Description of the cotton plant. Herbaceous cotton plant. Household use

From ancient times to the present, cotton has been and remains one of the most important industrial crops. From this plant, a valuable fiber is obtained - cotton, which is then used for the production of fabrics, knitwear, threads and cotton wool. Since cotton is a fairly thermophilic 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 that belongs to the Malvov family and has at least fifty species, among which there are both woody and herbaceous plants, both annuals and perennials.

The cultivated species used for the production of cotton are annual or biennial herbaceous plants that reach a height of 1-2 m, but at the same time have a very branched stem. Cultivated cotton plants have a taproot system, and the root is quite long - from 30 cm to three meters.

On cotton bushes, the leaves are attached with long petioles and are arranged alternately. The shape of the leaves is lobed (3-5 lobes), which is why they can resemble maple leaves.

Many single flowers appear on each plant. Most species and varieties have yellow flowers. 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 capsule cracks and opens, exposing the white fibrous mass, in which the cotton seeds are located. Fibrous mass is cotton, which consists of two types of hairs: long and fluffy, as well as short and fuzzy.

Types and varieties of cotton

For a long time, botanists could not draw up an accurate classification of plants of the genus Cotton, for which there were several reasons. Firstly, there are indeed many types of cotton - more than 50. Secondly, most of these species are subject to high variability under the influence of various conditions and circumstances, such as weather and soil composition. Thirdly, cotton plants are easily cross-pollinated between plants of different species, as a result of which more and more new hybrids are formed.

The founder of modern biological taxonomy, Karl Linnaeus, believed that there are from 3 to 6 types of cotton. Many other botanists also believed that there are few types of cultivated cotton - about a dozen. But there were also more radical views: one assured that there are only two types of cotton - American and Asian, while others, on the contrary, numbered about fifty species or even more.

Currently, only the following types of cotton are used in the agriculture of the planet:

Herbaceous cotton plant. This annual species is most widespread in Central and Southeast Asia, as well as in the Caucasus. It is the shortest, but at the same time the most persistent species. Of all types of cotton, this one can grow the farthest in the north. The cotton obtained from it is the shortest and coarsest, which is why it is sometimes called woolly.
Indo-Chinese cotton plant. The tallest type of cultivated cotton, capable of growing up to 6 m. Treelike perennial. The cotton flower of this species has red rather than yellow petals, from which high-quality yellow cotton then ripens. Cultivated in tropical regions.
Peruvian cotton plant. The kind with the longest and highest quality fiber. It was originally a perennial, but through the efforts of American breeders about a century ago, it became an annual. It is not widely spread, it is grown in small quantities along the southeastern coast of the United States, as well as in Egypt.
Common cotton. The most common type. It is grown ubiquitous in regions with a suitable climate. Annual with white flowers. Medium quality fiber.

Since mainly ordinary cotton was grown on the territory of the former USSR, it is necessary to talk about varieties only in relation to this species. In the countries of Central Asia, the most widespread varieties 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, the Bulgarian varieties Garant, Balkan and Ogosta, which have time to ripen in our latitudes, are better suited. Also, mention should be made of purely Russian varieties of cotton: Yugtex, POSS, Pioner, Mikhailovsky and others.

All four main types of cultivated cotton are believed to be cultivated independently in four different regions of the planet.

Probably the first to start cultivating cotton were the inhabitants of the Indus Valley about 7 thousand years ago. Gradually, cotton has spread to the surrounding regions, today belonging to India and Pakistan. Interestingly, some of the cotton processing methods invented at that time were applied right up to the modern industrialization of India.

For a long time, the cotton plant remained unknown neither in China, nor in the Middle East, and even more so 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 the cotton plantations in Iran became really large is unknown, but in the Middle Ages, cotton was already one of the most important articles of 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. NS. Another, completely independent center of cotton cultivation was in Peru.

