Measuring Cotton Fiber Length

Maximum fiber lengths were estimated by placing ovules on a watch-glass and gently spraying fibers with a stream of distilled water as described by Schubert et al. [27 ]. Ten to thirty cotton bolls were randomly selected from each biological replicate samples of G. arboreum (A₂-100 and SXY1), G. raimondii (D₅-6 and D₅-31) and G. hirsutum (TM-1, SG-747, DP-5690, Li₁, and Li₂). Single cotton seeds were randomly selected from an individual cotton boll. The distance between the chalazal end of the selected seeds and the tip of the spread fibers were measured to the nearest 0.1 mm with a digital caliper. Mean maximum fiber length of each cotton variety was obtained by measuring the randomly selected seeds from two biological replicates.