National Cotton Council of America
Beltwide Cotton Conferences
January 8-11, 2008
Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center
Nashville, Tennessee
The Cotton Foundation

Recorded Presentations

Friday, January 11, 2008 - 8:45 AM

Effects of Fruiting Period on Fiber Length

Steven M. Brown, Phillip M. Roberts, Glen L. Ritchie, and Andy R. Knowlton. University of Georgia, PO Box 748, 4604 Research Way, Tifton, GA 31793

We established three mepiquat regimes (none, light, aggressive) to create different fruiting patterns and plant structure.  After 4 weeks of flowering, within the mepiquat programs we split the plots to allow normal flowering to proceed or artificially (by hand) removed blooms several times each week to prevent further boll production.  The goal was to evaluate the effects of limiting the duration of boll formation on fiber quality, particularly length uniformity and staple.  We harvested plots with a mechanical picker and by box picking.  Large samples we processed at the UGA Cotton Micro Gin.