PLANTINGS

First Planting For 2005
The center white pot. Alabama seed Planted 9/26/2004

Click To Enlarge
November 4, 2004

New for 2006

The first column shows the average last frost in the spring, and the first frost in the fall. The actual dates of the last and first frost may vary greatly from the average, but it is a place to start.

The second column indicates when the average high temperature equals or exceed 70 degrees F. Here again, actual temperatures may vary greatly from the average.

The third column indicates the first planting time with the plants being incubated in the basement. This planting will be single seeds planted in 15, 16 ounce cups in a heated and lighted environment. 

The fourth column indicates the second planting and will duplicate the third column except for the planting date.

Click here to view the incubator.

Click here to view planting instructions.

The fifth column will be seeds planted directly into number 10 cans on April 5th and moved outside on April 10th.

All of the first and second plantings will be transplanted into #10 cans acquired from our favorite restaurant, "The 52nd Street Grill" Where I have been nicknamed the "can man". They say that I am their only patron who comes in, eats, pays, and then carries out the trash!
After checking the root structure of last years plants, I feel that they will do very well in these cans which will give them mobility in case of a late frost and for mowing and trimming. Hopefully it will also help with the squirrel problem. These plants will be moved outside after the last frost. To prevent the plants in the cans from blowing over I have made anchors from 18 X 1/2 inch flat steel stock that I can hook over the top edge of the cans and drive into the ground. Two per can.

Before the plants can be moved outdoors permanently, the seedlings must be hardened off  by placing them outdoors in direct sunlight for no more than an hour. Gradually increasing the outdoor exposure over a period of several days.
If these instructions are not followed the leaves will burn and fall off! This is fact!

We will indicate on the cans the planting date and the type of seed so we can track their progress, and give us more information for next years planting.

You may ask, why only one seed per cup. When I planted cotton 50 years ago, my plants grew straight and tall. When there is more than one plant tight against another the plants grow off to the sides and droop in their quest for light.

I will be planting five varieties of cotton this year. Each planting will consist of three each of the following:
Pima Cotton, white cotton
Upland Cotton, white cotton
Both varieties purchased from, www.cottonsjourney.com
Nankeen Cotton, a naturally brown cotton
Erlene's Green Cotton, a light olive green cotton
Arkansas Green Cotton, a soft light green cotton
These seeds were purchased from www.southernexposure.com

I purchased a 40 pound bag of Miracle Grow Garden Soil, and two 40 pound bags of top soil. The Miracle Grow Garden Soil is formulated to be mixed with an equal parts by volume of top soil. I will use this mix for my potting soil in the 16 ounce cups and also into the #10 cans.

The cotton plant is a beautiful plant, with beautiful blossoms. Even if it never produced cotton it would be a great novelty plant that could be grown in any sunny area.
Think of all the fun you can have with neighbors and friends. 

February 3, 2006

February 14, 2006

I called this my Mystery Plant. (This picture and the one above it) I think it should be called my Wonder Plant. I wonder where it came from and I wonder which kind it is. Filling the cups for planting I spilled some topsoil on my work bench. I swept the topsoil back into the bucket, apparently along with a stray seed.

Quiz: How many leaves do you see?  See answer below.

I planted 15 seeds. three each of the five varieties. This year I am going to carefully track each plant. What you can't see in the picture is the coding on each cup. For example the coding on one cup is 1-2E-2/14. Planting number 1, plant number 2, Erlene's, planted on 2/14. If a seed fails to germinate I will replant and add an R-x/xx after the original coding. The letters on the base are U, Upland - E, Erlene's - P, Pima - N, Nankeen - A, Arkansas, the five varieties of seed I've planted. 

Two Upland and two Nankeen seeds failed to germinate. I dug them up and replanted them February 22nd. By the 28th nothing was showing so I dug around in the soil to see if the seed had germinated. They had not! I replaced the soil in the cups and replanted AGAIN! Do you remember the grade school experiment where you sprout bean seeds in a damp rag to see how they germinate? Well I took the two Upland seeds, the two Nankeen seeds and four new Upland seeds and rolled them in a damp rag, put then in a plastic bag and placed the bag into the incubator. The four new Upland seeds germinated, the old Upland seeds did not, and the Nankeen seeds germinated which I planted in cups March 3rd. This is the end of planting number one. What grows, grows and what doesn't, doesn't!

