Characteristics of crop stalks and performance of their scrimber

Characteristics of cotton stalks, tobacco stalks, soybean stalks and capsicum stalks were studied with methods of optical microscopy, fiber isolation and analysis of chemical components. Scrimber of four crop stalks with urea-formaldehyde resin were manufactured. The results showed that the four crop stalks were all consist of phloem, xylem and pith. The xylem was the main parts of utilization for scrimber production. But the contents of ash and extractive of four crop stalks were higher than those of woods, the main chemical components of four crop straw were similar to timber. It is attainable to manufacture scrimbers from four crop stalks with urea-formaldehyde resin, but the optimum technological parameters of producing these scrimbers should be further explored on a basis of characteristics of different crop stalks.