What is cotton: everything about cotton fiber. Anything is possible. Cotton production - the reality of the South of Russia Where cotton grows
Cotton is grown primarily in tropical and subtropical climates. But if you want to decorate your garden bright colors and snow-white cotton bolls, our article will help you realize your plans.
We will tell you everything about growing cotton and caring for adult plants. You will also learn about the main varieties of crops and harvesting features.
Growing and harvesting cotton
Cotton is a one- or biennial herbaceous plant up to two meters high with branched stems. It has a taproot system, where the root penetrates the soil up to three meters, but the main branches are located at a depth of 30 cm.
The flowers are solitary, numerous and of different colors, consisting of a corolla with three to five wide petals and a double five-toothed green calyx, which is surrounded by a three-lobed involucre. Numerous stamens grow together into a tube.
Figure 1. Photo of the crop at different stages of cultivation The fruit is an oval or round capsule with several compartments, which cracks along the valves, with dark brown seeds, which are covered on the surface with soft hairs - cotton (Figure 1).
Hairs are divided into two types. They can be long and fluffy, as well as short and fleecy (fluff). Depending on the growing conditions and variety, there may be either long or short hairs, or only long ones. Wild varieties do not have long hairs. The seeds of the crop are covered with a thick skin and contain an embryo, which consists of a root and two seminal lobes.
Growing cotton at home
Cotton is grown in well-lit, sunny and protected conditions. strong winds place. In the summer heat it feels good, but does not tolerate frost. Early spring flowering plants feed with fertilizer once every two weeks. Water as the soil dries out.
Figure 2. Map of regions suitable for growing cotton Figure 2 shows a map of the regions whose climate is best suited for growing this crop.
Crop rotation
The best predecessor for cotton is considered to be alfalfa (Figure 3). To increase soil fertility and plant productivity, green manure (mustard, vetch, peas or rye) is used. In order for these plants to grow well, careful pre-sowing watering is necessary. A long autumn or warm winter. The use of green manure makes it possible to maintain high soil fertility in cotton-alfalfa crop rotations.
Figure 3. Table for using alfalfa in cotton rotation Growing alfalfa reduces the level of groundwater and allows excess salts to be removed from the soil, which gives a high yield of cotton.
Soil preparation
In August and September, fall plowing is carried out, changing the depth of soil cultivation annually. After growing alfalfa, in order to prevent re-germination of the crop, the soil is peeled to a depth of 5-6 cm. Autumn plowing is carried out with two-tier plows to a depth of up to half a meter.
After autumn plowing, the salty soils are washed and then loosened. In the spring, they harrow in two tracks, after applying manure, and plow up. Fields are cleared of weeds using a combination of fire burning, combing out weed rhizomes and the use of herbicides.
Reproduction
The crop is propagated by seeds (Figure 4). They are sown in January or February in greenhouses, deepening them 1 cm into the soil. They are germinated at temperatures up to +24 degrees in a bright place.
After a few days, the first shoots appear, which need to be provided with a sufficient amount of moisture. To prevent the plants from being crowded, they are planted in separate containers and then planted in pots, where they will remain until autumn.
Figure 4. Cotton seeds, flowers and fruits The plant blooms 8 weeks after the first shoots appear.
Cotton care
When processing cotton, pre-sowing and growing season irrigation is used.
Note: Pre-sowing reserve irrigations are needed to increase moisture in the arable layer, and pre-sowing leaching irrigations are needed to remove harmful salts from the soil.
During the growth and development of plants, vegetative irrigation is provided, which improves the quality of the fiber. Watering should be moderate and regular (Figure 5).
IN at the moment the most effective methods Irrigation is considered to be sprinkling and using hoses. Pipelines are replaced with temporary sprinklers. Irrigation along deep furrows is especially convenient and effective.
Note: To enhance the development of the root system, 1-2 waterings are carried out: the first when there are 3-5 first leaves, the second - in the budding phase. In this phase, the crop needs more water.
