ARS | Publication request: SINGLE FIBER TESTING VIA FAVIMAT

Submitted to: National Cotton Council Beltwide Cotton Conference
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: February 8, 2010
Publication Date: April 28, 2010
Citation: Delhom, C.D., Cui, X., Thibodeaux, D.P. 2010. SINGLE FIBER TESTING VIA FAVIMAT. Proceeding of the 2010 National Cotton Council Beltwide Cotton Conference, January 5-7, 2010, New Orleans, Louisiana. p. 1405-1410. 2010 CDROM.

Interpretive Summary: Single fiber testing is tedious and resource intensive, however it allows useful information to be obtained using very limited materials. The single fiber tensile testing correlated well with the Stelometer testing and should aid breeders in making more informed decisions. There are many parameters of single fiber testing which must still be addressed, such as the rate of extension, gauge length, pre-tension value, and an appropriate number of observations needed.

Technical Abstract: Cotton fiber is usually tested in bulk form utilizing a mass or beard of fibers to be presented to a test instrument for measurement. There are many reasons for this, not the least of which is that handling single cotton fibers is tedious and time consuming. Cotton breeders are being pushed to make decisions on which new lines and germplasm to pursue and which to abandon. Cotton breeders are relying on small samples to make these decisions. Single fiber testing may allow for more data to be provided to cotton breeders than is currently available. Single fiber testing also allows for the distributions of the measured properties to be gathered. The Favimat single fiber tester was utilized to measure cotton fiber fineness, strength, and elongation. The results of the single fiber testing were compared to bulk fiber measurements from instruments such as the HVI and AFIS.