Growing Poppies (Somniferum, Californian) Soil Mixture, Troubleshooting

[mindperformer]

yes, its the more potent white poppy (var. glabrum?) which you can get at asia-shops -also here in Vienna.

[Bigred]

No other flower has caused so much trouble the history behind this humble flower is amazing.

Edited September 2, 2012 by bigred82

[Halif]

^yep. Lovely flower. How many other flowers conjure up so many stories of suffering and pain, both past and present?

Exploitation, war, politics, medical science, economics, addiction - and all from such a tiny little seed, too.

Wow, nature is amazing and human nature is complex.

<strokes non-existent beard and gazes skywards>

[Bigred]

you forgot culinary i love me bagels

[mindperformer]

An interesting book for all those who speak german:

"Vom Rausch im Orient und Okzident" from Rudolf Gelpke ...here a translation:

"From Inebriation in the Orient and Occident"

...The wine robs the human's power over themselves, the Opium strengthens it at a high rate. It is all through unwarlike. Peace, clarity and rapture, this are its, again and again praised gifts. I want to agree with my oriental friends, who say that Opium raptures and wakes at the same time. The smoker gets enraptured away from the suffer, worries, anxieties and tensions with which the everyday life is overwhelming us. Not in the way that the smoker would forget or suppress them! The Opium makes perspicacious, not dull. It never shrouds us in that mist, in which during drunkenness the material and spiritual realities disappear and loose their contours. Rather the opposite applies,... it solves the soul from its interlocking with the things from everyday life and the outerworld. The opium-smoker contemplates the Dasein (being), also his own, yes, the whole comedie humaine with the eyes of a theatergoer, who pursues a play on the enlightened stage from the gloom and safety of his loge.

Opium makes silent and gentle. It inspires and fires the imagination, also the erotic, raises the sensibility and the feel of tenderness. ...

The different way of seeing the opium in the west (occident) vs. the (native) east is explained by a completely different set of basic values: the oriental society was shaped by basically distinct role models.

The Faustian in the European sense lacks there entirely. The oriental tradition consideres the innerworld as the only real and the outer as illusion and swindle. For the smoker "the way to the inside", the mystical journey, is the only real experience of reality, which pierces through time and space and hence the shroud of the transitoriness. Therefore, from his view, the one who lives outwardly flees: The man of action in the west.

[Francois le Danque]

re: the pH of the soil being acidic, i wonder if this is why the following occurs:

my friends and i enjoy the taste of orange juice that has been washed over the seeds (well, not really, but you know...). afterwards, i am always left to dispose of the seedy slop. and it inevitably makes it's way into the pots around the house in small amount. but they never fail to germinate! also when i put the seeds in the garden or compost, they germinate at amazing rates, becoming like a thick grass of sprouts. i kill them all of course because the little bastards are making me break the law! they also grow in the cracks in my kitchen sink. but my point is: is it the orange juice making them so viable??

also to people wondering about the tasmanian seeds and food, the brand i buy (the most common spice brand, i should think) says they are imported. there must be so many going to waste from tasmania. though i have noticed recently they are making their way into lots of food items, such as arnotts shapes. good too, they're very nutritious and shouldn't go to waste.

[mindperformer]

very interesting, frank. the reason could be the ascorbic and citric acids in the juice. BioCanna also put fruit acids in their bloom-fertilizers, not only because of the PH. Citric acid has many phytohormone- like functions in plants.

Ascorbic acid is antioxydative and could possibly eliminate unwanted soil pathogens...

Apropos: the seeds doesn't contain any alkaloids, but because of industrial harvest they have some latex on their surface, which could be washed away with water, fruit juices (to make the citrate...)...

Edited September 3, 2012 by mindperformer

[Joshie]

Nice photo, I thought. A Persian White, I believe.

Edited September 7, 2012 by Joshie

[mindperformer]

Very interesting:

http://mightyminnow.wordpress.com/2008/10/08/in-iran-opium-is-the-opiate-of-the-masses/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_in_Iran

in Teheran it is easier to get opium than a bottle of whiskey...

[Stillman]

Interesting read I understand in parts of rural India they have similar problems.

[mindperformer]

but they have less health-problems with it, than the "alcohol-societies".

you know, its mainly the addictive potential, opiates are not physical harmful if you take pure opium and not dirty needles with dirty stuff like the junkies in our society.

Edited September 8, 2012 by mindperformer

[planthelper]

Apropos: the seeds doesn't contain any alkaloids, but because of industrial harvest they have some latex on their surface, which could be washed away with water, fruit juices (to make the citrate...)...

 

this is a very common held view, but a person on this forum suggested, that actualy, there are some activas which come with the seeds!!!!

let me be clear here, there might be some resin on the seeds, because of the way, the seeds get haverested, but there are some activas present aswell, in the inside of the pod, and those are aswell, responsible for the activety of poppy wash.

i never seed washed, and never will, there are many, many other and better things, one can do.

aswell, i want to remeber, that one person in oz died from seed wash, so don't do it.

Edited September 17, 2012 by planthelper

[Ozone]

Found this very well written article about the issues involved in the US (written for Harper's magazine in '97) http://michaelpollan.com/articles-archive/opium-made-easy/

[mindperformer]

In Austria its legal to buy dried (and also potent) poppy-pods. In Vienna there is a small shop which sells only this... Now the leader of a group of sikhs wanted the shop to be closed...

[Francois le Danque]

poor sikhs. pods are cool beans imo.

ozone: i love michael pollan! he is a really cool guy. that article, and 'the botany of desire' documentary are both really worth seeing/reading. lol pollen..

plant helper: i think the person who supposedly died from poppy seed tea actually had several kilos worth, and combined it with alprazolam. a recipe for disaster! though i thought that was in the US, do you have a reference from the person in australia? i am sorry if it was someone you knew, i mean no disrespect. but i do think PST is a viable beverage and useful for both pain relief and recreation. i hope my opinion is not in violation of the rules. peace!