Cotton is the most important textile fiber used by man.
 |
To understand the importance of cotton worldwide. |
|
To become familiar with climatic and edaphic requirements for cotton production. |
|
To understand the utilization of cotton and cotton by-products. |
|
To be aware of how cotton fits into cropping systems and understand the basic management of the crop. |
Cotton is the world's most important textile fiber. Cotton has several centers of diversity; tropical Africa, South and Central America, and Indochina. Because of the diversity of the plant?s origin, cotton quickly became the dominant fiber.
Cotton is adapted to warm summer months with temperatures above 770F.
This means cotton is normally grown between 370N and 320S
latitude, making it a crop of the tropics and subtropics. Cotton
needs freedom from frost, adequate moisture, and abundant sunshine.
The growing season must be 5-6 months. Cotton prefers fertile soils,
but does well under less than ideal fertility and moisture conditions.
Therefore, it has a broad production base across both the humid-warm temperate
and semi-arid warm temperate zones.
1. Major textile fiber used by man.
2. World acreage: 33 million metric tones of cotton lint, and more than 24 million metric tons of cottonseed.
3. USA acreage: 4.8 million ha.
4. USA production about 2.5 metric tons of cotton lint and about 4.5 million metric tons of cottonseed.
History
of Cotton Culture
1. Probable origin centers: Tropical Africa, South and Central America,
and Indochina.
2. Grown in the Virginia Colony in 1607.
3. Large scale production began after the invention of the cotton gin
in 1794.
Adaptation
1. Climatic conditions favorable where main temperature of the summer
months is not less than 77 degrees F.
2. Production zone lies between 37 degrees N and 32 degrees S latitude, except in Ukraine (up to 47 degrees N latitude).
3. Three climatic essentials: freedom from frost, adequate moisture, and abundant sunshine.
4. Requires 5 to 6 months to mature.
5. Irrigation required in CA, AZ, NV, South-western OK, and others.
6. Minimum optimum and maximum temperatures for germination and early growth: 60, 93 and 102 degrees F.
7. Grows well on moderately fertile soils.
Botany
1. Family Malvaceae, or mallow family.
2. Upland cotton: Gossypium hirsutum.
3. Sea Island and American-Pima cottons: Barbadense.
4. Asiatic cottons: G. arboreum and G. herbaceum.
5. Generally considered annual, although perennial in the tropics, under high temperatures (mean always above 65 degrees F.)
6. Herbaceous plant, height: 2-5 or more feet.
7. Leaves arise on the main stem in a regular spiral arrangement.
8. Leaves and stems usually covered with fine hairs.
9. Leaf color: green except in a few red-leaf varieties.
10. Flowers may appear arranged on alternate sides of the fruiting branch. Additional flowers appear on a branch at about 6-day intervals.
11. Ball dehisces or splits open at maturity.
12. Flowering begins from 8 to 11 weeks after plantation.
13. Period between flowering and opening of the mature ball: 6 to 8 weeks.
14. Shows remarkable adjustment to environment.
15. Readily self-pollinated;; out-crossing variable from a state to another, depending on the population of bees and other insects
Lint
or Fiber
1. Cotton fibers are slender single cell-hairs that grow out from certain
epidermal cells of the cottonseed.
2. Full length attained in about 15 to 25 days when seed has attained full size.
Cottonseed
1. Usually 9 cottonseeds in each lock or 27 to 45 per boll.
2. Large-bolled varieties tend to have large seeds.
3. Oil content: 32 to 37%.
4. May require artificial drying after ginning in order to avoid deterioration.
5. Often delinted before planting to cause it to pass through the planter box more easily.
Varieties
1. Varieties differ in adaptation, staple length, fiber quality, boll
size, disease resistance, and retention of the cotton in the locks.
2. American - Lime varieties: extra long staples (1/4 to 9/16 inches), small bolls.
3. Sea Island varieties: longer staples, formerly grown in South Atlantic
states, production practically ceased about 1944.
4. Long-staple Upland varieties: fibers 1/16 to 3/16 inches long, include
selected strains of Alcala, a Mexican variety; grown in CA, AZ, NM, TX,
and OK.
Fertilizers
1. Average rates in pounds per acre applied 78-92 of N, 43-74 of P2O5,
and 53-90 of K2O/
2. Best results secured when ? of the N was applied in the mixed fertilizer with the remainder applied later as a side dressing.
3. About 12% of the total seasonal intake of mineral nutrients occurs during the stage between seedling emergence and formation of squares.
4. About 58% of the mineral soil nutrients are taken up by the plant between the stages of square formation and boll formation.
5. Fertilizers may be placed in bands 2-4 inches to each side and 2-4 inches below the level of seed.
Rotations
1. Essential in some areas in order to reduce some cotton diseases.
2. Winter legume often grown on cotton lands to reduce the amount of fertilizers.
3. In irrigated areas, cotton may follow alfalfa, sorghum, or an oil-seed crop.
Seedbed
Preparation
1. Low beds are preferable from the standpoint of weed control and
moisture conservation.
2. Higher beds may be desirable in wet areas.
Diseases
1. Root rot.
2. Fusarium wilt
3. Verticillium wilt
4. Others; leaf blights, bacterial blight
Insect
Pests
1. Boll weevil
2. Cottonleafhorn
3. Boll worm
4. Cotton fleahopper
5. Cotton aphid
6. Red spider
7. Garden webworm
8. Lygus bug
9. Cotton strainer
10. More than 30 insecticides were recommended for the control of pests
of cotton in the U. S.
11. All the important cotton pests can be kept under control by one
or more of several insecticides.
Cotton is a herbaceous plant (woody) that is actually a perennial grown
as an annual in much of the world. Cotton produces slender single
cell hairs that can grow out from certain epidermal cells of the cotton
seed. There are usually 27-47 cottonseeds in each boll. Separating
these seeds from the fiber was once the labor factor that limited the production
of cotton. In 1794, Eli Whitney's patenting of the cotton gin to
remove the seeds from cotton started the large scale production of cotton
in the world. Cotton is now the king of the fiber crops.
|
What is the relationship between cotton center of origin and its broad use and distribution? |
|
Where is cotton grown? What are the climatic factors that dictate where cotton is grown? |
|
What is the basic fertility, pest management and crop rotations used in the production of cotton? |
|
How do cotton varieties differ? Where are these varieties grown? |
Last updated January 23, 2008