Several days ago, I saw acres and acres of cotton bolls while traveling. The fields were white against the dark soil as the car neared them.
It’s not unusual to see cotton fields in Alabama.
For some unknown reason, I became fascinated that a green plant could produce these fibers that keep us clothed and warm.
This may sound like a weird or crazy question. Do you consider cotton an organic or inorganic material?
Organically grown cotton uses no synthetic pesticides, chemicals, or genetically modified seeds.
What would we do without the fascinating organic and conventionally grown plants that use chemicals and modified seeds?
Whether using swabs for hygiene or woven blankets, shirts, or bed linen, cotton is an essential and versatile product in our world.
As the advertisement says, “Cotton is the fabric of our lives!”
I wonder how many cotton swabs all those acres of cotton would make?
But what’s more impressive is how cottonseeds grow into green plants that produce cotton.
Here’s another weird question. Is cotton a fruit?
Cotton is not a fruit but a fiber. In the case of cotton, a flowering seed doesn’t dictate that it’s a fruit. Cottonseed is a fiber-producing crop.
Although cotton comes from the seed of a flowering plant and grows on a green bush, it’s not a fruit.
Cotton’s growth season can be as long as seven months.
The cottonseeds’ buds become flowers. After the flowers blossom and fall away, the ovary matures and becomes a green pod or boll. Fibers push new seeds from the bolls. The fibers thicken and continue to grow until they split the bolls. Several cells of cotton fibers, each with several seeds, shoot from the bolls. Each cotton fiber is a cell. The new seeds attached to the cotton fibers are harvested for future crops.
Whether you think of cotton as a fruit or not, cotton is one of the most utilized natural fibers in the world.
Other natural fibers include linen from the flax plant, silk from silkworms, and wool from sheep or alpacas.
Who doesn’t love all these natural fibers? Who doesn’t love cotton?
We’ve heard about domesticated dogs, cats, and other animals.
What about domesticated cotton? Maybe this question isn’t as weird as the others.
Today’s cotton evolved from wild species that grew like other domesticated crops in generations past. Farmers collected these wild cottonseeds, planted them from season to season, and learned which seeds produced the best crop.
Some species of today’s domesticated cotton cousins still live in the wild. In the wild, cotton is a perennial plant. Today’s farmers plant cotton annually.
They plant the seeds in the spring and harvest the cotton in the fall. After the harvest, the plants and shrubs are destroyed, and the seeds provide a means for new crops.
Harvesting machines separate the fibers from the bolls, which are seed capsules. A cotton ginner separates the fibers from the seeds.
An acre can produce 750 pounds of cotton or 1.5 bales.
I’m thinking about planting a few cottonseeds.
Be well.