Figure 5. Watering and fertilizing crops To maintain normal soil moisture before the leaves fall, irrigation rates must be high enough (about 700 liters per 1 ha) to create conditions for normal ripening of the bolls.
To get good harvest, you need to regularly fertilize the crop, taking into account the soil, climatic and biological characteristics:
- Before sowing, it is recommended to apply small doses of superphosphate;
- During the period of formation of true leaves, buds and flowers, they are fed with potassium and phosphorus fertilizers(during the period of budding and flowering, respectively);
- During the first feeding, fertilizers are introduced at a distance of 15-20 cm from the row, during budding - at a distance of 22-25 cm.
Particular attention is paid to the destruction of the crust, which includes 3-4 inter-row cultivations, breaking through the plants and watering. Plants burst into nests with 1-2 leaves.
Note: When the first shoots appear, the first cultivation is carried out to a depth of 8-10 cm, the second - on the eve of the growing season watering.
Weed control is carried out using mulching and herbicides, which accelerates the growth and maturation of plants. Removing the top of the main stem also increases the yield and reduces ovary drop in raw cotton. Processing chemicals reduces shoot growth, since leaves and bolls are not damaged during processing.
Harvesting and processing
Harvesting takes place in the fall. The boxes are collected manually or using special equipment. Cotton mixed with seeds is called raw cotton (Figure 6).
Figure 6. Harvesting for processing The fibers are cleaned of seeds at special cotton gin plants, then cleaned of dust, packed into bales and sent to spinning factories, where yarn is made.
The seeds are used to produce cottonseed oil, which is used to make margarine and canned food. The remaining cake is fed to domestic animals.
From the video you will learn how to grow cotton on your own personal plot.
Since 10 o'clock in the morning, students of the Volgograd State Agrarian University have been working in the fields. Loose clothes, gloves, a fabric bag on the chest - this is how future farmers, without straightening their backs, harvest the first cotton crop, grown in the conditions of risky farming in Volgograd.
Student farmers help harvest the cotton crop. Photo: AiF/ Nadezhda Kuzmina
The Volgograd cotton flower is very soft to the touch, like the fur of a kitten. If you take it apart, you can find cotton seeds inside the white fiber. They, like the fiber itself, are also used in production.
“Last year we harvested an experimental crop on 50 acres and sent it to the laboratory for research,” says Master's student of Volgograd Agrarian University Alexander Cherkasov, - analyzes showed that this is a very high class 4 fiber. In addition, in addition to fiber, more than 100 types of other products can also be made from cotton, including, for example, making oil from its seeds.”
Climatic conditions in the Volgograd region have always posed risks to agriculture. And then there's cotton! A plant that needs a lot of light and heat during the growing season. Therefore, the breeders were faced with the task, first of all, to develop an early ripening variety that was resistant to temperature changes.
“The Volgograd region today is the most extreme point of cotton cultivation in northern latitudes,” says Oybek Kimsanbaev, professor of Volgograd State Agrarian University. — Therefore, we can say that in the future, if this variety is developed, it can be grown in warmer regions of the country, such as Krasnodar region, Stavropol region, Astrakhan and Kalmykia. In the meantime, the first production tests that we are conducting in the Volgograd region to create ultra-early ripening varieties for northern latitudes can be called unique. After all, there are no analogues to this variety both in the Russian Federation and abroad.”
The project became possible thanks to an agreement between Volgograd state university and Tashkent Agrarian University. In 2006, more adaptive forms for northern latitudes were selected in experimental plots of the Tashkent Agrarian University. Subsequently, these varieties were adapted and tested in the conditions of the Russian Federation, and last year, during the experiment, they were selected best forms and donors. It was they who formed the basis of the variety, which was called PGSH-1.
Volgograd cotton, according to scientists, is of very high quality. Photo: AiF/ Nadezhda Kuzmina
Manual experiment
Based on the successful experiment, this year Volgograd farmers have already sowed 12.7 hectares of cotton. In this case, planting was done manually. They note that if everything goes well further, in the future they will switch to mechanized processing. In the meantime, cotton has to be sown and harvested without the use of machinery. Not only students help, but also teachers.
