Quality optimization of flax fibre through durational management of water retting technology under sub-tropical climate

Abstract The ascendancy of flax fibre strongly depends on the duration and process of its retting. In sub-tropical areas, warm and dry season quickly following the cold flax growing season does not allow dew retting of flax. Hence, development of suitable retting technology is utmost need under such climate. Therefore, an experiment was designed with seven tank-retting durational treatments [0 day (unretted), 1 day, 2 days, 4 days, 6 days, 8 days and 10 days] to find out the best retting period. The data revealed that the rate of weight loss was augmented upto fourth day of retting, while, rate of pectin loss was the highest on the second day of retting. Overall, it was also observed that the best quality flax-fibre was obtained with tank-water retting of 4–6 days. Retting of less than 4 days resulted in lower degumming, higher non-cellulosic material, while, more than 6 days caused over retting owing to poor quality fibre.