Silk Road forums
Discussion => Off topic => Topic started by: PoisonedDestiny on April 27, 2012, 05:01 am
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i'm germinating dozens of them. second attempt.. first they were waterlogged to death by storm after storm. going to put a few in pots and the rest outside. they are all giganthemum chosen from a single massive softball pod. anybody out there with experience with any fine wisdom?
mid atlantic sub-tropical/continental border climate. live about 800ft above sea level, in foothills terrain (on the side of a small mountain/large hill), rich topsoil - clay - gravel chunks to gravel local soil. been very dry so far, which i bode helps my plants? i'm excited. :)
*destiny*
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You're not necessarily too late for this season, but you could have started a good bit earlier. In fact, one of the best methods I know of is to plant poppy seeds at the receding edge of the last snow of the season (which can take a bit of luck to guess correctly).
I've never grown poppies in containers, but I'm sure they'll do fine as long as the pot is large enough and they're planted in a nutritious, well-draining media. I do know they are very reluctant to be transplanted, so I would either be very careful, or start them wherever you plan to leave them.
You say you live on the side of a mountain. Which side (North, Southwest) are you on, and about how much sunlight does your yard get each day?
The only other advice I have off the top of my head is to be careful when lancing the pods to collect the latex. First, scoring poppies is considered a criminal act in most countries, so these plants should be planted in a private area. Second, there is a specific method that should be followed. The pods should be lanced around two weeks after petals drop. This is usually done in the late afternoon so the latex can dry overnight and be harvested in the morning. You have to be careful to cut to the right depth; if it's too shallow, the latex won't flow, and if it's too deep, the latex will flow into the interior of the pod, or worse, onto the ground. The process is elaborated on in this thread (www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/4012231), but I'll paste the handy guide written by our good friends at the DEA below for your convenience.
The scoring of the pods (also called 'lancing,' 'incising,' or 'tapping') begins about two weeks after the flower petals fall from the pods. The farmer examines the pod and the tiny crown portion on the top of the pod very carefully before scoring.
The grayish-green pod will become a dark green color as it matures and it will swell in size. If the points of the pod's crown are standing straight out or are curved upward, the pod is ready to be scored. If the crown's points turn downward, the pod is not yet fully matured. Not all the plants in a field will be ready for scoring at the same time and each pod can be tapped more than once.
A set of three or four small blades of iron, glass, or glass splinters bound tightly together on a wooden handle is used to score two or three sides of the pod in a vertical direction. If the blades cut too deep into the wall of the pod, the opium will flow too quickly and will drip to the ground. If the incisions are too shallow, the flow will be too slow and the opium will harden in the pods. A depth of about one millimeter is desired for the incision.
Using a blade-tool designed to cut to that depth, scoring ideally starts in late afternoon so the white raw opium latex can ooze out and slowly coagulate on the surface of the pod overnight. If the scoring begins too early in the afternoon, the sun will cause the opium to coagulate over the incision and block the flow. Raw opium oxidizes, darkens and thickens in the cool night air. Early the next morning, the opium gum is scraped from the surface of the pods with a short-handled, flat, iron blade three to four inches wide.
Opium harvesters work their way backwards across the field scoring the lower, mature pods before the taller pods, in order to avoid brushing up against the sticky pods. The pods continue to produce opium for several days. Farmers will return to these plants - sometimes up to five or six times - to gather additional opium until the pod is totally depleted. The opium is collected in a container which hangs from the farmer's neck or waist.
The opium yield from a single pod varies greatly, ranging from 10 to 100 milligrams of opium per pod. The average yield per pod is about 80 milligrams. The dried opium weight yield per hectare of poppies ranges from eight to fifteen kilograms.
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lol, at first i thought you were talking about germinating "poopies"....was wondering why you came here to tell us about your bowel movements
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They tend not to do well in clay. Clay doesn't drain very well, and poppies love soil that stays moist, but doesn't hold excess water. Your soil should be kind of like a sponge held under a faucet... when it's dry, it will keep sucking up water, but when it becomes saturated, it just lets the water flow through.
