Harvesting
- Cotton plants take 2-3 months for the maturation of their bolls.
- It is harvested in 3-4 picking of hand and 2-3 times in mechanical harvesting as the boll matures.
- The appropriate time of harvesting is when most of the leaves are dried or in shedding stage.
- First picking can be taken up when 30-40% of the bolls have burst open. Second picking is done when 30-40% of the bolls are left after picking open and the third after 2-3 weeks of the second picking.
- In Nepal, farmers picked cotton several times in order to save their yield.
- Picker and Stripper are the two types of machine harvester used in mechanized farm The gleaning machine is used to collect the cotton.
- It is more economic and time efficient method but due to lack of synchronization of maturity the harvesting is not so efficient
Yield
- Yield of seed cotton varies depending on the genotype and the management practice. Yield estimation can me made, just before boll brusting based on a small sample from the following formulae :
Kg per ha = [No of green bolls x Boll weight (gm.) x 10,000] / [Row length (m) x Width (m) x 1000]
- Yield of rainfed cotton ranges from 0.8-1 ton/ha and 1-1.5 ton/ha for hybrid.
- Under irrigated condition, hybrids yield 3-4 ton/ha.