Update and Priori Proof regarding my cotton breeding experiment mentioned below!

I was recently fortunate enough to come accross four more strains of colored cottons through Sand Hill Preservation Center, below are the names and descriptions:

298 Green: Lint is off-green in color, bolls do not open up big, not a fluffy type.

A7 Brown: Very large, fluffy bolls, almost a khaki color.

Egyptian Green: 115 days. Beautiful flowers on 3 to 4 foot tall plants followed by bolls that produce pale green cotton. Best if treated like peppers as far as growth habit in the North.

Tan: 115 days. 4 foot plants with tan to brown shaded cotton bolls.


End Note on Cotton and Priori proof of the future existence of two new breeding mixes or possible fixed and open pollinated varieties.

Priori Proof is a term I have borrowed from one of Tom Wagners recent postings on the internet discussing and improved version of his still unreleased Verde Claro Tomato. The idea being that if one has the idea and the means to create something then it already exists in an albeit in-material and abstract way in ones mind. When I first started reading about the shades of colored cottons and found out to my dissapointment that most of the colors had since dissapeared I started to think that maybe through selection of slightly off colored types over time you could develop new shades of cotton. Of course my mind went to the extremes and I came up with two possibilities and two names to describe those possibilities as follows.

October Rust - Named for a Type O Negative album of the late 90's. Selecting and working with the off, slightly red tinted bolls of cotton we could look for the most rust colored boles and over a number of years develop a red, rust colored cotton which could be named October Rust and would be a terrific fall color.

and

Le Fee Verte (the green fairy) - The french name for Absynthe. Selecting for the darkest colors of green boles over a number of years and rouging out the off types we could concievably come up with the darkest green cotton yet. Green much like the color of grass in summer with any luck!

Of course these could be the names of new crosses and open pollinated types mixed into a genetically diverse breeding material as well and distributed for work and selection to interested gardeners (the most likely scenario for this fall and for work in '09).

I hold high hopes in particular for the four new cottons that will be added to the mix this year given their longer "staple" size and the developments that this could lead to and the benefits to be derrived from such.