Rather than going to all the work of trying to get your soil right, I would build a raised bed or two. Go to the hardware store, and get some 8x2 boards, and make boxes 2 feet wide, by however long. In these boxes, put a mix of 1 part peat moss, 1 part vermiculite (this is expensive and somewhat hard to find, but WELL worth the effort) and 1 part blended compost. Try combining one bag of mushroom compost, and one bag of composted manure.
Depending on how hot your summers get, it's probably not too late to start them. I live in the southwest, and have started them directly outdoors as late as mid May, and they've been fine (although a little small).
Plant them directly in the soil, by making 1/4 inch holes with the end of a bic pen, or something similar. I have an old sharpie that I use that I have markings every 1/8 drawn on. Make the holes about 5 inches apart (in each direction), and plant two to three seeds in each hole. Gently cover them with more soil, making a small mound above each hole (not more than 1/8 inch high or so).
If you don't have one of those hose sprayers that have adjustable settings (jet, shower, mist, etc) you should get one, as you want to water the new seeds VERY gently until they get established. Make sure to water them at least twice a day while they're germinating. However, make sure that you have well drained soil, if you don't use my above suggested mix. You want them to stay moist, but NOT soggy. Once the sprouts get about an inch high or so, you'll want to thin two of the plants (you should have little groups of three). With a pair of sharp, pointy scissors, cut two of the seedlings down at the base. You don't want to pull them out, because this will disturb the root system of the one you want to keep.
If you're in an area where people would see the flower beds easily, I'd suggest mixing in some other garden flowers that aren't poppies. This way it looks just like any other flower bed, and people wouldn't wonder why you have a ton of poppies growing in your yard with nothing else. Good luck, and feel free to message me if you have any questions.
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All good info, Banjo, +1 for your efforts. I just have one comment:
If you're in an area where people would see the flower beds easily, I'd suggest mixing in some other garden flowers that aren't poppies. This way it looks just like any other flower bed, and people wouldn't wonder why you have a ton of poppies growing in your yard with nothing else. Good luck, and feel free to message me if you have any questions.
This is great advice, a beautiful flower garden is rarely suspect. But keep in mind that even if your poppies are disguised with other flowers, if they're somewhere people can just walk by while you lance them, you're asking for trouble. To ensure no one sees you lancing the pods or harvesting the latex, a process which can take a few days, keep this lovely flower garden confined to your private, hopefully fenced-in yard. Don't have company over until the poppies have been cut down and disposed of (make sure to save and dry the pods for seeds and making tea!).
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I'm growing poppies too for the first time, I'm growing them in a big flower pot with the soil mix someone mentioned above. They have sprouted and are looking pretty good so far. I'm growing them in a private area next to my house so nobody walking by will see them. I love growing new plants, I grew my own medical MJ for over 5 years.
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haha i just realized that the second part does look like "poopies". hehe!!! was trying to do an awful impression of the witch from wizard of Oz lol.
great advice everyone! i'm going to try a multitude of methods just to dial in for next year. last time i started very early, like beginning of march, but it was a very wet early spring and it crushed them.
i had mixed some sand and raised the beds slightly, but this time i'm going to follow advice and raise them much higher. possibly use gravel for a base?
a friend just kicked me a bag of compost, consisting of nearly completely decayed wood and ash. the area where it was resting is just exploding with plantlife, and the stuff seems to drain well
waterlogging is the enemy it seems.
i'm going to put them in a mixed garden with assorted wildflower. the property is vast and very private, but the landlord visits for the weekends in the summer at the larger house. by lance time she will be absent, and the caretaker only breezes by on a mower once a week. otherwise there is nobody around for miles and my garden is actually tucked away well. house is shaped like an H, with the garden between two of the bars in the path of the sun.
we are on the west side of the mountain.
i'm also going to put about a dozen plants in planters that i can move around in case the weather goes crazy again.
i'm sure my plants will be rather smallish when the time comes but hell i'd die if i was able to just get a good gram :) and i enjoy tea so even if i fuck the lancing i can still make a brew.
i will update progress!! thanks! and banjo, i may message you later if i run into hair pulling problems, so thanks for the offer of help!
this is why i love it here. this community gives the best, most civil and intelligent advice sometimes.
+1 to all!!
*destiny*