Are any Canadians interested in growing cotton?

I have excess cotton seeds to share with Canadians in exchange for the price of packaging and postage and the condition that you report back to me about how it went.

These are seeds I grew myself on the Left Coast so I know they can produce a crop in Canada.  But what I want to know is can other people do the same in different conditions.  All sorts of different conditions like urban, suburban, rural, as houseplants, or outdoors, or other.  It doesn't matter if you live on 500 acres, or in a cement city box with a tiny window.  It doesn't matter if you fail to grow them.  Just plant and observe and report back.  

If there's interest, I'll do the research on packaging and postage costs and set up a digital market item.

I can't ship these seeds outside Canada at this time.

Here's a thread about growing cotton in Canada


and here's a thread about growing cotton as a house plant

I'd love to give it a try but I won't be able to do it this year.  I also don't have a pot to piss in right now, but that's on the shopping list.  If I can get set up this year with a greenhouse I'd love to get some in the fall or winter so I can get them started next year.  I love that you're pushing the boundaries and I'd like to figure out ways to do that too.  

I'll be on the opposite coast, just north of 46 degrees, 2k from the Northumberland Straight.  

Timothy Markus wrote:I'd love to give it a try but I won't be able to do it this year.  I also don't have a pot to piss in right now, but that's on the shopping list.  If I can get set up this year with a greenhouse I'd love to get some in the fall or winter so I can get them started next year.  I love that you're pushing the boundaries and I'd like to figure out ways to do that too.  

I'll be on the opposite coast, just north of 46 degrees, 2k from the Northumberland Straight.  

One thing I can do when setting up the listing is make it so people can buy the item as a gift for other people.  If you don't have money for shipping but have an old jar or container and a windowsill maybe someone else can spring for shipping?  I don't know.  Just tossing the ideas out there.

Another thing is, you don't need a greenhouse or anything fancy.  If you have warm summers (like they do in most of Canada), you should be able to get a crop or as a potted plant.  No greenhouse required.

We might need to play with part-shade so they can get less daylight in the middle of summer.  But that's later.  

I'd like to buy your ebook on cleaning; would there be any way to just add the cost of shipping to that payment?  I don't want anyone to buy them for me, but I can get my daughter to do it because she owes me for feeding her occasionally and I think she'd love it as a Father's Day present.  

i would love to buy some seeds and give it a go, haven't been able to find any companies that ship to canada that actually have cotton in stock and have an even remotely reasonable price for the shipping

I have no experience with cotton, I’ve never actually considered it, but I have some room in my garden. I’d be willing to give it a try, I’m on an island in southern New Brunswick, zone 5. I’ll have to check out your linked threads to gain some knowledge on its culture.

I would love to try it!  Small suburban plot, Windsor Ontario.  Likely to grow in containers.  Would we still have time to plant this year?

Let me know the payment and shipping details.

Now I have to go research hand spinning cotton without a wheel LOL!

Krysta.

We could give it a try thank you. We are in Niagara, 113 acres. We were going to put some out near the field in the clay and some in our richer/composted/garden soil and see how they compare. Thanks again - will look for details on payment etc.

Cambridge, Ontario, Will be willing to give it a go.  Hit me up

Hi Raven - I'm in Calgary and would love to try to grow cotton both as a houseplant and outdoors.  Please let me know how you'd like me to reimburse you for shipping and whatnot.  Thank you for this generous opportunity!!

Wonderful!

There's enough interest for me to move forward with this.

The next step, take a packet of cotton seeds to the post office and find out the most affordable and safest way to ship them.  I'm hoping they will fit in the letter mail which will be a consistent cost across the country.  Then I'm going to do a test run as the postal service sometimes crushes seeds.

I'm also putting together a little Canadian Grow Guide with planting ideas.  

Cotton is a perennial so long as it does not freeze and is a decorative house plant with beautiful trumpet flowers and leaves.  I think we can plant them in pots any time of year.  But for planting out, we might need to start the seeds in the spring.  

I would love to grow cotton!  I'm in the Interlake Region of Manitoba, zone 3.  I can grow outside, inside and greenhouse.

Hi There! We're located in Haida Gwaii, near the Alaska border but 100 miles offshore in the Pacific Ocean. In this neck of the woods we're constantly concerned about synthetics and what forgotten things like dryer lint are doing to our oceans and soil quality. I'd love to try growing cotton.
Purolator Courier does ship here. Canada Post, surprisingly is very reliable, considering we receive mail here only 3 days per week. I'm not sure if there are restrictions with the US Postal Service regarding shipping seeds, but up here it should be fine.
Let me know how I could connect and assist with this experiment.
Hugs and Fishes, Heather K

I didn't realize that cotton could even be grown in Canada  but I would be very willing to try
As mentioned by others, please let me know what money to send you and how to send it ... maybe e-transfer?
I'm located in eastern Ontario

Great idea. Thanks
Cate

Hey there, I'd love to try growing some cotton!

I'm also on the Left Coast, in Burnaby. Small plot for now, but am moving further north to a larger one in the coming years. Would love to take you up on the opportunity if there are seeds left.

Happy to reimburse you for shipping! Please let me know how to do so/set you up with my address.

Leanna~

This sounds neat! I'm interested, too. We are in Prince Edward County, on the north side of Lake Ontario (zone 5b). We'd try some potted and some outdoors and might try some sort of tall cold frame to protect it over the winter. Thanks for getting us involved in this experiment. Into it for the sake of experimentation, decoration, and maybe I can make my own pants one day...!

I've counted the seeds and there are lots and lots of seeds!  How many I send out will depend on the price of the postage.  I'm hoping 12 seeds which should give you 10 plants, but if it pushes the shipping into the next price bracket, I'll do less.

