As this episode filmed in the spring and cotton blooms for picking in the late fall, the cotton plants were potted hibiscus plants that were defoliated and store-bought cotton was wired to the stems.
According to the dialogue, the plantation from which Noah runs away is "on 300 acres between the Yellow River and Stone Mountain"; that puts it in the area bounded by the towns of Stone Mountain, Rockbridge, Centerville, and Redan, Georgia, now in the eastern suburbs of Atlanta metropolitan area.