# Any way to salvage my cotton bolls?



## kkbinco (Jun 11, 2010)

I tried to grow cotton but things haven't quite worked out . 10% germination, plants only a foot or two tall, and now with first freeze only a week or two away they are still green and flowering. Potting them as house plants isn't an option for me.

There are bolls on the plants about the size of large walnuts, green and haven't burst yet.

Can bolls be forced somehow? I really would like to play with some home grown lint.

Must be a reason the Rocky Mountains isn't know as cotton country! :teehee:


That's a Quarter in my hand...


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## Wind in Her Hair (Jul 18, 2002)

try bringing them inside- can't hurt, can it?


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## kkbinco (Jun 11, 2010)

I can cut 'em and hang inside to dry. Kind of a last resort though!


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## 7thswan (Nov 18, 2008)

I thought mine didn't grow long enough. Then this spring while cleaning out the beds, there the bols were some popped over the winter. I opened them up and inside was some cotton,not enought to use. I'd wait until after frost hit them,then pull and hang.


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## kkbinco (Jun 11, 2010)

Thanks 7thswan. Looks like a plan to me.


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## Osiris (Jun 9, 2010)

".....I really would like to play with some home grown lint......"
Fear not kkbinco! I'll be glad to help you out! Let me have your address and I'll send you .....j/k  Shame about the plants tho.


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## amberley (Jul 21, 2014)

Taking the leaves off the plants may encourage them to put their energy into the bols. Commercial growers do this to help with harvesting but also to get any immature bols to ripen.


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## RedDirt Cowgirl (Sep 21, 2010)

What about frost cloth/row covers?

I keep various size sheets of the stuff for wind protection/heat wave damage, season lengthening and cover our citrus trees in the winter when they're bearing fruit.
Sewed 12 foot wide lengths together, takes much less to run over the top of everything than up and down each row or plant separately.


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## Kasota (Nov 25, 2013)

> ".....I really would like to play with some home grown lint......"


I am so bad. I can imagine a Far Side cartoon. "This is 2014 Navel Lint from.... no, no not Naval Lint....NAVEL lint." The price per pound could rival yak... There could be a whole new line in an Etsy store...


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## kkbinco (Jun 11, 2010)

If the lint thing doesn't work out I'm going to pluck my angora dust bunnies and see if that'll sell.


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## kkbinco (Jun 11, 2010)

LOL

Meet Gertrude, my first!










Now if I could only get a handle on spinning cotton! It sure ain't like wool.


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## 7thswan (Nov 18, 2008)

That Looks Great!


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

It looks lonely . Is that the only one you got? I'd love to try growing cotton sometime, the flowers are very pretty.


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## kkbinco (Jun 11, 2010)

Out of the forty seeds planted only four germinated. Out of those four two are stunted and the other two are at the small end for Levant cotton. *sigh*

I figure if I'm lucky there will be a half-dozen to a dozen bolls that might pop.

You're right about the flowers. They bloom yellow then fade to red, and a plant will bloom several times throughout the season.


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## hotzcatz (Oct 16, 2007)

These folks, Sustainable Seeds, sell a "short season" cotton, but the short season cotton still takes 165 days. Organic Red Foliated Cotton 

I'm trying to establish some "Sea Island" cotton (Gossypium barbadense) which is supposed to have a longer fiber length and be softer with a touch of shine. The first test plant is just now beginning to set bolls and only two have matured so far. It spins up pretty easily from the boll. Pick the seeds out and spin is what was tried with the two bolls. It's probably easier to make them into puni first and then spin, but there's only been the two bolls which didn't seem enough to make punis. (What's the plural of "puni", anyway?)


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

Punis I believe.


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