How does cotton go from plant to cotton?

Answer 1

Cotton is a bushy plant that is grown in different parts of the United States. In CA we plant our cotton by seed in the early spring and it grows all summer. The cotton plant has a flower that blooms and this flower becomes a cotton boll. The cotton boll is picked in late fall with a mechanical cotton picker. Before this can be done the plant has to be killed and this is done through a chemical application sprayed on the plant. After the plant is dead the machine goes through the field pulling the cotton off the boll. This takes several times to get all the cotton and it is put into big trailers that hold the loose picked cotton. It is then taken to a cotton gin where it is ginned, the seeds removed and baled. The seeds are used to plant the next year for the new crop of cotton.