Professor Viktor Salomatin picks cotton with his students. Photo: AiF/ Nadezhda Kuzmina
“We take it carefully, collect it in our hand. If it’s not dissolved, we tried it, something is taken, then we take it. We don’t collect unopened bolls, they just remain,” explains cotton harvesting technology Professor of the Department of Private Animal Science of VolSAU Viktor Salomatin. — We are harvesting this crop for the first time in the Volgograd region. This is an achievement of our university and region. This is a success! We must now collect all this correctly and evaluate the resulting yield. Based on this experience, the issue of purchasing special equipment for agricultural cultivation of cotton and increasing the area under crops. As for us, if necessary, we will work next year,” adds the professor, “because only in this way will we be able to understand and understand the work of an agricultural worker.”
There are prospects!
In one day, the students managed to collect a whole truckload of cotton. Photo: AiF/ Nadezhda Kuzmina
The first batch of Volgograd cotton has already arrived at the Kamyshinsky Cotton Mill. There, the quality of the fiber was rated at a premium level. This means that very good quality fabrics can be made from this cotton.
Doctor of Agricultural Sciences, Professor of Volgograd State Agrarian University Oybek Kimsanbaev. Photo: AiF/ Nadezhda Kuzmina
"On next year we plan to work on the yield and productivity of the crop,” notes Oybek Kimsanbaev. — We will increase the crop area to 100-150 hectares, and all the resulting products will be supplied to the Kamyshinsky Cotton Mill. After all, the need of the Kamyshinsky plant today is 2 thousand tons of products per month. And its processing is the main priority of his activities.”
The new variety of cotton, among other projects of the Volgograd region, will be presented by the regional delegation at the International Investment Forum, which takes place in Sochi from October 1 to 4.
The research of Volgograd farmers has already interested Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. “Fine-tune the technology, the idea is not bad from the point of view of our own position,” Medvedev said. Thus, the research of Volgograd scientists will continue.
Sometimes you are simply amazed at what people grow on summer cottage! For example, our reader Gago Yeremyan planted cotton in his garden and at the time of preparing the material he was preparing to harvest the first harvest from a heat-loving plant.
How does cotton grow?
Cotton is a plant fiber obtained from cotton bolls. Cotton is a heat-loving plant; it prefers to grow at a temperature of 25 - 30°C; if the thermometer exceeds 40°C, the pollen becomes sterile and the ovaries fall off.
Gago Yeremyan is growing cotton for the first time; he planted cotton this year. The “fruits” of the plant begin to ripen after September 20. Until this time, the flowers on the cotton plant bloom, begin to fade and turn into a boll, and only after it opens can you see a snow-white fluffy lump - cotton. And inside it are cotton seeds, in each opened box there are at least ten of them. It was from such a seed, which was given to him by his friend Vyacheslav Tamrozyan, that Gago Yeremyan grew a plant called cotton.
Where does cotton grow?
The place of germination of this culture is Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Armenia. In Siberia, even with good shelter, it will not survive the winter - it will freeze.
If the leaves start to turn black, it means the plant is already getting cold, says Gago.
Cotton is sown in late spring, preferably in May, when the weather is warm. The material itself is collected in late September - early October. After this, when the temperature has already dropped to about +5 degrees, the plant is carefully dug up and transplanted into a pot. In winter it will be at home. And even, perhaps, it will continue to delight with flowering and cotton production. After all, new flowers appear quite often.
Once you have collected the cotton bolls, place them in the sun to dry. When dry, the fibers are easily separated from the seeds.
Seeds can be stored until spring and planted in May. Or immediately sow them in a pot and leave them to grow until spring, and then transplant them to the plot, says Gago Yeremyan.
