Growing Poppies (Somniferum, Californian) Soil Mixture, Troubleshooting

[Joshie]

SOME PROBLEM SOLVERS AND ADVICE REGARDING GROWING POPPIES

　

The biggest problem people encounter trying to grow poppy begins with watering. Most people, as with most seeds plant them and then get out the trusty old watering can. This is a fail to begin with as poppy seeds need a combination of sunlight, water, with a loose growing medium and if either of these three conditions

not being met re not being met or other water dispenser pushes the seed deep into the ground. Surface sowing or broadcasting is the way to go. The seeds need light, you should spray with a spray bottle, this is the most succesful method of germinating poppy seeds.

Also, planting at about 5 o'clock in the evening can help. Ants absolutely love seeds, especially poppy! I have watched ants taking my seeds as I am planting! Once they come up overwatering is bad. Fast draining soil is important, giving them a decent water to encourage healthy root growth. I use numerous watering cans and spray

bottles including a big two and a half litre mister that works by pumping it, building

up the pressure sending a lovely mist over a fresh patch of soil or a bunch of pots.

Once the seedlings germinate It is best to use a small watering can with a long thin spout

allowing one to direct the water exactly where it needs to go

. In this way soil is soaked round the seedling encouraging the tap root to move lower. The third watering the soil is soakedsoil is soaked companion in my system is a regular plastic watering can. In this way I conserve water as it is distributed exactly as desired without any wastage at a very low cost, I must add. Transplanting poppies has never been all that successful in my journey but I have heard of a method that sounds like it may have merit.

The method that I am talking of is that of planting a bunch of seeds in a pot, container, peat pot, something that can be placed directly into the ground with minimum interference. Keep the medium moist. As poppy likes a well draining, ph. neutral soil nearing acidic there are alot of options. For seedlings soaking the medium in a combination of something like Seasol always scores me healthier looking seedlings. It is worth experimenting as there are an increasing amount of beneficial products coming out all of the time. I have a worm farm so I like to use a very light combination of diluted (very diluted, like 5 times as much as one would normally dilute it for use 10 parts water to one part worm juice so that would be 50 parts water to 1 part worm juice.) Experiment with these amounts but don't go too hard, seeds are packed with a fair amount of proteins to get them started so they don't actually require any help to sprout bar water and light so the nutrients are for the seedling. Seeds are amazing little packages of life! It never ceases to amaze me how the tiniest seeds can grow into the most beautiful, complex expressions of life.

Peat pot are possible to us but I find that I nust "loosen" the peat inside or else the peat is too compact and will not let the roots pass through. Loosened, this is entirely different working well, planting numerous seeds so that the seedlings on the oustside will always protect the ones on the inside.

My advice, as far as soil mix would be to use chook manure (cow manure is good also,poppies love a soil that is highin phosphorus, any type of manure is good, maybe not mushroom manure because one thing you definitely don't wantis any fungi problems. Fast draining soil is probably the most important factor. You do not want to see water sitting on top of your soil. I found a type of seeds they sell in Bunnings. If you have any soil you are not entirely happy with buy a few packs of soil conditioning seeds. They contain barley, legumes, and a few other types of plants that convert nitrogen from the air intonitrogen for the soil ! This conditions it, creating really good aeration. I am an eco-warrior so I will grow lettuce, let it grow outand then the soil is ready for a plant that needs phosphorus (such as poppy!). When the poppies have grown out their life cyclethe soil is ideal for lettuce, basil, any leaf bearing plants you can think of, virtually!

MY GOLDEN RULE

: Plant the seeds on top of the gound. If you have to sprinkle some soil across it then it will not harm anything but is not necessary. Poppy seeds need light to germinate. Use a mister, I use a 2 and a half litre super mister that puts out a huge thin mist. You can use a spray bottle, I like themister because I can mist over a large area. Mist the soil until seedlings appear. Once seedlings appearwater them, keeping the soil dampish but not too damp. Water, making sure that the watergoes at leastas deep as taproots and deeper to encourage the taproot to grow. Plant more than you need, that way you can thin out the bigger ones, keeping the more uniform plants.That way you end up being able to grow more. One per foor is the generlally given rule.

[2Deep2Handle]

Man this is all awsome advice! Awsome write-up for a newbie...will help me get some of your exotic ones i got going....i assume wait unitil spring for em?

Only gripe is i was under the impression that legumes fixated NITRGOGEN from the air into the soil?.....phosphorous too?

[Stillman]

Awesome hypothetical advice only grannies grow poppies....

[Joshie]

Any plant in the legume family converts nitrogen from the air, making it available in the soil. Just noticed the bad grammar and spelling mistakes in my article that

I thought was awesome! Lets just say that I was very tired, okay!!!

Joshie.

Edited June 23, 2012 by Joshie

[mutant]

nice article thanks

[~Sneaky]

My soil mixture is quiet odd but it works amazingly its a bit pricey though-

Mix Potting soil 3/6th , Perlite 1/6, Vermiculite 1/6 and Mushroom compost 1/6th.

Funny thing is i just started growing poppies and they grew hugggge! Mine are between half a meter to a meter tall! with huge cabbage like leafs, they're wonderful Plants.

[Joshie]

Autumn Planting - Thats another story, Wow, they grow much better if planted in Autumn, about half way through.

They kind of just lay around all Winter not doing all that much, with sporadic growth spurts, and then they just go

off. At the farm we see plants near a metre tall at this time of year, I will post a few pics in another post.

Joshie.

[Bread Filter]

Autumn Planting - Thats another story, Wow, they grow much better if planted in Autumn, about half way through.

