Papaver somniferum

[woof woof woof]

are there strains that do better in warmer climates?

attempts to cultivate them in the tropics have failed up to now.

[Torsten]

put them in before winter and water well. flowers in spring.

[Green Osiris]

When I was a younger lady, (10 years ago) I travelled through the Khyber pass & over the border, this was during the Mujahadeen rule - presursor to fundamentalist taliban, and I saw acres & acres of poppies just north of Jalalabad.

[Torsten]

I am not quite sure what you are trying to say. That you travelled through Jalalabad in June and saw poppies? How tall were they? were they flowering? and if so, isn't that what I said?

but more importantly, did you accidentally have some seeds in the bottom of your pockets when you got back home? ;)

[Rev]

Very much like planting cannabis, outdoors, in autumn.

mm yes

Planting in Feb is a good way to get crops from plant less than 1m tall - perfect for the suburban garden where a 6 to 20 foot monster started in september isn wanted. small enought to sit among the other bushes or even the veggie garden

A great way to grow a bushy sativa

if you plant near the shortest day the plants will grow ultra bushy and dense and still mature to flower by october/november before the spring equinox. the cooler conditions mean shorter internodes even on lanky sativas. its good to push along by having very rich compost enriched soil. In fact i know all this simply cos i had 2 plants come up out of the blue from my compost heap one year around mid may. became Outstanding plants

of course u can cheat. most plants grown for an 18 hour artificial day then dropped outside after it has at least 7 internodes will bud

[Green Osiris]

nope, sorry, no seeds. In fact no pockets in the bloody burqa I had to wear to get me smuggled over border as a 'woman' - the country was closed to foreigners. Please, no drag queen jokes. :D

Hmm, Ive done a pretty good job at self-incrimination with that comment. LOL

[j_barleycorn]

One exception to the "sow in Autumn" principle is if the winters are too cold for decent growth. How do you know how cold too cold is? I can't say for sure, but Canberra is definitely in that category, and possibly Melbourne/Hobart as well. Basically, if you're not mowing lawns now and then, then all the Autumn-sown poppies are going to do is stall and rot. In that case, it's better to sow in Jun in anticipation of germination in Aug when the freeze starts to let up and the rain starts to happen. With Adelaide and Perth, winter growth (and rain) makes Autumn sowing more viable.

Now for a question: I have some white Persian ornamentals which are starting to hook at way too an undeveloped stage. Crowding is not the problem. One suspicion I am entertaining is that I may have been a bit slack in not digging the gypsum in properly during the preparation of the garden bed. Instead, it was simply raked in lightly along with the seed. pH tests @ 7, but I have seen a suggestion at poppies.org that Ca competes with Fe in some fashion or other. If I wanted to test this idea experimentally on part of the bed, has anyone got an idea what solution I could apply to counteract the Ca?

[planthelper]

the dammest thing happend to me...

i got caught entering oz via plane carrying poppy seeds from austria.

the authoryties confiscated the seeds which wher thought for culinary consumption.

but when i cleaned out my suitcase in the open to get all the debris out some poppy seed selfsowed themselfes...

another thing is that somniferium poppies grow in many gold fossicking towns in australia in the wild.

[mescalito]

Yeah you are right there Planthelper we get purple and orange seti's here and they are flowering now.I believe the chinese diggers brought these plants to our area..and today while I was mowing the lawn I also found what looks to be corydalis in my back yard!!

Just what the doctor ordered being a sedative used for insomnia!!

Weeds are great.

Edit:Mr. Barleycorn you're not a day tripper did you lose your username?

Welcome back anyways.

[sobriquet]

No point growing any species of poppy in perth now

they are sown in late autumn to grow over winter ( to impressive sizes) and flower now through to november

if u plant before next april u will waste ur seed

in fact once in a spot if you weed out the grasses they often self seed every year in that climate.

(for legal to grow papaver spp. of course)

Cal poppy and mex poppy also prefer a winter growing period over there

Hi Rev. I know it's an old thread but the TasAlk site has an informational pdf for farmers regarding 'Late Sown Poppies' that indicate that an October start even is OK, and August/September is no probs either.

I believe the only thing they suggest for these late poppies is that they get nitrogen supplemenation to give them a boost during vegetative growth.

So in Australia it appears you can easily have two crops per year.