The Cotton Fiber Property Variability Continuum from Motes Through Seeds

摘要

Cotton fiber quality at the bale level is a compoite of all the contitutive fibers in the bale. Bales contain fibers from both mature seeds and motes (developmentally arrested seeds). The degree of variability shwn in the fiber properties of seeds and motes serves as an indicator of the amount of variability in a blae. Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) has been collected from machine harvested fields, and fibers have been removed by hand or ginned with a small laboratory saw gin and analyzed with the Zellweger-Uster advanced fiber infomation system (FELS). Distribution of ginned mote and seed weights are similar for three cotton varieties, but composite fiber properties are different. Early termination of embryo growth results in short-fiber motes.