Mandrake cultivation discussion

[shonman]

Very helpful, thanks!

I appreciate this plant more for its archetypal enigmatic ethnobotanical history of use than its content.

Edited November 9, 2015 by shonman

[sagiXsagi]

Year-old seedlings , seed simply thown in some cactus pots with new soil. Thankfully Stenocereus marginatus crest has itself bulbous carrot roots, so removing these mandrakes from the pots was much easier than I thought, with minimal damage and without washing off the soil. Obviously, these roots are much stronger because they were in a deeper pot as opposed to a tray that dried out too fast. Some have already branched.

leaves cut to prevent the root from shrieveling

[sagiXsagi]

What this thread's have been missing: habitat photos

Edited November 9, 2015 by sagiXsagi

[sagiXsagi]

[shonman]

It would almost seem, that this enigmatic plant prefers to grow 'between a rock and a hard place'!

Excellent photos, inspiring.

Thanks all!

Edited November 14, 2015 by shonman

[sagiXsagi]

there were lots of mandrakes that are NOT near some rock.. I guess I had to pick some as I have lots of habit picks and I mostly picked those I thought were the most beautiful and impressive

but yeah its seems to like rocky habitat, thats right!

Edited November 15, 2015 by sagiXsagi

[sagiXsagi]

shonman is right in a sense: there had to be more non-rock habitat pics

[sagiXsagi]

and some more nice habitat pics

PS: All pictures first 'published' (AKA publicly released) in SAB, the whole worlds favourite ethobotanicl forum , cheers

Edited November 20, 2015 by sagiXsagi

[sagiXsagi]

 

wanted to put stone pebbles in all, it would seem more important when pest come or later in the season, but I was lazy enough to not go yet to the beach and get stones... not enough... problem is that the awesome stone colours beach is 28 kms instead of the lousy 7 or even 1 km to get some pebbles of various sizes...

Edited November 30, 2016 by sagiXsagi

[miss-meander88]

Yay!

My first mandragora autumnalis seed sprouted

Edited January 9, 2016 by miss-meander88

[theuserformallyknownasd00d]

Hey sagi! My woman drake and mandrake just went dormant, I assume because it's summer. When do I start watering it again to make them come back to life?

[modern.shaman]

I keep watering my mandrake in the summer, when it is dormant, just less frequently maybe every 3-4 weeks. When day temps start to cool down to 30 C or less the 'drakes will likely start to awaken from dormancy likely mid fall.

[theuserformallyknownasd00d]

Thanks mate!

[sagiXsagi]

dood give more info , what species you have?

man I really dont know how mandrake automnalis will react to southern hemisphere.

it grows from automn through winter till late spring here, so if everything works vice versa for you, your summer is cold so it should be growing... and the resting period should be in winter, that is now.

But it depends on the species as well.. some say officinarum = automnalis, I doubt that.

m.shaman> its quite possible that little watering during very hot summers might help the roots from shrieveling or even dying if the roots are small. if its too hot, tranfering to a shadier place during rest might help too.

[miss-meander88]

I am completely puzzled as to how i ended up with two germinating....

Being the impatient excitable little soul i am i took about 1/3 of my seeds and i feel went against every mandrake technique i have since read :/....

Please excuse the cringeworthiness of my method, i will be trying the proper method with the rest of the seeds, i just found it fascinating how i didnt completely drown and fry these seeds into death :/

I put them in a sealed jar of water and forgot about them, in full brisbane summer sun for about a week....

They stunk when i finally opened said jar :/ so i sat them in damp cotton wool, in full sun for another week of forgetting....

Then they got all hard and dried out and had cotton wool stuck to them like concrete...

So i thought, fuck it lets just plant them and see what happens...

Nothing for sure i thought, but low and behold, two have sprouted... well 3 but the possum uprooted one...

I am putting it down to a combination of luck and what must be fresh, high quality seed (thanks sagi )

[modern.shaman]

dood give more info , what species you have?

man I really dont know how mandrake automnalis will react to southern hemisphere.

it grows from automn through winter till late spring here, so if everything works vice versa for you, your summer is cold so it should be growing... and the resting period should be in winter, that is now.

But it depends on the species as well.. some say officinarum = automnalis, I doubt that.

m.shaman> its quite possible that little watering during very hot summers might help the roots from shrieveling or even dying if the roots are small. if its too hot, tranfering to a shadier place during rest might help too.

From my understanding mandrake = officinarum and womandrake = automnalis. They are not the same plant and the flower differs I think.

I tend to water all my plants year round just reduce frequency when it cools down a bit. I like to keep my plants water to prevent feeder roots from dying back or at least reducing the amount of loss. Not sure if it is the best idea as it never goes dormant but I think I may get flowers this spring one of my drakes looks very healthy and happy. (winter right now)

[sagiXsagi]

I too think officinarum is different but I dont have one. Its interesting what you say about keeping them "awake" year round. I have found seed from a pretty different and distinct form of automnalis from mainland. I hope I soon will have some plantlets too.

modern sh, you're saying both of your different species seem to have been acustomed to the same season? I thought officinarum have a different yearly circle.. are you sure about the origin/species of your plants?

mine are flowering

Edited January 13, 2016 by sagiXsagi

[modern.shaman]

I only have officinarum. My weather is warm year round with only a slight cooling during winter. This year I was able to keep my two mandrake actively growing thru the summer by keeping it indoors and watering every two weeks. I'm not sure if they NEED a dormant period.

[theuserformallyknownasd00d]

Sagi, I only have them labeled as mandrake and womendrake unfortunatly. At the time I sowed them I wasn't much into Latin names, that has changed and hopefully I can get flowers to ID them.

Right now it is summer and we are having 28-35C days, not very cool in my books but I've never been to Greece so it might be cool in comparison. They've completely died down and I'm assuming will resurrect in a few mths like they did last season. I'll give them a splash every so often just to be sure

[theuserformallyknownasd00d]

Here are some pics, the "mandrake" is dormant but the "womendrake" seems to have began growth again only being dormant for between 1.5-2.5mths

[sagiXsagi]

I think the sprouting can be before the weather cools down completely at automn, so

if mandrake = officinarum & womandrake = automnalis

I think it indeed works vice versa

also it seems officinarum doesnt necessarily need or fall into a resting mode.

would love to see flowers. would love to get an officinarum now that I think about it

Edited January 19, 2016 by sagiXsagi

[modern.shaman]

Here are my mandrakes... I don't think that I've posted a picture yet

Growth rate picked up recently.

[doxneed2c-me]

i have noticed they grow quite well in pots sealed in plastic bags.

[sagiXsagi]

nice plants, it would be cool to see flowers too! mine are starting to produce the first fruits

[modern.shaman]

I'm pretty sure that a flower bud is forming at the center. Hopefully it makes it to bloom and becomes my first mandrake flower :D It is forming on the mandrake in the second picture with the larger leaves.