At the end of the Middle Ages, cotton was already an important import commodity in northern Europe, but where this miracle fiber comes from, the Europeans only vaguely understood, knowing only that fiber of plant origin. Many in all seriousness believed that such trees grow in the East, on which, instead of flowers, small sheep appear, from which they get cotton, so similar to sheep's wool. These misconceptions have even left their mark on modern European languages. For example, literally translated from German "cotton" means "wood wool".

By 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 attitude of the state to the economy, and the people to entrepreneurship. Raw materials were imported from tropical colonies, processed in England, and then supplied to the British colonies, China and the countries of continental Europe. Cotton, on the other hand, became one of the causes of the American Civil War, but that's a completely different story.

Historically, cotton has never been 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. For the first time, we began to seriously cultivate cotton in the 1930s in the North Caucasus. However, after the war, it was decided that it would be more rational to concentrate Soviet cotton growing in the Central Asian republics. The idea of growing cotton on the territory of the Russian Federation was returned only a few years ago.

Cotton is a rather specific crop. To grow it successfully, it requires a long warm period without frost, with plenty of sun and moderate rainfall. In other words, the tropical and subtropical climates 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 varieties specially bred for this climatic zone.

When growing cotton, it is recommended to alternate it with alfalfa in a 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 cotton field has been prepared since autumn. Winter plowing to a depth of 30 cm is performed in late summer - early autumn. If before that alfalfa was growing on the field, then before plowing, it is necessary to carry out preliminary peeling of the soil by 5-6 cm, thereby preventing the regrowth of perennials.

In irrigated agriculture (and cotton is one of those crops that need irrigation), autumn plowing is recommended to be carried out with two-tier plows. If necessary, procedures for combing out the rhizomes of weeds and the introduction of herbicides are also carried out.

In the spring the field is harrowed in 2 tracks. If manure is introduced during this period, it is recommended to repeat plowing. Before sowing cotton, the field is usually watered, after which it is required to chisel at a shallow depth (up to 15 cm) with repeated harrowing. A field that has not been watered in winter needs to be cultivated.

Fertilization

A good cotton harvest can only be counted on when a large amount of fertilizer is applied. According to calculations, to get a ton of raw cotton, you need to spend on average about 50 kg of nitrogen, 15 kg of phosphorus and 45 kg of potassium. However, fertilizers must be applied strictly taking into account the soil and climatic conditions.

On depleted soil or after grain crops, before plowing, you need to apply about 20 tons of manure or compost per hectare. It is also advisable to fertilize the field with phosphorus and potash fertilizers.

Practice shows that the yield of cotton increases dramatically if a small amount of superphosphate is applied during sowing. It is advisable to carry out further feeding with nitrogen at the moment when the plants throw out the first true leaves, as well as at the stages of budding and flowering. In addition, during the budding period, the cotton needs to be fed with potassium, and during the flowering and fruit formation period - with phosphorus.

When cultivating this culture, not only vegetative, 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.

On fields prone to salinization, pre-sowing leaching irrigation is carried out in late autumn - early winter, when there is still no severe frost, but the groundwater has already receded to its maximum depth. The irrigation rate on slightly saline soil is 3 thousand cubic meters per hectare before plowing, on highly saline soils - 3-4 thousand cubic meters per hectare after plowing with one or two repetitions.

Vegetation irrigation is necessary in order to obtain the maximum fiber quality and increase the efficiency of all other agrotechnical measures. All terms and rates of watering are calculated so that the plants do not experience a shortage of water throughout the growing season. The need for water in plants 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 sequentially soaked in water and a solution of boric acid. After that, the seeds are disinfected with a suspension with copper trichlorophenolate.

Since cotton has a rather long growing season, sowing should be done as early as possible so that the capsule fruits have time to ripen before frost. But at the same time, crops should not be allowed to suffer from spring frosts. This is what creates difficulties for the cultivation of cotton in Russia. It is recommended to start sowing when the soil reaches a temperature of 12 ° C.

