Cotton's Secret Stash: The Day-Neutral Landraces You've Never Heard Of

Cotton farming has a secret weapon hiding in plain sight. A massive collection of cotton landraces, mostly ignored, might hold the key to better cotton crops.

The Hidden Treasure

• Over 2,500 types of cotton landraces are stored in Texas.
• Most need short days to grow properly, making them tricky to use in modern farming.
• But here's the twist: some of these landraces don't care about day length. They grow just fine no matter the season.

The Breakthrough

Scientists found 186 day-neutral types and grew them for a few years to keep them diverse.

The Real Test

Scientists compared these day-neutral landraces to top-performing cotton types, growing them with and without extra water.

The Results?

• Day-neutral landraces didn't beat the best cotton types in lint yield or quality.
• But they didn't fall far behind either.
• Some even showed promise under different water conditions.

Why Haven't We Used These Landraces Before?

• They're picky about daylight.
• We didn't have enough data on them.

The Game Changer

This study gives us a good look at what these landraces can do. This could help farmers and scientists make better cotton in the future.