Mandragora officinarum (Mandrake)

[Torsten]

LOL, mandrakes don't like it up here much, so not sure when they will be big enough to sell and how much they are. I think initially they will be about the same price, dropping in second season.

Leaves of Yggdrasil is actually a member on these forums, so if she is the supplier then go for it. her plants are great.

[planthelper]

digging out the tuber and storing in the fridge?

let the mandrake grow only over winter?

hot climat will be an obsticle but not the end to attepts of mandragora cutivation in my area...

yes, i would naturally use a dog and a piece of string to pull the tuber out, lol...

[Rev]

so why do you think it wont grow in your area p/helper

it gets very hot wher eit comes from in teh summer too

and not always very cold

your rainfall is low enough they might not rot

[t st tantra]

it gets hot and dry in adelaide,the autumn mandrake is just up,so it has been hibernating under the soil for atleast 6 months,3 year old plants at least.havent lost one yet.

they have had no water for 6 months including hot adelaide summer just sat under a sheet of iron behind a shed.watered then about 3 weeks ago[soaked pot].

t s t .

[Torsten]

Mandrakes thrive in wettish winters and go dormant in hot/dry summers. Problem is that we have wet summers and dry winters. In my first season they popped up in June and disappeared on a hot day in september. I put them in a shade house and they popped up again for about 3 weeks and then went dormant again for the rest of summer.

This year we will keep them under shade and daily water all winter which should keep them happy for at least 5 months.

[apothecary]

Is the tropane content of these very different to others in the family?

I have this feeling that my garden is gonna be overrun by Solanacae family by the end of next spring

[Benzito]

My belief is that the tropane content is different in each species, just like DMT content in plants containing that compound.

I was sure I had a table of the %'s of tropanes in each species of solanacea, but I can't find it.

Sorry.

[spikey]

torsten, i think you should put the mandrake in full sun, that's how they usualy grow, in open fields with alot of sun, they don't grow in shoady places, atleast i never seen one grow like that

[Torsten]

where you grow them it is wet in sinter and dry in summer right? and in summer they are invisible?

here it is wet in summer and dry in winter. that means they go dormant in summer due to the heat and go dormant in winter due to the dry.

By keeping them in shade and well watered I get them looking fine for half the year, just like in nature. when they go dormant I then put them in the sun so they stay dry.

I had problems with them for 5 years before I worked out what they like. Lost many of them because they don't survive if they only have leaves for 6 weeks of the year.

[Prophet]

Yes they prefer a meditteranean climate with wet winters and dry summers but i remember seeing some mandrake plants growing wild in someones garden here in south east queensland and we have wet summers and dry winters so they must be able to adapt.

[Rev]

edit

Edited April 21, 2007 by Rev

[amanito]

You can get your seeds here:

http://www.magicgardenseeds.com/cgi-bin/ic...eite.html?wg=99

I sown them about one month ago and now have 6 good looking seedlings (6 a 7 cm). Gonna keep them in my room. At a shadowrich place in front of my window (northside). I can only keep them here in my room, because we have children at home and they are to dangerous to keep them in my garden.

They're doin' great atm.

[plastid]

Off topic, but if anyone has seen the fairly recent movie Pan's Layrinth? (spanish) It features a creature made of mandrake root created for healing that comes to a demise that gave me the chills. Entertaining fantasy movie anyway.

[MORG]

This screwed up weather in Sydney resulted in my mandrake breaking the soil surface a month ago.

With these cool, wet days it obviously felt it was autumn/winter.