Tips on how to grow Cotton from seed to harvest

The origin of the word “cotton” came from the Arabic term al qutn. History also told us that the word later became algodón in Spanish and also cotton in English. Cotton is really known as a raw material that is used for textile and garments. Cotton as a raw material is also used to produce things like coffee filters, for making archival papers, for fish nets and book binding. Some other uses of cotton include cotton oil extracted from cotton seeds. Without been told the oil extracted from cotton is edible and is used for making things like cosmetics, pharmaceutical products, margarine, soap, etc.

Cotton varieties

Below is some of the different varieties of cotton:

1. RCH 317 Bt variety
2. RCH 134 Bt variety
3. MRC 6301 Bt variety
4. MRC 6304 Bt variety
5. Ankur 651 variety
6. White Gold variety
7. F 1861 variety
8. F 1378 variety
9. F 846 variety
10. LH 1556 variety

The climatic requirement

Cotton plant is actually a tropical crop. From experience one of the favorable weather conditions for cotton production is actually when the summer temperatures do not drop below 25 °C. The zone for cotton production lies between 37° north and 32° south latitude.

Soil requirement for cotton

Cotton plant actually perform best in deep, highly fertile, sandy loam soils with reasonably good drainage. They don’t actually do well in sandy soils as well as in heavy clay. From experience heavy clay soils is a problem to the germination of seedlings. The cotton plant should not be planted in soils with a pH value of below 5,5 where the aluminium concentration is very high.

Planting of the cotton

Cotton plant is actually propagated from seed by planting directly in a prepared field when the growing conditions are favorable (a suitable temperature, an adequate rainfall, etc.).

Fertilizer application

Nitrogen should be applied to the cotton plant to ensure a better yield. Cotton plant really requires about 112 kg N/ha for a 4-ton crop. The fertilizer application should be complemented by good irrigation in other to keep the effective soil depth in 0,9 m root zone at the field capacity.

Weed control in Cotton

Weed control in cotton plant actually involve cultural, mechanical, biological and chemical methods.
Furthermore, starting a commercial cotton farming can be very profitable if it is done in a proper way. If you really want to venture into commercial cotton farming you can purchase the COTTON CULTIVATION book on Amazon Store for $7. This book contains a step by step guide on how to grow cotton from seed. To purchase this book on Amazon you can click the button below.