Cotton Defoliation

Well, we're up to our eyeballs in cotton harvest, and since I've covered most everything else to do with cotton, I thought I would talk about defoliating cotton!

Here are my past "Cotton 101" posts if you have missed them:

Cotton Inc. and Spinning Mill Tour

Cotton Pickin' Videos

Ginning Cotton

Picking Cotton

Stages of Cotton Growth

 When cotton is ready in the fall, the bolls start popping open, making the fields turn from green to white. When the bolls are 60% open, we spray a chemical called defoliant. The defoliant is also mixed with a boll opener.

 Both of these chemicals speed up the boll opening/leaf sheding process.  The fields are ready to be picked about 2 weeks later.

 This is what the cotton field should look like when it is first sprayed.

 This is what the fields should look like a few days later. Notice the leaves turning brown?

 A few days later, the leaves are a little more brown and the cotton is a little more white.

 Most of the bolls have now popped open and the leaves have been shed....

It's ready!

 And that's when the fun begins!

Here is a close up of what is happening with the bolls themselves...

Here's a fun fact: Did you know that if the freeze (or a bush hog) didn't kill the cotton plant, it would grow to about 13 feet tall like a tree? Wild cotton does this in the jungles of Africa!

Hope you enjoyed learning a little more about cotton!