For cotton, a square-nest planting method is used with a step of 60 or 45 cm. About 80-120 thousand plants should fall on one hectare. However, many farmers note the economic feasibility of wide-row sowing, where the distance between plants is 90 cm. The average consumption of seeds per hectare is about 40-70 kg, depending on the sowing scheme and seed size.

During the growing season of cotton, it is necessary to carry out measures to destroy the surface crust on the soil, remove weeds and water the crops. In addition, when 1-2 true leaves appear on cotton shoots, thinning of the nests should be carried out. However, if modern precision planters are used, the need for manual plant breakthrough is completely eliminated.

After the emergence of seedlings, it is necessary to cultivate in row spacing to a depth of 10 cm. Further, during the initial growing season, several more cultivations are carried out until the cotton plant closes its rows.

Weed control is carried out either with herbicides or by mulching. The second, by the way, can significantly reduce labor costs for caring for fields with cotton.

An effective way to increase yields is the timely chasing of plants, that is, cutting off the tops on the growth branches and the main stem. This procedure allows you to increase the yield by an average of 10 centners per hectare.

Due to the fact that cotton bolls 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.

Also in cotton growing, defoliation is practiced - the removal of leaves shortly before harvesting. This is done due to the fact that the leaves are a breeding ground for all kinds of fungi, bacteria and insects that can harm the crop.

Cotton is a genus of perennial plants of the Malvaceae family, the most widespread spinning crop cultivated for the production of textile fibers.

The homeland of cotton is the tropical regions of Asia, Africa, America. This is one of the oldest cultivated plants on our planet. In India and China, it was cultivated 5 thousand years ago.

Nowadays, cotton is cultivated on all continents, mainly in the dry subtropical zone. Most of all cotton is grown in Uzbekistan, USA, China, India, Brazil, Central Asia, in the south of Kazakhstan, in Azerbaijan. The yield of raw cotton is about 30 kg / ha.

Cotton plant: 1 - a branch with flowers; 2 - box in section; 3 - seed with fibers.

Cultivated cotton is a plant with a height of 70-200 cm. Its root system is located mainly in the arable layer, although individual roots penetrate into the soil almost to a depth of 2 m. The stem is branching with growth and fruit branches. The flower is large, creamy, yellow or white; fine-fiber cotton has a reddish spot at the base of the petals. The fruit is a box with 3 to 5 nests. Each nest contains 5 to 11 egg-shaped seeds. One seed develops 5-15 thousand fibers 35-50 mm long, which are a separate cell of the epidermis.

Fiber quality: length, fineness (thickness) - depends on the type and grade of chlorophyll, soil, climate and agricultural technology. We have the most widespread Mexican cotton, which includes medium-fiber varieties. Since 1930, Peruvian cotton has also been grown, with a thinner and longer fiber. It includes varieties of fine-fiber cotton. Forms of cotton with colored fibers - brown, green - were obtained.

Cotton plant is very thermophilic and hygrophilous. Its seeds begin to germinate if the soil temperature is at least 15-16 ° C. The best temperature for growth and development is 25–30 ° C. This crop is grown only under irrigated conditions. Cotton plants consume the most water during the flowering period. To create 1 ton of crop, the plant consumes 600-700 tons of water, sometimes even more. Cotton plants do not tolerate shading well and are very picky about nutritional conditions.

Cotton produces half of the natural textile fiber. From 100 kg of raw cotton (fiber with seeds), about 34 kg of spinning fiber is obtained in ginneries; 3 kg underfloor used for the manufacture of thick fabrics, paper, artificial leather, nitro varnishes, cotton wool; 62–63 kg of seeds. Edible and industrial oil is obtained from seeds, cake is used for livestock feed, husk - for obtaining alcohols, resin, paints. Paper is produced from the stems, alcohols and acids are distilled out. Cotton is a good honey plant. Bees collect up to 300 kg of honey from 1 hectare of his crops.

Fine-staple cotton is especially valuable, 1 ton of it gives 16 thousand m 2 of fabric, and the same amount of medium-staple cotton - only 8600 m 2. On average, from 1 kg of cotton fiber, you can get 5 m of linen, or 10-12 m of chintz, or 20 m of cambric, or 140 spools of thread.

