Growing bush cotton

Here's my latest project - this will go on behind the scenes for the duration of the summer. I hope it is a long, hot and dry one. No, I don't. That's too selfish. But that is what cotton plants need in order to grow and produce a flower, and thus the cotton boll.

I'm inspired to try this out as the flax growing and processing over that last two summers was so satisfying. And I much prefer to spin cotton than flax, so this is worth the try.

There were six pots of Heirloom Bush Cotton planted on May 20th. On June 4th, I had 50% germination. And four days later, two more came up.  It has held at 5 out of 6 pots. That's pretty good - 83% germination. Now I just wait for the heat to build and the lovelies to grow. I will transplant them into increasing larger pots as they grow. Don't think I'll actually put them into the ground in case I need to move them to a hot spot at the end of the summer.

The original photos for this blog post were somehow lost. But here is photo of the plants a couple of months later, when I put them into the ground.

Cutest plants. Hope they grow!