Studies on improved <i>Gossypium arboreum</i> cotton: Part I— Fibre quality parameters

Abstract

The improved <i>Gossypium arboreum</i> cultivars, along with the traditionally grown <i>Gossypium</i> <i>arboreum</i> and <i>Gossypium hirsutum</i> cultivars, have been collected and evaluated comprehensively for fibre quality parameters (physical, morphological and structural). The comparative analysis of the data clearly establishes the parity between improved <i>G. arboreum</i> and traditionally grown <i>G. hirsutum</i> strains. A noticeable qualitative improvement with respect to most of the parameters evaluated, has been observed in comparison to the conventionally cultivated <i>G. arboreum</i> strain RG-8. In addition to that, the improved <i>G. arboreum</i> cultivars seem to retain the inherent trait of the species of producing highly mature fibre.