Cotton is grown in cotton-alfalfa crop rotations. The best varieties are cultivated: medium-fiber - Tashkent 3, 108-F, S-4727, etc .; fine-fiber - 8763-I, S-6030, 5904-I. It is usually sown after alfalfa for several years in a row. The soil is prepared in the fall: the stems are uprooted, the surface of the fields is leveled, watering is carried out, the soil is plowed to a depth of 25–30 cm, adding organic and mineral fertilizers before processing. In the spring, the soil is harrowed, leveled with planners, cultivated or plowed. Cotton is sown in April, nesting 60 × 60, 60 × 50, 80 × 20 or 20 × 30 cm or in a wide-row method with precision seeders (50-60 seeds are sown per 1 running meter of a row, row spacing is 90 cm). Seeds are planted to a depth of 3-5 cm. The rate of sowing seeds is from 40 to 120 kg per hectare.

When caring for crops, the aisles are loosened several times during the growing season, weeds are destroyed using herbicides, and they fight diseases and pests. Water the crops, feed them.

For cotton, an average of 130–250 kg of nitrogen, 100–185 kg of phosphorus and 65–115 kg of potassium are applied per hectare. To create good conditions for the development of buds and ovaries, in the summer, the tops of the main stem and side branches are cut off from the plants, that is, the crops are minted. The boxes do not ripen at the same time, so the cotton is harvested in 2–4 steps.

Harvesting begins when 50-60% of the bolls are revealed on the plant. So that the green leaves do not interfere with the work of cotton pickers, they are dried on the root, treating the plants with chemical preparations - defoliants.

Cotton plant (Latin Gossypium)... Pharmacy name: cotton root bark - Gossypii cortex radicis. Belongs to the genus of the Malvaceae family, which includes more than 50 varieties of herbaceous and woody, biennial, annual and perennial plants.

The cotton plant looks like a shrub with yellow flowers. The alternating leaves of the plant have elongated petioles, mostly 3-5-lobed. The flower has corollas with accrete, wide petals, calyxes with five teeth, which are surrounded by an envelope with three lobes, the length of which is longer than that of the calyx. The fruit is a capsule. In some plants, it is oval, while in others it is round. Inside there are seeds that are covered with cotton in the form of a fluff. Cotton hairs can be fluffy and short, or fluffy and long. Seeds can have two types of hairs, or only long ones.
If the species is wild, then the seeds of such plants do not have long hairs.
This plant has a taproot system, the root sinks to a great depth into the ground - from 30 cm. Some varieties have roots that go into the ground for three meters in length.
A cotton seed contains an embryo with two seed lobes and a root. The seed is covered with a dense peel.
Cotton was cultivated many centuries ago. Its beneficial properties were widely known in Mexico and Peru. It was also grown in India. At first, it was used as an ornamental plant to decorate parks and gardens, and only a couple of centuries ago, cotton began to be used to make cotton yarn.
Then it gradually penetrates into Egypt, to Central Asia, and in the 13th century this useful plant was brought to the Transcaucasia from Iran. Nowadays, cotton can be found in 60 countries of the world, where it is planted on 35 million hectares of land.

Chemical composition the plant has been carefully studied. The main product that is obtained from it is fiber. It includes proteins, wax, fat, pectins and pure cellulose.
The composition of cotton seeds includes fatty oil, phytin, protein, phosphatides, sterols, starch, coloring pigments, gossypol and vitamins: B6, B2, thiamine, folic acid, provitamin A, E.
The plant leaves contain tannins, organic acids, flavonoids, pigments, pectins, sterols, and polyhydric alcohol.

Application and useful properties

The plant has a variety of properties. Cotton plant has an antiviral effect on the body, and also removes cholesterol from the blood. In addition, it has other beneficial properties. It is used to treat and prevent atherosclerosis. In addition, drugs are made from this plant for the treatment of tumors, skin diseases and herpes. Cotton plant helps lower blood pressure.
The oil, which is made from seeds, is used as patches and ointments. The bark of the plant has hemostatic features. The use of cotton is recommended for strengthening blood vessels.

