End of August

Ooh, it is getting soon now. I still have a lot of flowers opening but color is starting to come into the green cotton plants. Almost like they are sunburned or like an autumn display, they show red in the stems and leaves. This is the signal, to me, that the bolls are about to open. If we had a lot of bugs like whitefly or aphids, we would defoliate by hand starting about now. This would keep the sticky substance off the clean cotton. But this was an extremely bug free year and we will just let nature go and see what happens with the crop.

Mid August

Pima flowers still just getting going (yellow), while the green flowers are almost done (red above).


Fat Green.


Occasionally I get a yellow Pima blossom with a red center, like a tulip with a dark center. Very pretty and it happens on the same plants as the creamier yellow flowers. This one was a late flower on the bottom of the plant.

It is a waiting game right now. The plants are fully grown - about shoulder high on the green and a bit shorter on the Pima. The bolls are filling up very well, but I am still getting a lot of flowers. At this point, it is clear that the Pima is behind by about a week or two. I interpret that as Pima has a longer growing season.


Pima has triangular darker ones.
Green has round bolls.


Lots of flowers still coming on the same branches as bolls.

String of bolls.

Beginning of August

I am a little behind in the photos, so you may be astonished at the growth. Flowers everywhere and plenty of bolls forming now. It has been unusually rainy. Bugs are apparent on the browns only, and just a few whiteflys. Serious hail damage occurred and leaves have big holes poked into them. We also lost the top 6 inches on several plants due to hail.


Up to the truck's side mirror and growing fast.


Little string of flowers on the green.


Pima trilobal leaf and flower bud.


Bolls and Flowers on the green.