You can even keep a flower at home all year round. The plant itself, if not shortened, can eventually reach 5 - 6 meters in height. As the owner of the heat-loving crop says, cotton is unpretentious to the soil and does not require any fertilizing, and has not noticed any pests. And when the plant begins to bloom, there is no need to water, otherwise the flowers will begin to fall off. The fact is that cotton has a well-developed root system in the form of a rod. Usually the root length reaches 30 cm, but in some varieties it can go 3 m deep into the soil. So the plant can easily provide for itself required quantity moisture.
Gago Yeremyan grows cotton for the soul, for beauty. After all, on our small land plots don't grow large number cotton, and from several plants it will not be possible to take enough hairs to make a normal-sized thing.
Prepared by Svetlana Nazarova.
The most important among fibrous materials - cotton - is known to people with for a long time. This plant was depicted on the state symbols of Uganda, Pakistan and a number of former Soviet republics. Persia is considered the ancestor of cotton culture, but in India cotton was widespread in the 15-10 centuries BC and was processed into fiber.
The first mention of cotton dates back to the 15th century BC in the form of records on clay tablets. This discovery was made thanks to excavations of ancient cities and villages in India. In Pakistan, in Mohenjo-Daro, cotton fabrics woven as early as the third millennium BC were found.
The abundance of natural dyes allowed the inhabitants of India to dye fabrics in all the colors of the rainbow. Cotton was an export item. For example, the Greeks bought gangeticon fabrics (the name comes from the Ganges River) from Indian traders, and the Romans bought calico (from the city of Calicut).
Cotton begins to appear in the covers of Egyptian mummies no earlier than 5 centuries BC. At that time, cotton was cultivated in Upper Egypt, where it came from Persia.
The Greeks and Romans introduced cotton around the 5th century BC. It came here from Babylon through Asia Minor and was valued more than wool. Herodotus has hints that cotton fabrics were produced in the Caucasus.
Cotton and flax seem to have remained for a long time the only fibrous materials known in Asia and Europe. At least in Pliny, who lived in the 1st century BC, there are no indications of other fibers.
The peoples of the Old and New Worlds began to grow cotton independently of each other. When America was discovered, cotton was found in Mexico. Columbus and his companions saw the inhabitants of the continent they discovered wearing cotton aprons and scarves that protected their heads from the sun. Excavations in Peru have shown that the Incas used cotton for weaving in large quantities, alone or with wool.
In those days, cotton was very expensive and rare. Historians and philosophers wrote about him. Herodotus believed that cotton fabrics are obtained from trees on which wool grows.
The spread of cotton throughout the world was very slow. The Chinese were the first to learn about cotton 2.5 thousand years BC, and used it as ornamental plant. Perhaps they had no idea about cotton weaving and therefore wore locally made clothes made from silk fabrics, or perhaps this was their preference. But in the 13th century, when the Mongol-Tatars captured the lands of China, cotton weaving began to develop. Cotton, fabric dyes, and cotton fabrics were exported.
The spread of cotton in Europe played a role crusades European feudal lords to the Middle East (Palestine, Syria, North Africa) in the XI-XII centuries. Venice and Genoa became the center of trade between Europe and the East.
Cotton yarn first entered Russia. It was brought from Bukhara to the eastern provinces, and from England to St. Petersburg and Moscow. At the beginning XIX century Paper spinning production appeared in Russia. In terms of cotton consumption before the First World War, Russia was in fifth place in the world.
The first tool for cleaning cotton from seeds in India was the so-called “chock”, consisting of two rollers, the upper one being stationary and the lower one rotating with a handle. Cotton with seeds is fed between the rollers, the roller grabs the fiber and pulls it to the other side, and the seeds that cannot pass between the rollers break off and fall in front. With this operation, two or three shift workers could clean no more than 6-8 kg of pure cotton per day. Therefore, large-scale and cheap cotton production was out of the question.
In 1792, a sawing machine, or sawing cotton gin, was invented by Eli Whitney, which significantly speeded up and reduced the cost of this work (with the same 2-3 workers, as with the “chock”, first hundreds, and then one and a half thousand, and more than kg per day with one machine, depending on the number of saws, that is, the size of the machine and the engine that drives the machine, as driving force in which the hands of workers, the power of animals, water, etc. could act. Since that time, cotton growing began to develop rapidly and widely, like no other industry in the world. The invention had a significant impact on world economy, greatly reducing the cost of the cotton production process.
