I am usually meticulous about my garden records. Seeds go into the ground with labels that specify their variety. Plants are transplanted with labels. Everything is labelled! For science![1]
Not this year, 2025 CE.
This spring all of my gardening energy and a good deal of my life force itself was consumed by groundhogs. Please note that groundhogs do not eat cotton plants. (Neither do deer, FYI.) Groundhogs apparently eat every green thing under the sun except for cotton plants.
Exhausted and extremely aggravated from trying in vain to fortify the garden against groundhogs, I dumped all 5 varieties of cotton seed left over from last year into the palm of my hand and marched out to plant them. This year, I direct-sowed the cotton into a raised bed.[2]
And I have no idea which cotton plants are which variety.
I know that I planted 5 varieties of Gossypium hirsutum:
- Arkansas Green Lint
- Erlene’s Green
- Mississippi Brown
- Sea Island Brown
- Nankeen
As indicated by 4 of the 5 names, the cotton I planted is either green or brown, not white. All of these are heirloom varieties. Commercial cotton planted today has been selectively bred to be white and thus require less bleach during processing. I am charmed by the idea of cotton that comes off the plant already colorful.
Most of the little seeds sprouted into adorable seedlings. Meanwhile, after months of battle involving electric fences, extremely stinky anti-rodent powder, cinder blocks, hardware cloth, and a variety of other “creative” materials, we reluctantly went for the nuclear option and the groundhogs are gone.
Then it got hot. Like, Las Vegas hot. I’ve lived in NC all my life and have been gardening for around 15 years, so I’m familiar with the climate, but this summer was rather extra. I know that I am likely to melt if I’m outside after 08:00 or before 20:00 in the summer. We also experience droughts.
While researching Chinese agriculture,[3] I learned about ollas. That’s the Spanish word for a semi-porous clay vessel that’s buried next to plants. Fill the vessel with water and it slowly leaches out into the soil, watering the plants. The cotton plants are situated between 4 ollas. I began the the summer by dutifully refilling the ollas around sunrise. Did I keep this up? Nope. So I consider these cotton plants to be reasonably drought-tolerant since they’re happily growing despite my negligence.
Once the groundhogs were vanquished, I decided that it was safe to plant beans. I planted them next to the cotton. I’m pretty sure I planted bush beans, but the beans felt the call of the sky or something and wrapped runners around the nearby cotton plants. The beans pulled the cotton right over. Whoops. Lesson learned. Same problem with the sweet potatoes that I planted on the other side of the cotton. Sigh.
On the Autumnal Equinox, I realized that I can’t really see the bolls because they’re surrounded by beans and sweet potato vines. I solved that problem. Bonus – I found 2 legitimately ripe bolls! I also picked some are beginning to split open because I have no patience.
Now I am impatiently waiting for the rest of the bolls to ripen. The plants look more like saplings than things you’d expect to see in a garden, and they’re also still producing blossoms!
Next year the goal is twice as many plants and to have them all properly labelled! And to keep the ollas filled – I might have an even better yield if the plants get more water.
[1] I’m not joking about the science part. I observe the plants and note which varieties grow best in our yard.
[2] I tried planting cotton using the modern Winter Sow method for the last few years, and I didn’t get good results.
[3] That will likely be a topic that I discuss in the future.