so i ordered 200 seeds of "drop dead gorgeous"(papaver somniferum) off line, today they arrived via USPS, went down to walmart and picked up a mini green house with the peat moss plugs and tryed to plant two seed per plug. ill keep everyone updated hopefully with pics
sounds cool, u got my attention. good luck and keep us posted. i have an interest in doing something similiar- they would just look so lovely next my petunia's.
You don't want to do 2 seeds per cube, P. Somniferum need 2+ inches apart from other plants and like thier root space. They also hate being transplanted or having their roots bothered at all. I start mine right in the pot of dirt they will grow old in.
so i came home from my overnight camping trip this afternoon and had found that most the seeds i had started have sprouted. only part showing is the radicle. and some hair roots. ill try to get pics up tomorrow
i was thinking about doing a few inside under some grow lights, but most of them i am planing on growing outside in buried pots
Cotyledon are up and open, average height is about 1.5mm. out of 72 peat plugs that i seeded all but 12 have sprouted. with my big man hands i seeded a few plugs way too heavy, ill try to separate them when they get the first set of true leaves. sorry still no pics im having trouble uploading them
DISASTER!!!!! this morning when i left the house i set my little greenhouse outside to sun, while i was gone we had a nice little wind storm with winds around 40mph, it blew the top off and let the rain in, and it looks like i lost about 2/3 of my plants. well see what happens.
I grew and had a sucsessful crop this year, even started a second one. 1st time growing & they were spectacular! what I learned was: 1: They like a little space between them, need thinning or they will grow smaller and bent. 2: Sandy soil with an acidic base worked well, but had to fertalize 2x's, especially before blooming. 3:if you can wait, try to wait 10=12 days before harvesting the latex-pods will grow bigger in this time 4: Eating or liking the latex worked fine for me, as was a small crop. 5: don't disturb the roots, i tried several times when thinning out, even keeping the soil around the roots. They just don't like it, and usually die 6:the flowers were so pretty, only lasting 2 days, but big white, pink, and magenta flowers were beautiful 7:try to blend them in with coneflower, black-eyed susans, or any plants that are of simalar hieght-looks funny to have a huge plantation of them.i will claim they are bread seed poppies if asked) This is just what I did and it was sucssesful, correct me if i'm wrong, but looks like I will have to get instructions on indoor growing, as it reaches -22 degrees in winter. I have a plan for next year, i will plant a few new ones every 2 weeks, to assure i always have great pops. even after latex was extracted, and pods 1/2 dry, I put in blender & made tea that was effective. The only part of the plant not used was the roots. I'm hoping I have enough good weather left for a 2nd crop. i nicked named them Mother O, Pops & the popettes. I had 1 particular plant that was white, 4 pods on it, and huge, that was Mother O. Thanks , hope any of this helps. Kserah
Mine were this year, just am drinking the last of the tea now. I really hope the 2nd crop comes through, they are so small at week2 now, not even lettuce looking yet. i lightly fertalized today, in hopes of them doing something besides looking the same for over aweek, weeded also. any pointers from anyone would be great & appreciated. For the OP--> I'm on poppy tea right now