The use of cotton is recommended for toxicosis in pregnant women, for violations of the menstrual cycle and for the treatment of infertility. In addition, this herb is used to treat various viral diseases, including herpes and lichen. Cotton plant is recommended for use in case of a lack of vitamin E in the body. For stomach cancer or during recovery after surgery, a decoction of cotton is recommended.

Collection and procurement produced in the autumn after the cotton harvest. Seeds, roots, root bark and long fibers are collected. The roots need to be removed from the soil, peeled off the bark and dried for several days in the fresh air.

Contraindications have not been identified for use.

For tumors of the stomach and herpes, a decoction of the roots is used. For its preparation, take 1 tbsp. l. chopped dry root bark, pour 1 tbsp. boiling water and boil for 20 minutes. After cooling, you need to strain the broth. It should be taken 3-4 times a day for a third of a glass. The course is 1-1.5 months.

Commercially prepared cottonseed oil is used along with sesame and sunflower oil, it is recommended for atherosclerosis.

“This amazing shrub grows in India. From large fruits resembling a nut, a small lamb with white wool appears, which is later used to make fine fabrics, "- this is how a famous English traveler described cotton in the 16th century, which struck him to the core. And to prove his words, he demonstrated a dress made of the finest chintz, passing it through a ring. Much time has passed since then, but today we are actively using the valuable properties of this plant, practically not knowing anything about it. It's time to open the veil of secrecy and get to know this extraordinary miracle of nature.

What is cotton?

India is considered the homeland of the plant, although today it is grown in many countries of the world, including China, the USA, Brazil, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Russia and Tajikistan. Cotton, or, as it is called in Latin, Gossypium, is most often a biennial herb of the Malvov family. Relating to herbs, it looks very much like a shrub.

Its height reaches 1.5–2 meters.
The rod-type root system penetrates to a depth of 3 meters.
The stem is branched, slightly pubescent or glabrous, with a variety of shades: from green to red-violet. Sometimes a brownish color appears only on the side facing the sun, which is why it is called a tan.
The leaf is very similar in shape to a grape leaf. Consists of a green or reddish plate, whole or divided into lobes, a rounded petiole and two protruding stipules at the base. As the fruit ripens, the leaves fall off, which greatly facilitates the harvesting of the crop.

Cotton flowers deserve special attention. They are solitary, rather large, formed from five wide petals, bordered by green sepals. Barely blossoming, they acquire a white or yellowish-cream color. After ripening and pollination, they become pink, burgundy or purple. Such beauty made the shrub a welcome guest on garden plots and home windowsills.

How does cotton fiber appear?

Most plant species are bred solely for the sake of cotton fiber. Observing the process of the formation of this valuable material, you are once again convinced how wise and harmonious nature is.

In place of the flower, a fruit is formed, which is called a seed capsule in cotton. Each such capsule is divided into 3-5 nests, each of which contains up to 11 seeds.
The formation of fibers begins even before the pollination of the flower. If you look at the embryos of seeds under a microscope, you can see the smallest sprouts on their surface.
After pollination, active growth of fibers begins, which lasts 20 days, until the seeds are fully ripe.
At the same time, the box also increases. Sometimes it reaches the size of a large nut or chicken egg. Over time, its walls dry out, turn brown and crack.
The enlarged fibers push the walls of the fruit apart, and a lush white foam comes out. In the wild, it is needed to spread seeds: air fluff is easily carried by the wind or animals.

It's harvest time for cultivated plants. Most often, special machines are used for this purpose. At the front, they are equipped with a special mechanism that removes the fruits and separates their shell. At the back there is a reservoir for the harvested cotton mass. This type of gathering is very productive - 800 kg of cotton fibers per hour. But many people prefer to harvest by hand - this way the quality of the fiber becomes higher due to the fact that the remnants of the fruit shell are excluded from it. Interestingly, the boxes ripen unevenly, so the harvest is harvested in several stages.

