins. 1981).

Most, if not all, entomologists involved in the development of cotton insect management systems agree that an essent1al part of a successful Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program is the ava;lability of an eff1cac1o

Irrigation scheduling in cotton using the water balance program WATERSCHED has been the subject of an extension development project in Queensland for two years. The project is funded by Cotton Research Council.

Proper nutrition is one of the many factors necessary in achieving the high yield and quality standards we have set for our cotton crop.

Insecticides can poison insects in many ways. Insecticides r...:an interfere with metabolic processes , of energy production, cuticular growth and hormone production.

Irrigation trials have been conducted at Byee over the last two seasons as part of a Statewide project funded by the Cotton Research Council.

Having outlined the complexity of this topic, I now intend to summarise the soil and plant mineral relations during waterlogging, followed by a brief review of the scientific principles to improve understanding of the