Gardening

Arkansas Green Lint Cotton

Untitled
Arkansas Green Lint Cotton

I’ve not been a very diligent gardener this year. One of the ornamental crops I planted back in the summer, when I was trying to find anything that would thrive in the drought, was some green cotton I’d bought last year off of Etsy. I have grown brown cotton in the past and did try to germinate some this time around but because I didn’t label things how I should have, I wasn’t sure which plant row was what so I didn’t know if it was green or brown I would be getting because one of the rows had poor germination.

The bolls have been ripening for weeks now and I have been biding my time for them to split open. This afternoon I walked outside and found that I was the lucky grower of Arkansas Green Lint Cotton this year, though I suspect there might be one single plant of brown hiding in there.

What will I do with the cotton? Nothing, really. I could try to save up the cotton and figure out how to spin it into a yarn, which many fiber artists often do. I just enjoy growing it for the sake of growing it. I grew Sea Island cotton in Florida and one time a dove got to it before I did and started using it for nesting material in a nearby hanging basket. I really wish I had some seed stock of the Sea Island cotton now.

garden november 18 010
My cotton plant in Florida.

cotton

One Comment

  • Judy

    I grew cotton a few years back. We went to Washington-on-Brazos for a cotton picking event and I brought some seeds home. It grew well and I use it as decorations. After a couple of years, the squirrels decided the unopened bolls were nuts and pulled them all off.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.