Ivan Tames was the first to produce cotton fabrics in Russia in 172. The Russified Dutchman had a linen establishment in Moscow. By the end of the 18th century, cotton production spread to the Tver, Ivanovo, Vladimir and Moscow regions. The competing era of linen and cotton began, in which cotton fabrics took the leading position.
The cotton boom swept the whole world. By the end of the 16th century, it was already grown in all more or less warm countries. The leaders in production were the USA, China, India, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan (South Kazakhstan region, mainly in the deltas of the Syr Darya and Arys rivers), Brazil, Pakistan and Turkey.
Since 1998-1999, the main consumer of cotton has been textile industry China (about 35% of world consumption). Cotton needs are not compensated by China's own resources, forcing it to import raw materials.
The largest exporter of cotton in the period 2001-2005 is the United States (slightly less than 40% of total exports), followed by the African countries of the “franc zone” (9-13%).
From ancient times to the present time, cotton has been and remains one of the most important industrial agricultural crops. From this plant a valuable fiber is obtained - cotton, which is then used to produce fabrics, knitwear, threads and cotton wool. Since cotton is a fairly heat-loving crop, only the southernmost regions of Russia are suitable for its cultivation, and even then on a very limited scale.
Cotton is a botanical genus belonging to the Malvaceae family and numbering at least fifty species, among which there are both woody and herbaceous plants, both annuals and perennials.
The cultivated species used to produce cotton are annual or biennial herbaceous plants, which reach a height of 1-2 m, but at the same time have a very branched stem. In cultivated cotton plants the taproot root system, and the root is quite long - from 30 cm to three meters.
On cotton bushes, the leaves are attached by long petioles and arranged alternately. The shape of the leaves is lobed (3-5 lobes), which is why they can resemble maple leaves.
Each plant produces many single flowers. Most species and varieties have flowers yellow. The number of petals is from three to five.
After the flowering period has passed, a very peculiar fruit is formed - a round or oval box in which the seeds ripen. When the seeds are ready, the boll cracks and opens, revealing a white fibrous mass in which the cotton seeds are located. The fibrous mass is cotton, which consists of two types of hairs: long and fluffy, and short and fleecy.
Types and varieties of cotton
For a long time, botanists could not make an accurate classification of plants of the genus Cotton, for several reasons. Firstly, there are really many types of cotton - more than 50. Secondly, most of these species are subject to high variability under the influence various conditions and circumstances such as weather and soil composition. Thirdly, cotton plants are easy to cross pollination between plants different types, as a result of which more and more new hybrids are formed.
The founder of modern biological taxonomy, Carl Linnaeus, believed that there were from 3 to 6 species of cotton. Many other botanists also believed that there were only a few species of cultivated cotton - about a dozen. But there were also more radical views: one argued that there are only two types of cotton - American and Asian, others, on the contrary, numbered about fifty species or even more.
Currently in agriculture planet only the following types of cotton are used:
- Cotton plant is herbaceous. This annual species became most widespread in Central and Southeast Asia, as well as in Transcaucasia. It is the shortest, but at the same time the most persistent species. Of all the types of cotton, this one is able to grow the farthest in the north. The cotton produced from it is the shortest and coarsest, which is why it is sometimes called woolly.
- Indochinese cotton plant. Most tall look cultivated cotton, capable of growing up to 6 m. Tree-like perennial. This type of cotton flower has red rather than yellow petals, which then ripens into high-quality yellow cotton. Cultivated in tropical regions.
- Peruvian cotton plant. The type with the longest and highest quality fiber. It was originally a perennial, but through the efforts of American breeders it became an annual about a century ago. It is not widespread; it is grown in small quantities along the southeastern coast of the United States, as well as in Egypt.
- Common cotton plant. The most common type. It is grown everywhere in regions with a suitable climate. Annual with white flowers. Medium quality fiber.
