According to a blog post by Ed Barnes of Cotton Incorporated, “Seed coat fragments (SCFs) have been a long-term issue for cotton and outbreaks of SCFs occur sporadically every 3 to 5 years in a region of the U.S. This year the region includes Alabama, Georgia and Florida with the biggest outbreak of SCFs calls in the last 20 years. And it is no coincidence that this is also one of the worst years for tropical storms.” The wet conditions this year, especially in fall near cotton harvest, have really hurt the quality of cotton by increasing the number of seed coat fragments in the harvested cotton, which reduces its value. You can read more about this issue and how the summer weather may have affected it at https://georgiacottoncommission.org/barnes-seed-coat-fragments-another-reason-to-hate-2020/.
