Carrie, who had recently moved to
Alabama with her husband Todd, who was able to locate a cotton boll and mail it to me.
I was ready to try again.The Rest of The Story Click Here!
History
Original Date of Website
October 22, 2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
Last Web Site Update
February, 2010
Check Out These Pages
What I've Learned In The Last
Five Years.
A Primer
History
Over the period of several years in the mid to late 1950's, I grew cotton plants in Michigan. I had a souvenir cotton boll that was attached to a postcard. I don't know who purchased this cotton boll or where, but I proceeded to remove the boll from its cellophane wrapper and picked the seeds out of it.
Early in the spring I planted these seeds in individual containers (cat food cans) in the basement of my folks' home, and later transplanted them out of doors. I didn't have much success the first two years, but the third year I grew beautiful cotton plants that were full of blossoms and at least three feet high. I actual had a harvest that year...one cotton boll before the frost. I took many photographs of these plants, but as yet I have not been able to locate them. If they still exist.
Well, I have over the years thought about doing this again, starting extra early in the spring and to hopefully be able to harvest a good crop of cotton in the fall, in Michigan.
With the help of my friend
Carrie, who had recently moved to
Alabama with her husband Todd, who was able to locate a cotton boll and mail it to me.
I was ready to try again.
The Rest of The Story Click
Here!
On September 26th, 2004, I planted two of the seeds in a flower pot with a Big Boy Restaurant sticker on the side of it, and using information I had found on a web site which said that cotton germinates in five days, I watched for a any sign of life. It didn't germinate. After a couple of weeks I planted several more seeds and they didn't germinate either. Hybrid seed no doubt, this was not going to work.
I searched the internet for someone who would sell me a handful of cotton seeds. The first dealer I contacted didn't answer my email. The second wanted to know how many pounds/kilos of seed I needed. When I repeated that I wanted about a handful they declined my request.
I found a source for seed, and a lot of other information and links at www.cottonsjourney.com, an educational web site. I ordered 8 ounces of Pima cotton seed and instructions on how to make them grow. I later ordered 8 ounces of Upland cotton seed from the same web site.
In 2005 we nurtured about 35 plants of Upland, Pima, and what I called Alabama (seed from the boll that Carrie had gotten for me).
From these plants we harvested about 200 cotton bolls. Far better than my harvest of one boll back in the 50's.
In 2006 we planted five varieties of seeds in three colors. White, green and brown. It was a very bad year. The summer started on Memorial Day and ended just before Labor Day. The crop was abysmal. Very disappointing.
In 2007 we added that years adventures to show you the changes we had made to again try to grow cotton in Michigan. We also tried to grow Kanaf, a relative of cotton. It didn't work out.
In 2008 growing cotton was just as much fun as it was the first year. Browse through our adventures of our current and past years on the menu on the left.
NOTE: My wife Jinean did not
play Dixie on her banjo for this page. She's not that good!
Disclaimer: I have her permission to say
so!
To View The Entire Website
Go To:
www.i2k.com/~dwfalk
Music: Dixie