Skip to main content
ARS Home » Southeast Area » New Orleans, Louisiana » Southern Regional Research Center » Cotton Structure and Quality Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #277707

Title: Influence of defoliation date and gin-drying temperature on oven moisture and KFT water within cotton cultivars

Author
item Montalvo Jr, Joseph
item von Hoven, Terri
item Byler, Richard

Submitted to: National Cotton Council Beltwide Cotton Conference
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/6/2012
Publication Date: 4/16/2012
Citation: Montalvo Jr, J.G., Von Hoven, T.M., Byler, R.K. 2012. Influence of defoliation date and gin-drying temperature on oven moisture and KFT water within cotton cultivars. National Cotton Council Beltwide Cotton Conference. p. 567-574.

Interpretive Summary: Interpretive Summary Moisture is the most important single factor affecting fiber quality during ginning. Moisture measurements can now be expressed in two ways: moisture content (weight loss) by standard oven-drying and water content by Karl Fischer Titration. Too much or too little moisture in the seed cotton does not allow for the best fiber quality. Moisture and water content were compared in cultivars defoliated at different times and ginned at low and high gin-drying temperatures. Also, ginned lint was further processed to produce mechanically cleaned, and scoured and bleached fibers. The samples were grouped by cultivar to examine the results at moisture equilibrium. Surprisingly, within cultivars water content range of the averaged values from the various treatments was only (%): raw, mechanically, and scoured and bleached: 0.13, 0.13, and 0.08. These ranges were very small compared to that by moisture content. Water content by Karl Fischer Titration is highly selective for water; moisture content is nonspecific for water in cotton. The results demonstrate that gin-drying history and complicated side reactions during standard oven-drying contribute to biases in the technique.

Technical Abstract: Water measured in lint cotton by Karl Fischer Titration was compared to moisture content measured by standard oven-drying in two cultivars. The cultivars had been defoliated at different times and ginned at two possible temperatures. Ginned lint was further processed to produce mechanically cleaned, and scoured and bleached fibers. The samples were grouped by cultivar to examine the results at moisture equilibrium. Within cultivars water content range ofthe averaged values from the various treatments was only (%): raw, mechanically, and scoured and bleached: 0.13, 0.13, and 0.08. These ranges were very small compared to that by moisture content. Within both cultivars, the averaged water content was not significantly different (p < 0.05) for the scoured and bleached fibers.