Pubdate: Wed, 11 Jul 2001
Source: The Vicksburg Post (MS)
Website:  http://www.vicksburgpost.com/
Address: P.O. Box 821668, Vicksburg, MS 39182
Contact:  2001 The Vicksburg Post
Fax: (601) 634-0897
Author: Ben Bryant

POT-LOOKING OKRA COTTON HAS PASSERS-BY LOOKING TWICE

ST. JOSEPH Okra leaf cotton has gained a measure of fame in Tensas 
Parish this summer, and it's not because the plant helps produce 
finer-than-average fabric.

Tensas residents, Lake Bruin weekenders and others who drive through 
this farm-studded corner of the Louisiana Delta have taken note of 
the okra leaf, parish agent Robert Goodson said, because it bears a 
resemblance to another plant that pops up here sometimes.

They think it's marijuana, Goodson said. There've been about 15 
people who've asked me how to smoke it so far.

Goodson has told them all the truth about the mysterious crop it's 
not pot, despite the five spindly leaves that adorn each plant and 
make some think it's at least kin to cannabis.

The variety does have advantages. Its thin leaves provide a permeable 
canopy over the cotton bolls, making it easier for insecticides to 
seep into the plant. With thicker foliage, other cotton variants make 
farmers work harder to protect them from boll weevils and field 
pests, said Steve Hague, an agronomist at the Northeast Louisiana 
Experiment Station in St. Joseph.

Additionally, okra leaf plants give textile mills finer ingredients 
for such products as clothing and bed sheets, Hague said.

The variety isn't at the top of the cotton variety contest as far as 
yields go, but it really does produce high-quality cotton, he said. 
It really is fine cotton.

Despite its benefits, farmers have been slow to adopt okra leaf, said 
Jack Jones, a former professor of agronomy at LSU who still helps 
coordinate experiments at the college's research stations. Most of 
the okra leaf in Tensas is located on the Northeast Experiment 
Station's 300-acre spread off Louisiana 605.

Reasons why it is not in, er, high demand, is that plants don't shade 
out weeds as well as other cotton variants, Jones said. Also, okra 
leaf, developed in Australia in the 1980s, is not immune to the 
tobacco bugworm, which plagues cotton farms across the South.

I think there might always be that stigma attached to the okra leaf 
cotton, Jones said. It's just one of those things.

And Hague, the agronomist, said he hopes people in Tensas don't try 
to use the crops for recreational purposes.

The best-case scenario if someone tried to smoke one would be for 
nothing to happen, he said. We aren't too sure what the worst case 
would be, but I'm sure we wouldn't want to see it.
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