Cotton was defoliated to achieve three levels of defoliation, 1) Natural leaf drop, 2) Intermediate leaf drop and 3) 95% leaf drop, at four locations in the Mississippi Delta during the fall of 1997. The leaf levels at three locations consisted of mature leaves with very little honey dew and little or no regrowth in any of the levels of defoliation. One location included parts of a field that was replanted very late in the season due to flooding and consequently had immature leaves and high levels of green bolls present at harvest. Six replications of approximately 60 pounds of spindle harvested seed cotton from each defoliation level was placed into open mesh bags (three replications of each of the three treatments into each of two modules) and implanted into the grower's modules constructed with cotton harvested from the 95% level of defoliation. Moisture samples were collected and analyzed from the field and samples before harvesting, after harvesting with a spindle harvester and storage periods ranging from 3 to 6 weeks. Thermocouples were placed into each sample implant and into the grower module above and below each sample implant. Temperature data was recorded throughout the storage period of the module.