What I Have Learned In The Last Four Years.
A Primer.

Over the past four years I have tried many things to successfully grow cotton in Michigan. Here is what I have learned. If you follow these suggestions you should have a good crop. Weather and length of season permitting. View all of the links to the right for all of the years, 2005 through 2008 and read the captions. This will help you as you read the following. Building an incubator and starting the plants under lights in a heated environment doesn't help. The plants grow tall an spindly and become root bound in the plastic cups. When they are planted outside you have to harden them first, and then they have to be staked to keep them from falling over. I have planted seed directly into the ground on Memorial Day that grew taller and more robust than the ones I planted in February in the incubator. 

1. Buy your seed. See the Seed link to the left. I'm kind of partial to Pima, Arkansas Green, Mississippi Brown and Red Foliated

2. About a month before the last frost is predicted for your area, germinate your seed. Moisten two folded paper towels, place the seeds on one of the paper towels in rows and make a note as to which row is which variety of seed. Germinate a couple more seeds of each variety than you plan to use. Most of the seeds will germinate, but sometimes not all. This way you will know which seeds are viable and which are not. Place the second moistened folded paper towel over the seeds, and place them into a plastic bag and seal the bag. Place the bag somewhere where the temperature can be maintained at about 75 to 80 degrees. Make sure the paper towel does not dry out. Add water as needed.

3. Prepare an area out of doors where you will be planting your cotton. Turn the soil over with a spade or rototill it. Do not add anything to the soil. No mulch, no Miracle Grow Garden Soil, nothing. This area must be an area that gets as close to full sun as you can find. The more sun and heat they get the better they like it. Plan on spacing your plants 36 inches apart. This will give them room to grow without crowding. Get some 16 ounce plastic cups from your local grocery store. Dig a hole where you want to plant each plant in your prepared area the size of one of the plastic cups. Place the soil you dig out into one plastic cup, and insert another plastic cup into the hole level with the surface of the ground, and fill soil in around the cup. Take the plastic cups you have filled with dirt and set them aside for now.

4. Monitor your germinating seeds daily after the third day. Some seeds take much longer to germinate than others. When you see a root grow from the seed and it is about a quarter of an inch long, take one of the plastic cups with dirt in it and plant the germinated seed in the cup. Do not substitute potting soil, use the soil you dug out of the hole. Poke a hole in the soil with  a pencil so that the seed can be placed into the hole with the top of the seed about a half to three quarter of a inch below the surface. Place the seed into the hole with tweezers with the root down being careful not to damage the root. When the seed is in the hole, carefully push the soil around the seed from the sides of the hole to fill in the hole. Do not pack the soil in from the top as you can damage the root. Mark the side of the cup to indicate the type of seed and the date. Moisten the soil in the cup. Place the seeded cup into one of the cups in your prepared area. The weather in your area will be warm enough in the daytime for the plants to grow. If you get unusually cold weather or a frost is predicted. Move your  plants indoors temporarily. The plants can grow in the cups until the chance of frost is over. Remember to keep them watered.

5. Make some rings four to six inches in diameter to place around each plant. You can use peanut cans, #10 cans, coffee cans, plastic, whatever you can find. Don't make them more than three inches high and let the top of the can to protrude about three quarters of an inch above the ground. If you use a whole can with the bottom cut out as I did, the roots will become root bound in the can. The purpose of the ring is to put  the water and fertilizer on the plant and not have it run off onto the lawn, but also allow the roots to spread into the surrounding soil. I like to mulch my plants. If you put about four layers of newspaper on the ground before you mulch it, it will prevent weeds from growing around your plants. There are a lot of products out there to put under mulch, but newspaper works as good or better than anything else I have used.

6. When the threat of frost is over, plant your plants into the ground. All of your plants should be showing by now. Water the plants in the cups. With a sharp knife slit the cup on all four sides and carefully remove the plant and dirt from the cup. Remove the empty cup from the hole in your prepared ground. Insert the plant and dirt from the cup into the hole.

7. Unless you have really, really, really, good topsoil you will need to fertilize your plants regularly. Cotton plants require very rich soil. 50 years ago I got a washtub full of with horse manure and filled it with water. Each plant got a sauce pan full of this water every day. You would not believe the plants that I had. Seeing as how my wife has this thing about having a wash tub filled with horse manure in the yard, I have resorted to Miracle Grow fertilizer but there is a little secret to using it. I use the 30-10-10 stuff. The instructions say to put one large, I assume level scoop of fertilizer into a two gallon watering can and water the plants once every 7 to 14 days. Here is the secret. Put two large heaping  scoops of fertilizer into a watering can and water the plants with it every other day. Or every day!

What will I get if I follow your instructions?
You will get tall, sturdy, full, dark green plants with lots of beautiful blossoms and lots of cotton bolls. Whether you get a little cotton or a lot of cotton will depend on the amount of sun, heat and the length of the season.

After four years I think I have this thing pretty well figured out. It's been a lot of fun and I'm anxiously awaiting the summer of 2009 to do it all again. I wish you Happy Cotton Growing!

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