Effects of Growth Environment on Cotton Fiber Properties and Motes, Neps, and White Speck Frequency

Abstract

A number of preharvest and postharvest factors alter textile quality, including cotton variety, growth environment, harvest method, lint cleaning, and combing. In this work, the impact of three planting dates in 1997 and 1999 on fiber properties, mote, neps, and white specks is monitored. Cotton is hand picked, ginned on a small laboratory gin, and processed in a mini-spinning facility. The number of motes per gram of seed cotton does not correspond to changes in nep or white speck frequency. Also, a decrease in the mean micronafis values (which corresponds to micronaire) does not correlate with increases in white speck frequency. The range of 0 values is larger for 1999 cotton than for 1997 cotton. We propose th the distribution of 0 values is important in predicting white speck potential, and that the amount of very mature fibers may be just as important as the amount of immature fibers.