Divisi
How to grow Cotton
Gossypium hirsutum · Malvaceae
Photo: Michael Bass-Deschenes(Commons User Mike Bass-Deschênes) · CC BY 2.0
Cotton is grown for one thing: the soft white fibre — the lint — that grows wrapped around the seeds inside a pod called a boll. It is a warmth-loving, deep-rooted bush that flowers and fruits at the same time over a long season of about five to seven months, so the plant is always doing two jobs at once — pushing out new branches and filling the bolls it has already set. When the bolls split open into fluffy white, you hand-pick the lint; later a machine combs it off the seed (ginned), the lint goes to thread and cloth, and the leftover cottonseed gives cooking oil and stock-feed cake. One pest decides most cotton crops — the bollworm, caterpillars that bore into the bolls where your fibre is forming — so watching your field closely (scouting) and spraying at exactly the right moment run right through the season.
Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz · CC BY-SA 4.0 
Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Days to maturity
- 150–210 days
- Row spacing
- 90 cm
- Plant spacing in the row
- 25 cm
- Sowing depth
- 3–5 cm
These are general figures for the crop, compiled from published agronomic references including FAO and CABI. The right choice for your field depends on your soil, rainfall and the yield you are aiming for.
Will cotton actually do well on your land? Check your field against every crop in the catalogue — free, no signup. Run the free crop check →
Other names for Cotton
katoen · tit · cotton · coton · auduga · thonje · algodão · donje · pamba
Working in buckets, bags or paces? The farming glossary turns the measures growers actually use into kilograms and hectares — what a 20 litre bucket of each crop really weighs, and how to size a field by walking it — alongside the Shona, Swahili, Ndebele and Yoruba words used in the field. Open the glossary →
Growing cotton, stage by stage
Your cotton season, step by step — from a warm-soil start and a full, even stand, through balanced feeding and beating the bollworm at flowering, to clean, dry hand-picking that keeps your lint white and top-grade.
- Get your field and inputs ready
- Plant and set a full stand
- Build the frame and protect the squares
- Protect flowering — beat the bollworm
- Fill the bolls and hold the grade
- Pick clean, pick dry
- Keep it clean and dry to the gin
14 step-by-step tasks in the app
Every task for cotton — what to do, when to do it and why it matters — with the amounts worked out for your own field, reminders as each one falls due, and warnings before extreme weather.
Pests and diseases that attack cotton
13 more threats tracked in the app
Divisi tells you which of these is a risk on your cotton right now, when to walk the field looking for it, and what to do the moment you find it.
Frequently asked questions
How long does cotton take to grow?
Cotton takes about 150–210 days from sowing to maturity, though the exact length varies with variety, temperature and how the season runs.
What spacing should I use for cotton?
Space cotton rows about 90 cm apart, with roughly 25 cm between plants within the row.
How deep should cotton be planted?
Sow cotton at about 3–5 cm deep. Shallower risks drying out; deeper wastes seed energy before the shoot reaches light.
What pests and diseases attack cotton?
The ones covered in this guide are Aphids, Bacterial blight, Boll rot. Each has its own page explaining how to identify, scout for and control it.
Grow cotton with a plan, not a guess
Divisi turns this guide into a dated plan for your own field — what to do each week, reminders as tasks fall due, and warnings before extreme weather. Free for farmers, works offline.
Or check your field first