Because on the territory former USSR Since they mostly grew common cotton, we should only talk about varieties in relation to this species. In the countries of Central Asia, the most widespread varieties at one time were Eloten-7, Dashoguz-114, Serdar, Regar-34, Tashkent-6, Bukhoro-6, Omad, Andijon-35 and others. But for the southern regions of the Russian Federation and Ukraine they are better suited Bulgarian varieties Garant, Balkan and Ogosta, which manage to ripen in our latitudes. Also worth mentioning is purely Russian varieties cotton: Yugtex, POSS, Pioneer, Mikhailovsky and others.
People began to cultivate all four main types of cultivated cotton, it is believed, independently in four different regions planets.
The inhabitants of the Indus Valley were probably the first to begin cultivating cotton about 7 thousand years ago. Cotton gradually spread to the surrounding regions that are today India and Pakistan. Interestingly, some of the cotton processing methods invented then were used right up to the modern industrialization of India.
For a long time, the cotton plant remained unknown either in China, or in the Middle East, and especially in Europe. The first mentions of it in Western chronicles date back to the era of Alexander the Great, when Europeans first saw “wool growing on trees” in India.
At the turn of our era, cotton began to be grown in southern China. Around the same time, the Persians were trying to master this culture. Exactly when cotton plantations in Iran became really large is unknown, but in the Middle Ages cotton was already one of the most important items in the Persian economy.
In parallel with India, cotton cultivation began in the territory of modern Mexico. The oldest finds of cotton fabrics discovered here date back to the beginning of the 6th millennium BC. e. Another completely independent center of cotton cultivation was in Peru.
At the end of the Middle Ages, cotton was already an important imported product in northern Europe, but Europeans only vaguely understood where this miracle fiber came from, knowing only that it was a fiber of plant origin. Many people quite seriously believed that in the East there are trees on which, instead of flowers, small sheep appear, from which cotton is obtained, so similar to sheep’s wool. These misconceptions have even left their mark on modern European languages. For example, in literal translation In German, “cotton” means “wood wool.”
At the end of the 16th century, cotton was grown everywhere in those regions of Asia and America where there were suitable climatic conditions. Subsequently, it was cotton that became the locomotive of the industrial revolution in England, which changed the state’s attitude to the economy, and people’s attitude to doing business. Raw materials were imported from tropical colonies, processed in England, and then supplied to the British colonies, China and countries of continental Europe. Cotton was one of the reasons Civil War in the USA, but that's a completely different story.
Historically, cotton was never grown on the territory of Russia, since the climate was not suitable for cotton, but it was simply ideal for flax. By and large, cotton and flax quite successfully replaced each other, so in our country, before the arrival of the Bolsheviks, no one seriously thought about growing cotton. We first started growing cotton seriously in the 1930s in the North Caucasus. However, after the war, it was decided that it would be more rational to concentrate Soviet cotton production in the Central Asian republics. The idea of growing cotton in the Russian Federation was returned to only a few years ago.
Cotton is a rather specific crop. To grow it successfully, a long warm period without frost is required, with a large number sun and moderate precipitation. In other words, tropical and subtropical climate zones are best suited for cotton.
On the territory of our country, cotton can be grown more or less successfully only in the North Caucasus, and even then only using specially bred plants for this purpose. climate zone varieties.
When growing cotton, it is recommended to alternate it with alfalfa in crop rotation. The fact is that cotton bushes greatly increase the salinity of the soil, while alfalfa, on the contrary, reduces it. You can also alternate it with grains and other crops.
Preparing the soil for sowing
The field for cotton has been prepared since autumn. Autumn plowing to a depth of 30 cm is carried out in late summer - early autumn. If before this there was alfalfa growing in the field, then before plowing it is necessary to preliminary peel the soil by 5-6 cm, thereby preventing the regrowth of the perennial.
In irrigated agriculture (and cotton is one of those crops that require irrigation), it is recommended to carry out autumn plowing with two-tier plows. If necessary, procedures for combing out the rhizomes of weeds and applying herbicides are also carried out.