When harvesting, you need to ensure that the seeds are dry, otherwise there is a risk of rotting.

Plant species

There are about 50 types of cotton in nature, differing in appearance, properties, quality and color of fiber, as well as requirements for living conditions. Of all this variety, only 4 varieties are used for cultivation.

Common cotton- the most common variety with a relatively high (up to 2 m) stem and short fiber. White flowers turn pink when exposed to the sun. Differs in disease resistance and high productivity. It is he who is the raw material for 80% of the cotton fiber produced in the world.
Herbaceous cotton plant- due to its hardiness and short stature (the stems barely reach one and a half meters in height), this plant can be cultivated even in regions with a temperate climate. A distinctive feature is a yellow flower with a red spot inside, in the place of which a small and round fruit box appears. The fiber of this plant is white, the shortest and coarse to the touch.
Treelike cotton plant Is a perennial plant that can only be found in the tropical zone. This is the tallest member of the family, sometimes it reaches 6 meters in height. Red flowers conquer with their splendor. The highest quality fiber can be recognized by its distinctive yellow tint.
Peruvian cotton, Barbados or Egyptian - the most valuable species, which is famous for its durable and long, up to 44 mm, fiber. It grows mainly in coastal areas.

Breeders work tirelessly, bringing out more and more improved varieties of cotton. Recent achievements include cotton with colored fibers in yellow, green, orange, brownish and lilac shades. During further processing, such raw materials no longer require coloring, and products from it do not fade or fade in the sun.

For growing cotton at home, low herbaceous varieties with large bright flowers are more suitable.

The benefits of cotton

Chintz, satin, calico, cambric, denim - what kind of fabrics are not made from cotton fiber. Natural, lightweight, breathable, comfortable and pleasant to the touch, they have been leading in popularity all over the world for many centuries. But this is not all that an unpredictable bush gives a person.

Cotton seeds are a great source of vegetable oil, which is used for food, as well as raw materials for technical needs, making candles and soap.
Hulls and cake are used as livestock feed and are considered an excellent source of vegetable protein.
Lint - the fluff that remains on the seed - is used as stuffing for pillows and mattresses.
The pulp, which is part of the down-pad, is a raw material for the manufacture of paper, plastic, photographic film, felt and artificial leather.

Due to its unique composition, cotton is widely known in traditional and folk medicine as an excellent aseptic, antiviral, antipyretic, hemostatic and astringent agent that helps with atherosclerosis, hypertension and diseases of the nervous system. Extracts, infusions and oils are often used in cosmetology as an anti-aging, tonic and anti-inflammatory agent.

When using cottonseed oil, remember that it contains the specific pigment gossypol, which is a toxic phenol compound that provokes reproductive disorders and metabolic processes in the body.

How to grow cotton at home?

To grow, this wonderful plant needs climatic conditions of the tropics or subtropics. Therefore, flower growers who live in other latitudes have no choice but to grow an outlandish shrub in a pot on their windowsill. How does this process go?

Cotton is usually planted in early spring.
First, the seeds are prepared - for this they are cleaned of the down and put on a wet cloth.
The first shoots hatch in about a week.
It is time to place the seedlings in a flower pot, which should be deep enough not to hinder the development of the root system.
Fertile soil is poured there with the addition of lumps of sand and clay and fertilized with humus.
The pot is covered with foil, but airing is regularly arranged.
After about a week, the first shoots appear, similar to a butterfly.
When 2-3 leaves are formed on the stem, young bushes are planted in separate pots, which are left indoors or taken out to a greenhouse.
After a month, you can see the first flowers, and then the fruits.

By cutting off the top of the central stem and lateral processes from the plant in summer, an increase in the number of fruits can be achieved.

Care features

Cultivation of cotton is a laborious process. For the normal growth and development of this shrub, it is necessary to create conditions close to those programmed by nature.

