Cotton is a thermophilic plant, which is cultivated mainly in the subtropical and tropical climates. To get good harvests of raw cotton, farmers have to comply with many agro-technical conditions and requirements.
Cotton Description
Cotton is a whole botanical series from the Malvaceae family, which includes about 50 species of plants, woody and herbaceous, annuals and perennials. Cotton farms serving as raw materials for the textile industry are annual or biennial herbaceous plants.
Features of cultivated cotton:
- Root. Rod root system. The length of the root can reach 3 meters.
- Stem. Ramified. Reaches a height of 2 m.
- Leaves. They are arranged alternately, fastened with petioles. They have a lobed shape - on each leaf from 3 to 5 blades. Looks like maple.
- Flowers. Yellow, white or red, with 3-5 petals.
When a plant blooms, it is all strewn with flowers. When flowering is completed, an unusual fruit appears in the place of each flower - a box of round or oval shape. Inside this "chest" cotton seeds are ripening.
When the seeds ripen, the box bursts and, when opened, exposes the white fibrous mass in which the seeds of the plant are hidden. This white mass is called cotton. It consists of short and long hairs. The first ones are fleecy, the second ones are fluffy.
History
People began to use the fruits of cotton many centuries ago. This is evidenced by archaeological excavations. The first to use cotton began in India. Here, archaeologists found materials and tools with which to process cotton raw materials.
A little later, cotton began to be grown in Greece, in the countries of the Middle East. China, Persia, Mexico, Peru - in all these countries, cotton began to be cultivated several millennia BC.
The British were the first in Europe to produce cotton fabrics. The first cotton processing machines appeared here in the 1770s.
Statistics claim that each earthling consumes 7 kg of cotton annually.
Thanks to the development of technology, cotton production has become cheaper, and the range of fabrics has expanded. The cotton product range includes dozens of fabrics - calico, pique, gauze, cambric, poplin and many others.
What are the types and varieties?
Botanists for a long time could not classify the numerous representatives of the Cotton genus. There are many species, and most of them are very variable under the influence of external factors. And most importantly, cotton is easily pollinated, resulting in hybrids.
Agriculture today uses the following types of cotton:
- Herbaceous. Annual plant. Distribution area - Central and Southeast Asia, Transcaucasia. The shortest and most persistent species. Better than others, moving north. Coarse and short cotton is obtained from grassy cotton, it is also called woolly.
- Indochinese. Perennial tree. The tallest species. Its height can reach 6 m. Unlike other species, it has red flowers, not yellow. But the color of the resulting cotton is yellow. Habitat - tropical regions.
- Peruvian. It gives the longest and highest quality fiber. At first it was a perennial plant, but after breeding it became an annual. It is grown only in Egypt and on the southeastern coast of the United States.
- Ordinary. Got the most distribution. It is grown wherever the climate allows. This is an annual plant with white flowers. The resulting fiber is of medium quality.
Varieties widely used in Central Asia are Tashkent-6, Andijon-35, Regar-34, Dashoguz-11 and others.
We also recommend watching the story about a breakthrough in the field of agricultural selection - obtaining a new type of cotton:
Growing requirements
When growing cotton, its requirements for the following factors are taken into account:
- Sowing term. Cotton seeds should be sown as early as possible - no later than February. If you delay, the plant will bloom too late, the bolls will ripen only in late autumn.
- Temperature. All types of cultivated cotton are extremely thermophilic. Germination of seeds begins at a temperature of 10-12 ° C. The optimum temperature is 25-30 ° C. The plant dies during frosts of 1-2 ° C. Moreover, death can occur both in the spring - at the beginning of the growing season, and in autumn.
- Moisture. Cotton farmers tolerate drought well - thanks to a developed root system. Without moisture, the plant grows, but there is no need to talk about high yields. Cotton needs irrigation. If there is not enough moisture, the boxes fall to the ground.
- Shine. The plant is photophilous.
- The soil. Prefers gray earth, alkaline-bog soils and saline soils.
- Nutrients. The plant is very demanding regarding fertilizers. To give 30-35 centners of raw material per hectare, cotton takes 46 kg of nitrogen, 18 kg of potassium and 16 kg of phosphorus from the soil.
The vegetation period of cotton grown in Central Asia is about 140 days. And the boxes themselves ripen on the plant within 50 days.
Crop rotation
The best predecessor for cotton is alfalfa. This culture contributes to the accumulation of humus, enriches the soil with nitrogen and other useful substances, reduces the level of salts. Due to alfalfa planting, the drainage characteristics of the soil improve, air circulates more actively in its upper layer.
Nursery data indicate that alfalfa can increase productivity by 50%. Moreover, high productivity is maintained for 2-3 years after alfalfa planting.
A multi-field system looks something like this. From 6-7 fields prepared for planting cotton, let under alfalfa. In addition to alfalfa, it is recommended to plant:
- corn for silage and green fodder;
- sugar beets;
- any legumes and grains.
Soil preparation
Preparation of soil for cotton is reduced to the following measures:
- Peeling of the soil after harvesting alfalfa. The deadline is the end of August and the beginning of September. The depth of the plow is small - only 5-6 cm, if the soil is heavy - 10 cm. It is necessary to peel the soil to remove weeds and seeds.
- Plowing winter With plowshares of a two-tier plow, the soil is cultivated 40 cm deep.
- Along with plowing, herbicides can be applied. The technique in which the weed is burned along with the rhizome is used extremely rarely.
- Flushing saline soils. Saline soils must be loosened repeatedly - with a cultivator or a plow.