In spring, the field is harrowed in 2 tracks. If manure is introduced during this period, it is recommended to repeat the plowing. Before sowing cotton, the field is usually irrigated, after which chiseling is required to a shallow depth (up to 15 cm) with repeated harrowing. A field that has not been watered in winter needs to be cultivated.
Fertilizer application
A good cotton harvest can only be counted on if large amounts of fertilizer are applied. According to calculations, to obtain a ton of raw cotton, you need to spend an average of about 50 kg of nitrogen, 15 kg of phosphorus and 45 kg of potassium. However, fertilizers must be applied strictly taking into account soil and climatic conditions.
On depleted soil or after grain crops, about 20 tons of manure or compost per hectare should be added before plowing. It is also advisable to fertilize the field with phosphorus and potassium fertilizers.
Practice shows that cotton yield increases sharply if a small amount of superphosphate is added during sowing. It is advisable to carry out further fertilizing with nitrogen at the moment when the plants throw out their first true leaves, as well as at the stages of budding and flowering. In addition, during the period of budding, cotton plants need to be fed with potassium, and during the period of flowering and fruit formation - with phosphorus.
When cultivating this crop, not only vegetation, but also pre-sowing irrigation is used. Moreover, the second type of irrigation is done not only to moisten the arable layer, but also to remove excess salts from it.
In fields that are susceptible to salinity, pre-sowing irrigation is carried out in late autumn - early winter, when there are no severe frosts yet, but groundwater have already retreated to maximum depth. The irrigation rate on slightly saline soil is 3 thousand cubic meters per hectare before plowing, on highly saline soil - 3-4 thousand cubic meters per hectare after plowing with one or two repetitions.
Vegetative irrigation is necessary in order to obtain maximum fiber quality and increase the efficiency of all other agricultural activities. All irrigation times and rates are calculated so that the plants do not experience a lack of water throughout the entire growing season. The need of plants for water increases especially strongly during the periods of flowering and fruit formation.
Seed preparation and sowing
Before sowing, the seed is heated in the open air for 3-4 weeks, and then successively soaked in water and solution boric acid. After this, the seeds are disinfected with a suspension of copper trichlorophenolate.
Since cotton has a fairly long growing season, sowing should be done as early as possible so that the boll fruits have time to ripen before frost. But at the same time, crops cannot be allowed to suffer from spring frosts. This is precisely what creates difficulties for growing cotton in Russia. It is recommended to start sowing when the soil temperature reaches 12 °C.
For cotton, a square-cluster planting method is used with a step of 60 or 45 cm. There should be about 80-120 thousand plants per hectare. However, many farmers note the economic feasibility of wide-row crops, where the distance between plants is 90 cm. The average seed consumption per hectare is about 40-70 kg, depending on the sowing pattern and seed size.
During the growing season of cotton, it is necessary to carry out measures to destroy the surface crust on the ground, remove weeds and water the crops. In addition, when 1-2 true leaves appear on cotton shoots, the nests should be thinned. However, if modern seeders are used precision seeding, the need for manual cutting of plants is completely eliminated.
After the emergence of seedlings, it is necessary to carry out cultivation between rows to a depth of 10 cm. Further, throughout initial period During the growing season, several more cultivations are carried out until the cotton plant closes its ranks.
Weed control is carried out either using herbicides or mulching. The second, by the way, allows you to significantly reduce labor costs for caring for cotton fields.
An effective way to increase productivity is timely trimming of plants, that is, cutting off the tops of growth branches and the main stem. This procedure allows you to increase productivity by an average of 10 centners per hectare.
Due to the fact that cotton boll fruits ripen extremely unevenly (within 1-2 or even 3 months), for a long time this crop was harvested exclusively by hand in several stages. Today, special cotton harvesters are used for these purposes.
Defoliation is also practiced in cotton growing - removing leaves shortly before harvesting. This is done due to the fact that leaves are a breeding ground for all kinds of fungi, bacteria and insects that can harm the crop.
