Walk-behind cotton harvester row unit

A cotton harvester which includes at least one cotton picker unit for harvesting cotton from plants planted in narrow, parallel rows. The cotton picker unit comprises a cotton picker housing that supports a lateral plant lifter which extends forward of the housing and defines a plant row channel for receiving cotton plants planted in a row. The plant channel extends back into the housing to a plant compressor sheet which facilitates the picking of the cotton from the cotton plant by a picker rotor which is supported in the housing adjacent to the plant row channel and traverse to the compressor sheet. A doffer column also supported in the housing is near the picker rotor and removes the picked cotton from the picker rotor and moves the cotton towards an outlet and through an exhaust chute for receiving the cotton. The cotton is then collected in an appropriate cotton basket. Additional cotton picker rotors can be configured in the cotton picker housing including a wishbone plant lifter extending forward of the housing approximately midway between a space defined by the adjacent lateral plant lifters. The cotton picker unit picks one or more rows of cotton plants with independent rotor/doffer assemblies. Various configurations of multiple cotton picker units can be arranged and mounted on mounting mechanisms attached to a self-propelled vehicle of the cotton harvester. The walk-behind cotton harvester is also provided for harvesting row planted cotton. Also provided is a quad-rotor cotton picker unit.