Grow diary: Incarvillea sinensis

[shonman]

Is it worth messing with?

The seeds I got have a not so impressive survival rate.

And, no one seems to like what this plant can do much so far.

Has anyone been impressed with it yet?

[chronic]

shonman the problem with the low germination rate i had last year.
Incarvillea sinensis needs cool temperatures for a high germination rate. If not germinate very few seeds. This information i found on the Internet. A friend from me has his seeds sown by the end of winter. Result, many seedlings.

From last year.





Incarvillea delavayi
The type contains the analgesic monoterpene alkaloids Delavayin A. An opioid. How Potent the herb is yet to be tested. The plants are larger than in Incarvillea sinensis and are readily available commercially.

[ghosty]

I'd be interested to know if this plant will be good for colds / flu (not that i ever get such these days) as it could replace codeine, that would be great as I'd have no need what-so-ever for a pharmacy. Ever.

Seems most here are looking for "opioid effects". I'm, not. I'm looking for effective medicine for flu / colds.

[inwould]

Two varieties of Incarvillea Sinensis were ordered from Chiltern Seeds, 'Cheron White' and 'Cheron Pink'. Both were planted in identical containers, in the same potting mix, at the same time. Both receive equal amounts of sun and water. The seeds were planted soon after arrival.

In less than a week about ten of the 'Cheron White' had sprouted. The 'Cheron Pink' variety showed no signs of germinating.

(The green spots in the 'Cheron Pink' tray are fertiliser from the potting mix)

[theuserformallyknownasd00d]

I got 3 or 4 pods off a member here sitting in the fridge. They were off the first plants I germinated and sent around, It's good they are at least seeding for us now to keep it going around.

They've been in the fridge since the 22.2.16, I'll plant em out the end of March to get ready for our April cold snap.

Nice work Inwould

[inwould]

I thought it was interesting that one variety germinated so easily. Maybe the pink seed was much older?

[theuserformallyknownasd00d]

Yeh the white one is what I germed and gave to a few folk. I've seen the pink (delaveyi) available in Australia maybe I'll grab some

[inwould]

These seeds were supposedly a pink variety of I. Sinensis rather than I. Delavayi.

I notice the seeds aren't on their website anymore. Maybe it was the last packet (and had been sitting for some time)?

[mu!]

yeah I've had absolutely zero success with my cheron pink seeds. it looks like the consensus is pointing toward dud seed stock.

next up: cheron white!

[shonman]

I have had low germination rates, too, and when they do germinate, damping off can take its toll.

Did anyone determine if this plant actually does much, or if it could?

Is it even worth growing?

Nice flowers are worth it, maybe

Edited March 3, 2016 by shonman

[inwould]

For me, much of its value is as a beautiful flowering perennial. The possible medicinal uses are just a nice contingency.

[theuserformallyknownasd00d]

Sowed some seeds today that Glaukus harvested off his plants, that I gave him, from the NY seed supplier I got em off. I've had them for a month now in the back of the fridge taped against he wall. Our temps are down to 12-20C and should drop more soon so germination should be good. They are just sitting outside on the ground under the eaves now, in a seedling flat tray.

[☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ]

holy heck i forgot about this thread and the seeds of 3 kinds i bought ...

ill have an external garden soon.. and look fwd to posting about them here

[inwould]

Give them more room than you'd probably think. Mine came up a bit close together.

One month since sowing today:

Still no sign of the 'Cheron Pink' (right tray)

Moved a few of them yesterday, hopefully they will handle the disturbance. I've read that they don't like their roots being messed with.

[Freewheelin]

I too bought both the white and pink strain. I got both to germinate, but not so many pink, I think I ended up with 9 white and 3 pink in the end - that's not counting germination but overall survival rate. I potted them up and now I have maybe 4 decent plants left, 1 actually decent. Not sure what colour as they haven't flowered yet.

the way i got them to germinate was to put the seed packets in a fridge for about a month, then just sowed them like normal. When the sprouts do pop up, it's important to use only mist to water them, as a regular shower spray knocks the delicate sprouts to the ground and they never recover.

[theuserformallyknownasd00d]

Two sprouts 5.5 days in here's one of em!

[mu!]

would someone be so kind as to send me a few seeds? the cheron pink I put down weren't viable so I'd like to get some seed that's from some plants that have been grown out in Australia.

cheers.

[Strontium Dawg]

For me, much of its value is as a beautiful flowering perennial. The possible medicinal uses are just a nice contingency.

Is it a perennial or an annual?

[inwould]

Most websites list it as a perennial, but it is listed as annual/perennial on some sites. Supposedly Hardy to zone 4, maybe perennial in warmer zones?

[shonman]

Is it safe to say that its main value is the pretty flowers, and not any medicinal quality?

Edited April 28, 2016 by shonman

[theuserformallyknownasd00d]

I stopped responding to the herb but my friend is a big responder so I gave him the whole lot. I don't think it was ever really gone into how to make it work consistently 

[DualWieldRake]

On 29-4-2016 at 1:22 AM, shonman said:

Is it safe to say that its main value is the pretty flowers, and not any medicinal quality?

 

Medicinal it suposedly only works intravenously (or so the papers say)

Edited June 29, 2017 by DualWieldRake

[Anodyne]

I found I got a decent response if I avoided caffeine. I wouldn't say it was comparable to other opioid-based plants/meds, but I'd rank it above most other analgesics & anodynes A few other members or their friends had a positive response also. And some did not. We haven't worked out all the details yet on why that might be the case - whether there are other interactions with common substances, whether it is metabolised by some enzyme which has wide variations in different people, whether it is not acting by classic analgesic pathways and therefore only works for some types of pain...many unanswered questions and wild speculation at this point (unless some other group on the nexus or something has  been working on it since I last checked.

9 hours ago, DualWieldRake said:

Medicinal it suposedly only works intravenously (or so the papers say)

Papers might be wrong. Can you link me one or two? Just curious what exactly they were injecting, and into who/what. Afaik everyone who tried those extracts & reported back here took them orally, and there was definite activity there, at least for some people. Not everything works the same in rats & humans, and there are qualities of drugs that it isn't easy to design a study where you can tell if a rat is experiencing those specific effects.There are certainly some weird bugs to iron out - if you're enthusiastic you could grow a bunch and get working on the ideal extraction method & ROA... or if you're lazy like me you could toss it in the "look at again one day" pile and hope that some researchers sort us out with some more answers in the meantime.

[DualWieldRake]

Interesting to hear it does have effects that administration route.

I guess it could work different between individuals and perhaps with some MAOI or similar mechanism

 

The paper i've read this in i forgot to bookmark with a descriptive name. If i come across it i will link you up.

Extraction research sounds fun, still need some plants first though. First batch i tried has not germinated for me, or if they did snails got them first

[Anodyne]

11 hours ago, DualWieldRake said:

If i come across it i will link you up.

Cheers mate.

 

11 hours ago, DualWieldRake said:

Extraction research sounds fun, still need some plants first though.

Another thing was that mindperformer's report (over in the other thread here) hinted at stronger activity in fresh material. That was a pretty small sample size, (afaik he's the only one around here who has grown enough to try it), but may be something else to keep in mind.

 

Also the Chinese lab who was making some of the extracts has told me that the wild supplies of this plant (at least, in their area) have been getting smashed by the demand for this extract and they could not supply any more. So if that's a widespread thing, we should probably all start growing our own.