The final act is the gin. There, seeds are separated from fiber, and the lint is compressed into 480-pound bales—each one holding roughly 200,000 individual bolls, and a season’s worth of decisions.
Here’s the timeline: 1️⃣ Plant when soil is 60°F+. 2️⃣ Summer: Plants flower (white → pink → red) and bolls form. 3️⃣ Fall: Bolls crack open. Harvest time! cotton growing season
As the season cools, the bolls crack open, revealing the fluffy white fiber. Before harvest, farmers often apply defoliants to remove the leaves, preventing green leaf trash from staining the white lint. Harvest usually happens 150 to 180 days after planting, typically between September and November in the Northern Hemisphere. The final act is the gin