Improving subtropical cotton production by using late winter sowing to reduce climatic risk

•Late-winter sowing to avoid coinciding boll development and harvest with unfavourable climatic factors was explored.•Crop establishment was successful despite temperatures being well below accepted cold stress thresholds.•Earlier sowing coincided peak boll demand with improved conditions maximising growth and reproductive partitioning.•Lint yield increased over 40 % with late-winter sowing compared to traditional spring sowing. Climate variability is a challenge to the reliable production of high yielding cotton, Gossypium hirsutum L. in the subtropics. Shifting the growing season earlier by sowing during late winter (August) to reduce the risk of exposure to unfavourable radiation, temperature and rainfall during mid-summer offered the potential to improve stagnating and variable yields. This study aimed to determine the effect of late winter sowing on establishment, growth, development and lint yield of cotton. Accepted knowledge from temperate climates suggested cold temperature stress would impede crop establishment, so the application of clear oxodegradable film to the soil surface at sowing to mitigate cold temperature stress was also explored. Crop establishment, biomass accumulation and partitioning, light interception and lint yield were measured for cotton sown with and without film at intervals from early August to mid-September in four consecutive experiments (2013–2016). The application of film provided no benefits for establishment and only marginal improvement for crop growth and yield despite minimum temperatures being well below accepted chilling injury thresholds in temperate environments. Greater daily solar radiation levels both solarised the soil and shortened the duration of daily minimum temperatures, enabling successful crop establishment. Early sowing did not hinder crop production, and in 3 of the 4 experiments, lint yield was significantly higher (P