Fiber Properties and Mini-spun Yarn Performance of Extra Long Staple Upland Cotton

Cotton, Gossypium spp., fibers are produced primarily by two species, G. hirsutum L., upland, and G. barbadense L., pima or American Egyptian, which also is referred to as Extra Long Staple (ELS) because the fibers produced are longer, stronger, and finer than those produced by upland. Breeders have sought to introgress the ELS trait from G. barbadense into upland with limited success. The Cotton Improvement Laboratory, Texas A&M University AgriLife Research, has developed ELS upland lines through intraspecific upland crosses and subsequent pedigree selection. The purpose of this study was to determine (1) High Volume Instrument (HVI) and the Advanced Fiber Information System (AFIS) fiber properties of eight of these TAM ELS upland strains and (2) spinning performance compared with 'FiberMax 832 LL' (FM 832), a modern, high-quality, upland cultivar. Eight ELS upland lines, along with FM 832, were grown at College Station and Weslaco, TX during 2006 and 2007. Picker-harvested seed cotton was ginned on a laboratory saw gin and the lint was evaluated by HVI and AFIS for fiber quality parameters at the Texas Tech University Fiber and BioPolymer Research Institute. Yarn was produced from each genotype through a mini-spinning protocol. All ELS upland lines exhibited longer (p < 0.01) HVI and AFIS length parameters with all other fiber properties not different than FM 832. All ELS lines produced stronger carded 11.8 tex ring-spun yarns than FM 832 with better yarn elongation and yarn hairiness. These ELS lines should be valuable parental material in breeding for improved fiber quality.