Organic cotton farmers need disease-, pest-, and drought-resistant cotton cultivars that provide high fiber quality and seed that is free from contamination with genetically engineered (GE) traits. Because GE cotton cultivars do not carry the okra leaf shape trait, non-GE cultivars that are homozygous for okra leaf provide a visual screening to detect and remove GE plants from a seed crop. The goals of this plant breeding project were to develop and release publicly available okra-leaf cotton cultivars well adapted to organic production for West Texas and other regions, and to test their fiber quality.

Cotton cultivars and breeding lines show substantial genetic variation in:
• Flower openness (“closed” flowers with vertical petals improve lint yield and quality).
• Resistance to Verticillium dahliae wilt (less impact on vigor, yield, and quality).
• Resistance to bacterial blight (Xanthomonas citri pv. malvacearum).
• Resistance to thrips feeding injury.
• Yield and quality stability in moisture-limited (rainfed) production.
• Fiber elasticity (percent fiber elongation-at-break), an important component of fiber and yarn quality.

The project developed, registered, and released two new cotton cultivars – CA 4014 and CA 4015 – with the okra leaf trait and yields and fiber quality commensurate with other varieties used by organic farmers in Texas. Other registrations from this project include CA 4005 and CA 4006 with partial thrips resistance, CA 4007 with high yield and quality in rainfed (moisture-limited) production, CA 4009 and CA 4010 with superior fiber length and uniformity, and CA 4019 that combines superior quality and drought resilience.