February 24, 2006

Compare this photo with the one above. This is a night shot. Notice how the cotyledon have folded down for the  night. Just like a tulip closes up at night, cotton leaves and cotyledon fold down at night.

What is this?

It is Dave's (not Dean's) plant waterer!
Pull the tube on the right loose from the recycled ice cream container, place your finger over the tip of the tube, place the tube at the base of a plant, loosen your finger and water siphons from the container to the plant. Cool! And a whole lot easier to use than a watering can.

Along about the middle of March I remembered something that my father had done in our vegetable garden when I was a kid. He got a copy of the Farmers Almanac and planted everything by the phases of the moon. We had a bumper crop that year! The graph at the top of this page has been changed to reflect planting correctly by the moon phases. It was too late to change the first planting time, but the second and third plantings will be done in the correct moon phases except for four plants that will be planted at the exact opposite for reference purposes. All the plants will be carefully tracked and data evaluated. 

May 1, 2006
There are 30 plants growing here. It is getting a little crowded. The plants in the base are the first planting. Planted February 14th. They are up to 16 inches tall. The  plants in the red cups are the second planting, planted April 5th. In order to keep them from being shadowed by the larger plants I set the these plants on inverted cups to raise them up. On May 10th they will be transplanted into number 10 cans and moved out of doors, weather permitting, along with 15 more plants, the third planting that I will do on May 5th.

May 14, 2006
30 plants in #10 cans. Another 15 behind, the third planting, all ready to go outside. All we need is for the rain to stop and the temperature to rise in about a week if we are lucky! Last year on this date (Mothers Day) it was 81 degrees and sunny. This year it is a cloudy, rainy, 59 with lows in the 40's.

May 23, 2006
I put all of the plants on this trailer so I could move them in at night if necessary to avoid a frost and also to move the into and out of the sun until they are hardened. (Become used to the bright sun so the leaves wouldn't burn).

May 30, 2006
The first planting.

May 30, 2006
The second planting.
Notice the marking on the cans. Last year I wasn't sure what was what. This year I do.
Notice in the background the pink dog watering dish. (We Recycle) That is a flower pot on the left hand side with a petunia in it. 

June 16, 2006
The five plants on the right are all that is left of the third planting. I planted 15. The stems shriveled up about a half inch above the soil on some (I have no clue!) and the others just failed to germinate.
The two one the left, GN and GP are Grandma's Nankeen, and Grandma's Pima. I'm baby sitting them until she gets back from vacation.
Eventually all of the plants were moved to this concrete patio.

June 3, 2006
This years first blossom. An Arkansas Green Blossom

Same as above only later in the day.

June 4, 2006
The second day the blossom changes color.

Same as above, different angle. 

July 9, 2006

An interesting picture. The white blossom opened today. The pink blossom opened yesterday. This is the first time I have had two blossoms side by side to show how the blossom changes color.

July 24, 2006

Nankeen Cotton. Notice the cotton bolls.
Don't the leaves kinda look like pot?

October 20, 2006

October 20, 2006

In Conclusion
Summer started late and was more cloudy, and cooler than usual. Fall came early this year. Labor day. The first and second planting had bolls but only a handful of small bolls opened but never fluffed up. The third planting didn't produce anything. The large bolls I hoped would open either didn't open or were eaten by squirrels. Squirrels totally stripped ten of my plants of bolls. The bolls are now hanging in the basement after I cut down the plants. The pictures above are the total of my harvested crop, and those still drying in the basement.

Planting by the phases of the moon had no relevance at all. I do believe that it does make a difference with some crops, but obviously not cotton.

All around it was a very bad year for growing cotton in Michigan. With all of the work and TLC I put into these plants it is very discouraging after the great success I had last year. 

Quiz Answer: Two is the correct answer.
Two are leaves, the other two, on the right and the left, are cotyledon.

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