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JennGM
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| Posted: Jan 06 2011 at 12:38pm | IP Logged
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Anyone ever grow cotton for fun or for spinning?
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Jennifer G. Miller
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MaryM
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I thought this was an interesting question, Jenn. No help here - I know we couldn't grow it - too far north, too high elevation, too short of a growing season.
How much would one have to grow to make it worthwhile even for fun and limited spinning?
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Mary M. in Denver
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Mackfam
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| Posted: Jan 08 2011 at 6:26am | IP Logged
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I meant to get back to this yesterday...but ran out of time.
We have cotton growing everywhere here in North Alabama; t's just a part of our culture here.
A couple of things you need for cotton to grow well --
** A long, HOT growing season - it takes about 200 days from planting to mature cotton (cotton farmers here are usually picking in October after a spring planting), and even once you see a boll of cotton, you'll need to leave it to dry a bit, but....
** Choose your picking time carefully! You want the cotton boll (the white tuft of cotton you see pop out like popcorn from the hull after flowering and pollination) to dry out in the sun, but you pick before a rain. Rain really damages and diminishes the amount of cotton you end up with as it condenses the fibers.
** Full sun
As far as I know it would be fairly easy to grow, Jenn, but you'd need a pretty good size to get enough cotton to card and spin. I read in one place that you'd need a 20 x 20 patch for one sweater...but I can't remember where I read that now. 
One of the most exciting things to observe in growing cotton is the flowering! The cotton plant flowers at first with a yellow flower which then changes in color and hue and eventually makes it to a deep purple. Bees are attracted to the yellow color, so you can start watching for them once you have flowers (though they can pollinate at any time during flowering, when the flowers are any color, they will most likely pollinate an early flower!) Cotton will self-pollinate, but you won't get as many boles of cotton unless you can get some bee pollination as well. So...hopefully you have a few friendly honeybees around!
To harvest the cotton from the bole, you grab it and twist it and pull out. You may have to go through your little patch of cotton several times since not all the boles will be mature at the same time. Also...cotton boles are SHARP! You will probably want to start a little unit study on the cotton gin about this time, because you'll be grateful for the mechanization of this task!
Spread your cotton out on a screen in a dry place to finish drying. One of the most difficult and time consuming parts of picking cotton is laboriously pulling the tiny little black cotton seeds out of the cotton once picked. OY! But...once you've finished that, you're ready to card and spin!
Found a source for seeds here.
Hope this helps, Jenn!!
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Jen Mackintosh
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JennGM
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MaryM wrote:
| How much would one have to grow to make it worthwhile even for fun and limited spinning? |
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That's my main question!
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Jennifer G. Miller
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Mackfam
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| Posted: Jan 08 2011 at 6:56am | IP Logged
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Found it - this gal is in Australia, but gives a lot of good info about small scale cotton growing. She mentions a 20 foot square plot yielding enough to make a blouse.
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Jen Mackintosh
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JennGM
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Thanks, Jen and Mary! I had found that site earlier. I found a bunch of good help, if anyone wants me to share some links. But making a "blouse" is that weaving?
I grew up in areas where cotton was always growing, and I miss that. At some point we'll grow a bush or two just experience the beautiful flowers and the bolls.
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Jennifer G. Miller
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Angel
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| Posted: Jan 13 2011 at 8:10pm | IP Logged
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Is it possible to get non-GMO cotton seed now?
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Angela
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Mackfam
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| Posted: Jan 13 2011 at 9:22pm | IP Logged
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Angel wrote:
Is it possible to get non-GMO cotton seed now?
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MRC Seeds does. The variety of cotton seeds they offer are here.
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Jen Mackintosh
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4Real Forums : Exploring God's Creation in Nature and Science
Topic: Growing Cotton?