Tomorrow or Saturday, I will take the seeds to the post office.  If they aren't too busy, I'll ask the amazing people there about different ways to package these seeds.  When things are sent letter mail, Canada Post has a high crush rate.  Something to do with the rollers on one of their machines.  Seeds arrive as powder.  So I need to protect the seeds enough but do so in a way that keeps the packing and postage fees as low as possible.  When I know more, I'll let you all know.  

r ranson wrote:
I can't ship these seeds outside Canada at this time.

Super bummed to border Canada and not get to enjoy this opportunity here in Idaho!
If I made a road trip?? Left side of Canada sounds like you may be 'close' and I have not seen that part of the world yet...

maybe next years crop will be extra great and the stars will align so you can ship out to Idaho... Best regards!

Dina Johnson wrote:

r ranson wrote:
I can't ship these seeds outside Canada at this time.

Super bummed to border Canada and not get to enjoy this opportunity here in Idaho!

I used to get cotton seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, but they don't seem to have it this year.  Etsy has some.  Sally Fox often has seed from her breeding projects.  I would dearly love to get my hands on some of those.

I'm on the Island, already bought into your lovely flax initiative - can't wait to get spinning - and would LOVE to try some cotton growing. I could probably pick the seeds up!

Packaging and posting comes to $4.  It's too thick to go regular letter mail so it goes the next price up.  I have done a few test runs and am waiting to hear back if the seeds arrived safe and sound.  

It looks like I can list this through etsy which as fees.  This is $0.20 for the listing plus about 10% for fees.  That's another dollar.  

$5 total to join in the experiment?  That only just covers my costs.  That's quite a bit more than I expected.  Would anyone still want to join in at that price?

I want to put a PDF together before I list these so people know where to report their experiences and ask for help.

Yep! Count me in.

I'm in too!

That cost is very reasonable.  I would be interested!

Krysta

I'm in, seems like a really reasonable price to me

Moi aussi, s'il vous plait!

Not sure, but do you have any other seeds you could list and share postage if these are too big for letter mail? I seem to recall seeing you post about a few other interesting plant breeding projects I would love to get seeds from, and if I am paying for shipping and there is room in the package, I wouldn't mind paying extra for a few more seed packets.

Catie George wrote:Moi aussi, s'il vous plait!

Not sure, but do you have any other seeds you could list and share postage if these are too big for letter mail? I seem to recall seeing you post about a few other interesting plant breeding projects I would love to get seeds from, and if I am paying for shipping and there is room in the package, I wouldn't mind paying extra for a few more seed packets.

I'd be up for that, too, but no worries if it's a pain.

I'm still in at $5.

question!  Which is better?

a) a private forum to report the findings?
b) asking people to report their findings in a public thread like the growing cotton in Canada thread?

which will get the most people contributing?

I want to create somewhere where people feel encouraged to ask questions and share their results.

I've put a listing on my etsy shop.  It should show up in a few minutes.

It's just for the first 6 people as I want to make certain the shipping and stuff actually works.  

I anticipate the first shipment will go out at the end of next week - but this may be delayed due to life, the universe, and murphy's law.  So I set the shipping for two weeks from now.

(please be sure to read the 'item details' before buying as etsy tries to hide these)

My seeds arrived last week. There is one naked seed, rest are covered.  (Also got an awesome book) !  Any tips for starting cotton seeds? Temperature, starting medium, plant spacing etc? I haven't decided if I will try to grow them as houseplants or will wait til next year.

How well does cotton grow in Canada? I assume you have to be reasonably south?

Catie George wrote:My seeds arrived last week. There is one naked seed, rest are covered.  (Also got an awesome book) !  Any tips for starting cotton seeds? Temperature, starting medium, plant spacing etc? I haven't decided if I will try to grow them as houseplants or will wait til next year.

I started mine at room temperature in potting soil or starter mix (whichever was closest to where I was working).  It seems to like to be about 20C.

How well does cotton grow in Canada? I assume you have to be reasonably south?

This is what the experiment is about.

I think it could grow anywhere in Canada as a house plant.  It makes a beautiful potted plant.  

As for the north/south issue: most of Canada is North of me much of Canada has much warmer weather than I do.  So that's not the main problem.  The biggest issue I have is the day length might be preventing the flowers from setting early enough in the summer.  But we need more experiments to see if that is a real issue or just something someone said that got passed on over the years.  

How'd this project go?
If you have more seeds, I'd be interested!

The seeds are available here: https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/704127930/the-great-canadian-cotton-growing

It will probably keep going for a few years or until I run out of seeds.  

I've sent out quite a few already, but haven't heard anything back.  

I feel bad for not replying to this thread, i got my seeds, but I've been having trouble keeping my cat from eating them as soon as they sprout lol. Got one growing at the moment in my kitchen, cat seems to be leaving it alone, and I was wondering how long in your experience it takes for a cotton plant to start growing true leaves after it sprouts?

finally got one seedling to the point where its growing true leaves, had a ton of trouble getting to that point, but it looks like I may get to see how they do for me over the summer.

So I've managed to get 3 plants to grow past the seed leaf stage, but I've been noticing that the larger leaves seem to be developing large brown spots then drying up and dying as if they are getting burnt, but it does seem to matter how close or far they are from my lights, and I'm wondering if cotton just loses leaves or am I doing something wrong? Haven't been able to find anything online about it

Eldon Dore wrote:So I've managed to get 3 plants to grow past the seed leaf stage, but I've been noticing that the larger leaves seem to be developing large brown spots then drying up and dying as if they are getting burnt, but it does seem to matter how close or far they are from my lights, and I'm wondering if cotton just loses leaves or am I doing something wrong? Haven't been able to find anything online about it

Interesting.  Thanks for the update?

Could you tell us about the soil they are in?  Could it be too much or too little moisture/soil fertility?