The temperature in the room should be about 30 0 C. At low temperatures there is a danger of non-germination of seeds, at higher temperatures (up to 40 0 C) - wilting and shedding of flowers and seed pods.
The plant does not tolerate shade, so it is better to keep it on the sunny side, but out of direct sunlight.
“Cotton has a head in the sun, and feet in the water,” says popular wisdom. Indeed, the shrub needs frequent and abundant watering, as well as constant spraying from a spray bottle.
During the period when buds and flowers appear, cotton should be fed with potash or phosphorus fertilizer.
Systematic loosening of the surface soil layer and the use of a drainage layer at the bottom of the pot will provide oxygen and moisture to the root system.

If you decide to plant cotton in your garden, let a peanut keep him company - it will enrich the soil with nitrogen and other nutrients.

Diseases and pests

Diseases caused by pathogenic fungi or bacteria, as well as malnutrition of the plant, cause great harm to the cotton crop. These problems reach their peak by the summer season, shortly before the maturation of the cotton fiber. Unfortunately, even shrubs that grow at home and are surrounded by the triple attention of the owner-grower are susceptible to their effects.

Fusarium is a fungus that causes the disease, provokes wilting of buds and flowers, drying of leaves and, ultimately, death of the plant. In surviving shrubs, fruiting is significantly reduced or completely stopped. Mainly fine-fiber varieties of cotton are affected.
Black root rot. It is caused by a fungus that lives in the soil. Through the roots and intercellular space, it spreads in the form of a mycelium throughout the plant, affecting the root collar, stem and leaves. As a result, the bush dries up and becomes brittle.
Gommoz. Wind-borne bacteria cause disease that affects the stems, leaves, bracts and even the fiber inside the pod. A characteristic sign of the problem is the release of gum - a sticky thick liquid that dries up in the form of a grayish film. The plant is covered with brown spots, leaves and stems are deformed.
Anthracnose is the so-called pink rot, from which both seedlings and already adult plants can suffer. The disease can be recognized by the characteristic brown spots with a red rim on the trunk, leaves and capsules. Unfortunately, the infected bushes die off.

The most effective treatment for plant health is seed dressing prior to planting. Previously, sulfuric acid, copper sulfate or bleach were used for this purpose - rather aggressive substances, when working with which special care must be taken. Today, the situation is simpler - you just need to purchase a special aqueous suspension of treaters in a flower shop.

More than 200 insect species threaten the healthy growth of cotton. Among them, the following stand out.

Of course, to grow cotton at home, you will have to put in a lot of work and worries. But it is worth it to one day see white fluffy clouds that have opened on thin twigs.

cotton ( Gossypium ), a genus of mainly shrubby plants of the mallow family ( Malvaceae ). A number of species are widely bred for fiber (cotton) and seeds. Fiber is used to produce fabrics and threads, and seeds are used to produce oil and other products used in food and other industries. Cotton fiber is the hairs that cover the surface of the seeds. They are long and fluffy or short and fleecy (lint, or cotton fluff). Depending on the cultivated species and variety, the seed can carry both types of hairs or only the first of them. Each hair is one dead epidermal cell of the seed coat, which is a long, flattened, spirally twisted tube. Wild cotton has no long hairs.

In commercial cotton farming, this is usually an annual crop yielding one crop per growing season. However, in frost-free regions, the plant lives for several years, developing into a small shrub. Some plantations in Peru produce crops annually for three years, and in northeastern Brazil for up to seven years.

The main cotton producers are China, USA, India, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Brazil, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Australia, Greece, Egypt, Argentina, Syria and Paraguay. The first five countries account for 75% of the world harvest of this crop.

(71.37 Kb) Biology. Depending on the type, the cotton bush reaches a height of 0, 5– 3.0 m and forms many side branches hanging almost to the ground. The foliage is alternate (spiral). In the leaf sinus (the upper corner between the stem and the leaf) there are buds that can develop into vegetative or flowering shoots.In most types of cotton, leaves are petiolate, palm-shaped with three, five or seven lobes, 7- 17 cm, and a width of 5 - 12 cm. Leaves and stems are almost always finely pubescent, although they are smooth.

