Cotton

[Paul]

Do i have to plow my cotton fields every year?

[max954]

No

[Tankfriend]

You don't have to plow them, but cotton doesn't regrow, in case you meant that.

[Panzerfanlol]

Use a direct seeder.
Plowing is really ♥♥♥♥ because of the plows in the game too, so use the, iirc, subsoiler? Whichever one which says you can use it instead of plowing. It's does the plowing and cultivating in one.
Then get the direct seeder, it's very useful.

[Panzerfanlol]

Originally posted by Panzerfanlol:

Use a direct seeder.
Plowing is really ♥♥♥♥ because of the plows in the game too, so use the, iirc, subsoiler? Whichever one which says you can use it instead of plowing. It's does the plowing and cultivating in one.
Then get the direct seeder, it's very useful.

Okay, if you're creating or expanding the field you wanna use then you'll need an actual plow - if you're not doing that then use a subsoiler because from what I understand from using it, it does the plowing and the cultivating at the same time.
If you're using a field that previously had a different crop in it, I recommend you lime the field first, then fertilise it (in that order, its much easier to tell if you missed a spot then).
Then after you've fertilised the first layer (also worth noting you might already inherit a double fertilised field from the AI so check that before wasting the money)
go to your planters and go right to the end, its really worth the investment on any of the planters that give the option up the top "Additionally, this seeder offers the possibility to seed directly - no previous cultivating or plowing is necessary".
Use that to plant your first first cotton crop,

then after you've harvested your cotton, you should mulch the harvested cotton plants to gain your first level of fertility, then go over that field with your direct seeder with the fertiliser attachment and then ALL you should have to do after that is spray it with weed killer.
That should be it, so it goes from like 4+ passes with different machines just down to mulching, direct seeding and then spraying.
again, should*.

[Panzerfanlol]

Sorry to spam, apparently mulching does not count as a fertility level. But it does increase the yield. So you'll have to run it over with another fertiliser run.

[935turbo]

Just use a sprayer with liquid fertilizer set to double application to avoid the second application. I usually harvest, apply double application of liquid fertilizer or slurry, lime if needed, mulch if needed, plow if you play with plowing active, cultivate or use direct seeder when planting. I turn plowing off because I practice "no-till" farming to avoid top soil erosion.
In reality it's best to eliminate as many steps as possible to avoid soil compaction from all the heavy equipment.