has anyone grown cotton?

[naturemama1]

We want to grow our own yarn! I was all excited about growing flax flowers until we read up on the whole "then you have to let the stalks rot for a week in a barrel of water" part, LOL. A friend in our spinning group says that she spins cotton right from the bolls! That's my kind of commitment.

I've heard that cotton needs a long hot growing season, but we're up in the northeast where it rarely gets over 80. I'm just planting a little plot of it and hoping for the best. Any tips? Should I start them indoors for a few weeks, or seed right into the ground?

[canadiyank]

I've never done it, but it sure sounds interesting!

[Thystle]

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[mama_daba]

i have never grown it but i have read about it. i know when you grow your own plant it can be grown as a perennial and it can be like a cotton tree and it is supposed to look awesome when it has cotton balls on it and you can grow different colored cotton (unless you live in a state like mine where it is illegal to grow naturally colored cotton). colorgrown cotton is really pretty to.

[Autumn Breeze]

FYI Cotton is a controlled substance, you must have a license to grow it.

[Contrariety]

Originally Posted by Autumn Breeze

FYI Cotton is a controlled substance, you must have a license to grow it.

Oh jeez! We live in a ridiculous world. God forbid someone be able to grow their own cotton and make their own cloth without having to jump through hoops and pay the government for a license! That buuuuuuuuugs me!

[mama_daba]

are ou sure it is a controlled substance? i have seen seeds for sale online and i did a quick google search and couldn't find anything saying it is controlled. i know in california you can't grow the color grown cotton but you can grow plain white cotton.

[Liquesce]

It's not a controlled substance. Some areas regulate and track its production to try to deal with boll weevil issues -- just contact your local township office, county extension office, or whoever to find out if you're in one of those areas. In the far NE it seems unlikely.

[Carley]

I don't know about growing it, but it's thorny as all get out!

[SleeplessMommy]

If you have nettles locally (stinging nettles) you can pull them up, rett them like flax, and make yarn. There is probably a stovetop retting alternative if you don't want to do the outdoor retting.

[JessicaS]

I think it needs a lot of sunlight? It is a subtropical plant. Can you grow other subtropicals?

My grandfather and his siblings picked cotton as kids and in their stories it was 100+ temps when they picked.

How long is the growing season where you live?

[Rhiannon Feimorgan]

Originally Posted by SleeplessMommy

If you have nettles locally (stinging nettles) you can pull them up, rett them like flax, and make yarn. There is probably a stovetop retting alternative if you don't want to do the outdoor retting.

For flax, you can do water retting or dew retting. I imagine the same is true of nettles. I intend to try this year with the nettles growing behind my house. Water retting is submerging them in water, either running or stagnent until the stem starts to rot and the fibers loosen. Dew retting is essentially exposing the stalks to the elements, rain, dew and so on. I think the fiber is not quite as strong and is maybe a darker color but it's not a stinky and requires less equipment so that's the method I'm going to try first.

[BlogApostille]

has anyone grown cotton?

Organic Cotton production systems replenish and maintain soil fertility, reduce the use of toxic and persistent pesticides and fertilizers, and build biologically diverse agriculture.:

As per the Organic Cotton report for spring 2006 from Organic Exchange, the California based non-profit organisation, which promotes organic cotton acreage and consumption globally, India produced 9,835 tonnes of organic cotton or 31.71 per cent of the world clean cotton production in 2005-6, compared with leading producer Turkey's 10,160 tonnes or 32.76 per cent of world production.