The root system is pivotal, extending vertically into the ground to a depth of at least 30 cm, and sometimes up to 3 m, depending on the type, variety and type of soil.

Flowers that resemble stock-rose flowers from the same family grow in groups. They appear 7-10 weeks after planting, open in the morning, scatter pollen, and wither in the evening. New flowers are formed within about one and a half months. Corolla color ranges from white through cream or yellow to reddish purple.

At the first stage of development (three to four weeks before the blooming of flowers), the buds are protected by three small leaf-shaped bracts (wrapper, or subassembly). Each flower has five petals and a plurality of stamens (forming the pollen of the male organs), united in a five-tiered staminate tube that surrounds the pistil (female organ) with three to five stigmas (pollen-trapping structures). Self-pollination usually occurs, but insects can also carry pollen from flower to flower. The lower part of the pistil (ovary) is divided into three to five compartments (nests). Each nest contains 7–10 ovules (seed buds), and in each ovary, 20–30 hairy seeds normally mature.

The part of a plant containing seeds, i.e. the fruit is called a box in cotton. The cotton boll ripens and opens - bursts - 45–70 days after the flower blooms: the swelling fibers move its valves apart so that they turn out to be perpendicular to the flower axis. Fibers from different nests seem to stick together into a single mass, which remains in place, held by the adjacent parts of the capsule.

Cultivated species. There are 39 known types of cotton. They all come from warm temperate or tropical zones. However, only four species are regularly bred, or rather, many of their varieties. Several more species are sometimes grown as ornamental in gardens.

Genetically, cotton species are divided into two groups, differing in the number of chromosomes in the cell: diploid and tetraploid. A single set of chromosomes is denoted by the letter "

n ". Cotton has n equals 13. Most of the cotton species are diploid; their non-sex cells have two sets of chromosomes (2 n = 26). Diploid and two cultivated species - Indo-Chinese cotton, or tree-like (G. arboreum ), and herbaceous cotton, or guza (G. herbaceum ). Two more species that are of much greater economic importance are Peruvian cotton, or Barbados (G. barbadense ), and Mexican cotton, ordinary, or upland (G. hirsutum ), Are tetraploids, i.e. they have four sets of chromosomes ( 4n = 52). Diploid cultivated species originate either from Africa or Asia, but are called unambiguously Asian at the place of introduction into the culture. The homeland of cultural tetraploids is the New World, but it has been established that one diploid set is "local" for them, and the second is Asian. How they came together is unclear.

Since ploidy affects the characteristics of cotton fiber, experiments were carried out to change the chromosome number of cotton. For example, by crossing different lines and treatments with colchicine (this substance suppresses the divergence of chromosomes during cell division) triploid (

3n ) and hexaploid ( 6n ) plants.

Common cotton may have its origins in southern Mexico and Central America, but countless cultivated forms, accounting for approximately 90% of the world's cotton fiber production, originate in both the New World and the Old World. The height of these plants is 0.6–1.5 m, their oval seeds are covered with dense lint of grayish, reddish or green color and white long fibers - thin or medium in thickness, usually 5–13 mm long.

The Barbadian cotton plant probably originates from western South America. Its island types, so named because they were formerly grown on islands off the coast of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, are now bred mainly in the West Indies and the southeastern United States. The long fibers of these plants (38–44 mm) are creamy, silky. The Egyptian types, which produce long, strong fiber, are descended from the island types introduced into Egypt. They are now grown in Egypt, the southwestern United States, western Asia, Sudan and Peru. The fibers of these plants are brownish, 35–44 mm long.

The birthplace of tree cotton, reaching more than 3 m in height, and herbaceous cotton, possibly India. These ancient Asian cultures, which do not play a significant role in modern cotton growing, have long fibers, stiff and short - 9–19 mm.