Cotton Plant Wiki

Cotton plant is a shrub and is widely cultivated in over 90 countries for its fiber and secondly for seeds. About 2,5% of world cropland is planted with cotton. It is an angiosperm, dicotyledonous plant, which belongs to the family of Malvaceae. It is native to Asia and Africa.  Exactly as it happens with tomatoes, peppers and other plants, cotton is natively a perennial plant, but nowadays we cultivate it as annual. This means that we sow the seeds during spring, we harvest the cotton during autumn, and then we plow and destroy the plants, so that we can sow again next spring in an empty field.

The most widely cultivated cotton species are:

  • Gossypium hirsutum – Upland Cotton (accounts for more than 90% of world production, gives normally high quality cotton with high strength and elasticity).
  • Gossypium herbaceum – Herbaceous cotton (is native to Pakistan, India and to some parts of Africa.)
  • Gossypium barbadense – It is cultivated in Egypt, Sudan, USA, Brazil and Peru.
  • Gossypium arboreum – Cotton tree (native to Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India). It is not widely cultivated, because it normally gives short fibers of poor quality.

Cotton is grown in areas with warm climate. China, US, Uzbekistan, Brazil and Turkey are some of the world leading countries in producing cotton. In United States, cotton is commercially cultivated mainly in the southern states (Texas, California, Georgia, Arkansas, Oklahoma etc.)

You can enrich this article by leaving a comment or photo of your cotton plants.

1.) Cotton Plant Information

2.) How to grow Cotton

3.) Cotton Plant Growing Conditions

4.) Cotton Sowing – Seeding Rate – Number of Plants per Acre & Hectare

5.) Cotton Plant Pollination

6.) Cotton Plant Fertilizer Requirements

7.) Cotton Water Requirements

8.) Cotton Harvest & Yields

9.) Cotton Weed Control

10.) Q&As Cotton

Do you have experience in Cotton cultivation? Please share your experience, methods and practices in the comments below. All the content you add will be soon reviewed by our agronomists. Once approved, it will be added to Wikifarmer.com and it will influence positively thousands of new and experienced farmers across the world.

OUR PARTNERS

We join forces with N.G.O.s, Universities, and other organizations globally to fulfill our common mission on sustainability and human welfare.