- Two-track harrowing. With this event, spring work begins. In mild climates, harrowing begins in the second decade of February.
- Manure application. It is necessary for weak soils. After application - plowing.
- Cultivation to a depth of 5-8 cm - This is the final stage of soil preparation.
Cotton needs a lot of nutrients. If it is grown for many years in one field, fertilizers must be applied:
- nitrogen - 140-160 kg / ha;
- phosphoric - 80-100 kg / ha;
- potash - 30-50 kg / ha.
If cotton is sown after alfalfa, then in the first 2 years of nitrogen fertilizer can be applied less - only 50-70 kg / ha.
A good effect is given by such events:
- Parallel application of mineral and organic fertilizers.
- Crop crops of "green fertilizers" - cotton crops after them grow by 6-7 kg / ha.
- Granular superphosphate or nitrophosphate - 100 kg / ha.
Seed preparation
For crops use only high-quality, conditioned seeds collected before the onset of frost. To obtain stable crops, only zoned cotton should be planted.
Seeds for planting are subjected to mechanical or chemical processing. The down is mechanically removed - in whole or in part. The chemical method involves pickling with acid pairs - sulfuric or hydrochloric.
Other preparatory activities:
- Seed aging outdoors. The exposure time is 30-30 days.
- Seed disinfection. Fentyuram 65% or copper trichlorophenolate is used. Dosage - 12 kg per 1 t.
- Before sowing, the seeds are immersed in water for 10 hours. Or you can simply moisten them by treating them three times every 10 hours. The rate of water consumption is 500 liters per ton of seeds.
Landing rules
The minimum temperature for planting seeds is 10-12 ° C. Until the earth warms up, there is no point in sowing. In cold land, cotton seeds can die. Sowing of seeds is carried out in accordance with the selected planting pattern. But with any variant, the row spacing is 60 cm. The schemes used for sowing cotton:
- Dotted method - 60x25 cm.
- Rectangular-nest - 60x45 cm.
- Square-nest - 60x60 cm.
- Wide-row crops - 90x15 / 20/30 cm.
The parameters of the sowing pattern affect the yield. The use of special methods can increase productivity. So, the use of the comb method allows you to get an additional "increase" in the crop - 3 kg / ha
In one hole you need to place 2-3 seeds. They are buried by 4-5 cm. This is for ordinary gray soil, for marsh and meadow - 3-4 cm.
Seed consumption is determined by the selected planting method. The selection is carried out so that it is not necessary to thin out the plantings. Seeding rates depend on seed treatment:
- Bare seeds - 40-42 kg / ha.
- Pubescent seeds - 60 kg / ha.
The number of plants per 1 ha is 80-120 thousand.
Plant care
When cotton is sown, care must be taken for the crops:
- Irrigation. You can water the crops in any way, including sprinkling. To strengthen the roots, it is necessary to water the planting twice. First, when 3-5 leaves appear, the second time - after 3 weeks, when budding begins. When plants bloom and bear fruit, they need more moisture. Final watering - a week before the leaves are showered.
- Cultivation. During the growing season, three cultivations are carried out:
- when shoots appear - depth is 8-10 cm;
- before the first watering;
- when the soil dries.
- Mulching. Preference is given to organics. The best option is to sprinkle soil with manure. This allows you to save moisture in the soil. Less manure is a big expense. It is necessary to spend up to 250 kg per 1 ha. Straw can also be used for mulching. Mowed grass is undesirable - it threatens the appearance of pests.
- Weed control. Before treatment with herbicides, the growth phase and weather should be considered. Similarly with the destruction of pests. There is a lot of “chemistry” that destroys aphids, ticks and other insects, but this treatment negatively affects the ecology of cotton. To the extent possible, chemical treatments are avoided.
Diseases, pests and methods of protection
Pest and disease control measures:
- compliance with agricultural technology and crop farming;
- destruction of weeds;
- correct crop rotation;
- harvesting plant residues after harvesting;
- deep autumnal tillage - up to 30 cm;
- cultivating disease resistant varieties.
The most dangerous pests of cotton:
- spider mite;
- aphid;
- tobacco thrips;
- winter scoop;
- cotton scoop.
Sucking pests. The fight against aphids and tobacco thrips involves several treatments. The first - in March-April, the next - depending on the density of insects per 1 square. m. Against ticks apply nitrafen 65% (40-75 kg / ha). Against winter scoops - chlorophos 80% (1.5-1.8 kg / ha). Against a cotton scoop - thiodane (2-2.5 kg / ha). The amount of spraying and poisons are selected individually, taking into account the type of insects and their number.
Cotton picking
Harvest in the fall. In September-October. Collection of cotton boxes - manual or automated. The cotton in which the seeds are contained is raw cotton. The maturation of the boxes is uneven, and therefore it is necessary to use different cleaning methods.
When at least two boxes on each branch open on most plants, they begin defoliation - removing the foliage. This procedure prevents diseases and reproduction of pests nesting on foliage.
Application and processing
Before cotton becomes suitable for the textile industry, seeds must be removed from it.
Cotton seeds are put on oil - it is used for the production of margarine and canned food. The cake goes to pet food.
Special cotton ginneries are engaged in cleaning fibers from seeds. Processing Order:
- Seed removal.
- Dust removal.
- Packing in bales.
- Sending to a spinning mill.
Despite the centuries-old experience of growing cotton, its cultivation is still fraught with painstaking work. This plant requires special climatic conditions and a number of agrotechnical measures. To achieve good yields, it will take a lot of effort and investment.
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