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Category: FRED - the garden | Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2006 2:41 am

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Three years ago I grew some Erlene's Green Cotton. I had such a good crop and a wonderful time. My Ladies, as I referred to them, seemed to have a wonderful time in my garden too.

I went out every morning and again in early evening to check for bolls that had opened and were ready to pick. The naturally colored cotton has to be picked when the bolls first open before the sun has time to bleach the color. From August thru October there were very few days when I picked fewer than 10 bolls each time.

Autumn that year was very mild, we did have lots of rain and some cool nights but on the sunny days the temperature was still in the 70's until early November. The first freeze of the season in early Nov killed them and I finally had to pull them up.

They grew much larger than I ever expected since the land our housing development was built on in the mid to late 1960's had been a cotton farm during the early part of the 1900's,the soil is very fertile.

The tallest plant in the middle of the picture grew to about 5' 8" before the freeze. The picture was taken in October when she was still just barely shorter than me (I am 5'7")

I tried another crop the next summer but the weather didn't cooperate and I didn't have much of a crop. Last year I didn't even consider planting more once the rain ended.





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dooley wrote on Tue Jan 24, 2006 3:49 am:

How much cotton do you get all together? Pima cotton was grown in Arizona but they don't grow as much as they did. Do you spin and weave?

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toni wrote on Tue Jan 24, 2006 9:48 pm:

Hi Dooley,
I have a spinning wheel but haven't learned to spin yet. I do knit, a lot, and am really hoping to get the cotton spun soon.
I would love to learn to weave, just another one of those someday things.

I have a good sized basket full of cotton fiber, several pounds at least but I haven't weighed it.

Do you spin or weave?

Toni

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