Just like green vegetables, tomatoes and other plant people can grow easily by them in their homes indoor or outdoor, cotton can also be planted. It’s harvesting and sowing time differs and varies from place to place according to certain climatic reasons but the growth time is the same as it requires nearly 6 to 8 complete months to mature. The advantage of growing cotton at your place is that it comes out every year, just like you grow lemons once in the soil and they come out every time and it’s not any hard thing to experiment with, in fact, people with kids like to grow cotton to have a healthy activity with their kids. Before knowing how to plant cotton, you need to know the climate of your area as summers are the best to start it with.
In some areas where cotton is known as a cash crop, it’s illegal to grow cotton at your homes and sell it on purpose. As long as you are doing it for your own personal sake or to educate the kids, it’s okay. But do not grow any plant to get an illegal advantage out of it. Anyway, if the last frost of the season is going on then it’s time for you to get the seeds and be ready to plant your own cotton.
Cotton plant life cycle:
This 6ft tall plant matures with time and in its stages, all you have to do is learn the cotton plant life cycle, tick mark all the required points needed for its growth, and to be very honest if you lack any, do not go for its plantation because it will not produce the results you want. If you are sure about the weather and summer in your area for certain days and time than there is a hope that you can fully cover all the growth stages of the cotton-like, its germination, emergence, the seedlings establishment, its leaf area with canopy development, also its flowering boll development (flowers, squares, and boll) and the maturation stage. All of these stages demand full soil fertility, water, pest, harvest, and in season management along with its roots and vegetation development.
Even though cotton plants do not require so much water as other plants but in some areas or regions cotton demands a good amount of water but if you experience good rainfall in the summer season then that would be enough for cotton. And Sun is the cotton’s plant’s best friend; good 160 sunny days will be good for cotton to mature with no sign of frost.
Cotton growing conditions:
Before knowing how to plant cotton, here are a few cotton growing conditions that are known as ideal for its healthy and proper growth. Starting from the earth; soil conditions, you need to have a well-drained, fertile, muddy, sandy, and weed free with plenty of fertilizer added soil that catches healthy direct sunlight throughout its growing phase because the hot temperature is ideal for good cotton growth. Keep your eye on the plant as cotton easily got attacked by pests and insects so, chose the cotton which is disease resistant and makes use of sprays to kill pests and harmful stuff. And a gentle amount of water is ideal for its growth, better to keep watering the roots of the cotton plant moderately to encourage its healthy growth.
In short, fertile soil, healthy sunlight, hot temperature, selecting disease-resistant cotton type and water are the ideal cotton growing conditions that you have to fulfill if you want to see the happy wide cotton buds in your garden.
How to grow cotton indoors:
In this section, you will know how to grow cotton indoors, its care, and how to harvest it. But first note that growing cotton indoor doesn’t exactly mean it will stay in the home inside, you can put the pot inside with 60 degrees temperature and so and if you cannot sow seeds directly in the garden, you can plant them in the big pot and put that in the home garden under the sun, all you have to do is grab the cotton seeds and a pot of your choice, mix potting soil (pre-moisten in nature) and healthy soil and place cotton seeds in it with maximum distance and place more soil on them.
Water it so that it may not get dry and place it under the sunlight, take good care of it and you will get to see its sprouts within a week or so. This whole process can be done in-home places (indoor) and after these sprouts grow, you can transplant them in a larger container or in the outdoor home garden where they can get more sunlight.
After almost five weeks you will get to see the branches which mean with a little more patience you will get the flowers or squares blooming and once they are here, you can enjoy the beautiful creamy cotton balls. To reach the boll production stage you have to take care of the amount of water, sunlight they get and shouldn’t be attacked by any pests or insects.
Four months to the happy growing of cotton balls at your place and it’s time to harvest them, you can enjoy this thing; simply pick the cotton from its boll by twisting it a little to let it get out of the boll completely.
Conclusion:
Growing plant with children helps in their mental and character building in a way that it teaches them patience and how taking care of certain things give them life and fruit in the end and once the end result they get in the form of a rose or a cotton ball, they experience the sense of accomplishment and the belief of getting good results if they stay consistent. So grow this soft yarn at your place and teach your kids how to plant cotton and educate them about the process of converting this tiny soft thing into fabrics we own.
