let's talk about cotton

I'm growing cotton because Sand Hill offers it as an ornamental and I
thought that was incredible. I chose Egyptian Green. Here's a
description from the catalogue - "115 days. Beautiful flowers on 3 to
4 foot tall plants followed by bolls that produce pale green cotton".

There's very little info on the web that doesn't deal with major
commercial cotton growing so I've been growing these the old fashioned
way (without the comforting touchstone of Internet examples). I'll try
the library.

Anyway, when I poured the seeds out into my hand and got those fuzzy
green pellets I was really startled and instantly in love. However,
they are a real mystery to germinate. I sowed four seeds right
alongside my tomatoes and have given them the exact same treatment.
Only two germinated by the time I was transplanting everything up.
Sand Hill usually has awesome germination rates. I figured the other
two rotted (maybe as a southern crop they like it dry?) or more likely
they are slow to germinate. So I stuck two more seeds in a damp paper
towel to sprout. That was weeks ago and nothing's happened.

The seedling in the photo is the champ. He was first to poke out of
the dirt. Get a load of the cotyledons on this one! Hubba hubba. It
looks like a satellite! I'm assuming that the little green shoot in
the middle is a true leaf. The other seedling is close behind him but
still holding on to the seed.

I'm planning to keep them potted on my back porch that gets tons of
sunlight. I've also read that cotton plants can be brought in as a
houseplant for the winter months. I really hope I get at least one
strong plant. I love watching the different stages when I have no idea
what to expect!

thumbs down, egg cartons

2 things I've learned:
• potting mix has no nutrients (how did I get this far not knowing
that?)
• don't start any more seeds in egg cartons

Here are pictures of my broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage seedlings.
The first picture was taken when they were 4 weeks old!! They still
looked 1 week old. They were in egg cartons, potting mix, under lights
and not a trace of true leaves. The cotyledons even started turning
dark purple.
The only online info I could find about cotyledons turning purple
suggested a phosphorus defficiency. I find that confusing since when I
transplanted these the roots were huge for such little seedlings. I
moved them into peat pots filled with my regular garden soil. The
second picture was taken about 5 days later. They're booming! I think
in the past I never even used potting mix. I'm pretty sure I had
always just sown in pots filled with garden soil. I guess that's a no-
no but I think I'm anti-potting mix now.

So I quickly transplanted my tomato and cotton seedlings to the same
soil and they are bursting with true leaves. I also threw out my
peppers because they never even germinated. I've since sown some more.
Which brings me to why i hated the egg cartons. I had high hopes, for
recycling purposes and space efficiency. But they are just so small
that they dry out too fast. I coddled them with a spray bottle but I
couldn't keep up. That's just too much trouble. I suppose if you
transplant them as soon as they've germinated it might work, but I
prefer to sow a couple of seeds per peat pot and just thin later.

My winter sowing bottles had the same lame potting mix so I poured a
little miracle grow bloom booster in them. That was an exciting change
since I never use that kind of fertilizer on my edibles.

Lots to catch up on

Here are the 2 new beds ready to be filled and a bad picture of my
broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower seedlings.

I've actually done a huge chunk of Spring work so far. The 2 old beds
have been turned, amended with manure and lime, and restrung. I've
also planted in them: spinach, carrots, bok choy, radish, beets and
Swiss chard. The radish and chard have germinated! We had 4 straight
days of rain over the weekend so that blue tarp was bought to cover
the bed with most of the seeds. I think it did the trick because when
I took it off it didn't look too disturbed.

I've sown indoors my tomatoes, peppers, herbs and cotton. The herbs
are sprouting but look sort of pathetic (I never can do herbs right).
But the tomatoes! The Hillbillies sprung up in days! And now the Box
Car Willie's are right behind. My god, those are the greatest tomato
names possible. I also threw a bunch of Peony Poppy seeds in the front
garden. Who knows?

Finally, the winter sowing is coming along. I added a couple bottles
of lupine and marigolds - all doing well. This week I'll do my final
jugs with some Heavenly Blue Morning Glories. Wintersowers recommend
that you start them late because they grow so fast. They're for my mom
so hopefully they'll be decent by mother's day.

The weather is so incredibly perfect this week that I'm trying to line
up all the machos in my family to help till the new patch on the other
side of the yard. Luckily they work for food.