They kind of just lay around all Winter not doing all that much, with sporadic growth spurts, and then they just go

off. At the farm we see plants near a metre tall at this time of year, I will post a few pics in another post.

Joshie.

 

Wow. Do you work on one of the Tassie farms or something?

[mindperformer]

Poppies don't like to get repotted. Disturbing the root system often results in the death of the plants. They like a greater distance to one another and hardly thrive indoors, they like sunlight, rich soil with a bit of lime and differences in day/ night- temperature.

Papaver setigerum, the Dwarf Breadseed Poppy- possibly an ancestor of Papaver somniferum from south-europe:

Papaver setigerum- pod 24-fold:

Papaver somniferum var. nigrum with pods:

Papaver somniferum var. glabrum- seed 24-fold:

Papaver somniferum var. gigantheum- seed 24-fold:

Papaver somniferum- pod from turkey 24-fold:

Edited August 26, 2012 by mindperformer

[mindperformer]

interesting, I didn't try coco peat for poppies.

the tasmanian poppy is a selection that contains very little morphine, but is rich in thebain, right?

[Stillman]

They grow at least two strains in Tas. From what I have read the thebain strain is visually undetectable from the other. whether its these seeds that make it into the supermarket, I don't know. There probably is some official literature somewhere.I would think the industry would have to be one of Tasmanias' biggest.

[Bigred]

my friends farm both will ask him but the ones they grew when we where there white with purple spots coco works great its the ultimate media always get maximum results i always got told the supermarket ones were either treated or inactive strains

Edited August 26, 2012 by bigred82

[Bigred]

mind performer your sick lookinf poppy look likes you transplanted it and the cold got to it

[mindperformer]

you mean the Papaver setigerum- plant?

it's not really sick but a littlebit, but it flowered and made a pod. Of course it had not the ideal conditions, growing in a pot on the balcony, besides it got spidermites. It generally has small pods.

The Papaver somniferum were absolutely healthy growing in the garden.

Edited August 27, 2012 by mindperformer

[nabraxas]

From what I have read the thebain strain is visually undetectable from the other. whether its these seeds that make it into the supermarket, I don't know.

Tazmania grows 2 types ov poppy.

the high thebaine strain Norman, & the high morphine strain Tazzie.

the seeds from the Norman strain are all destroyed after harvest to protect the company's investment.

only the normal Tazzie strain seeds are sold for culinary purposes.

http://www.justice.tas.gov.au/poppy/the_industry/uses_for_the_poppy_crop

As to telling the difference between the two strains i've heard that the Norman strain has more "hairs" on the stem. I don't kow how true that is, but if i were growing some poppies & a couple came out looking significantly more "hairy" than the rest, i'd leave it alone.

[mindperformer]

thanks for insightful information, nabraxas

very interesting.

Here in Austria (in the Waldviertel) the cultivation of poppies for food is a very old tradition since stoneage. You can get everything from poppy-pesto to poppy-chocolate. The strains are low in morphine, but still work against pain. Many traditional sweet main courses are made with poppy-seed here in Austria, for example Mohnnudeln and Germknödel.

Poppy-seed does not contain any morphine but contingent on the automatic harvest, there are always remains of the latex on the seed, wich can be washed with cold water...

Edited August 27, 2012 by mindperformer

[planthelper]

and in the waldviertel, you can see aswell at times, big advertising space covered with a slogan like, "we are proud of our waldviertler poppy",

and the attractive girl posterchild is depicted in a hugh poppy field.

unthinkable for other people...

beautifull soft rolling hills covered with poppy flowers, wherever the eye looks, all is red, it's sooooo beautyfull.

Edited August 28, 2012 by planthelper

[Evil Genius]

Hi Mindperformer and Planthelper, i once saw a doco about the austrian food poppies and they called the strain "graumohn" which means grey poppies or something like that and was always interested in finding out more. But it is a strain from the somniferum species, right? They didnt say if its another species or just a variety thats low in alkaloids. bye Eg

[planthelper]

i think it's called grey poppy because the seeds are grey in color, yep definately somni!

another one is called blue poppy, but i don't know much more.

at the biggest country market in vienna (naschmarkt), one can buy all different sorts of poppy seeds.

if i visit vienna, the first few day's i always binge on all sorts of poppy items, my favorite is the mohnstrudel, yuuuuummmy! you can even lick, poppy icecream!!!

Edited August 28, 2012 by planthelper

[mindperformer]

its like planthelper wrote, the seeds are grey, they are P. somniferum and the pods contain only little alkaloids in the Waldviertler Graumohn.

In the Waldviertel you can also get white and black poppy, but they are not as traditional...

Here some poppy-foods from Austria:

honey with white poppy-seeds:

the poppy-pesto:

and poppy oil:

there are many hemp-products too, but this will get its own thread ;-)

Edited August 28, 2012 by mindperformer

[planthelper]

and in indonesia they would jail you for eating a poppy bagel, the world has gone crazy!

[mindperformer]

really? i didn't know that... for a poppy bagel?

there is iodized poppy seed oil in indonesian kitchen, but you're right, indonesia has one of the most restrictive laws against drugs:

http://www.travelwireasia.com/2012/02/kerobokan-prison-blues-tourists-and-indonesias-harsh-drug-laws/

Edited August 29, 2012 by mindperformer

[planthelper]

in oz we say. don't let the truth spoil a good story.

poppy bagels are illegal in indonesia, i'm sure a repeat offender would be punished by the law over there.

poppy seeds are illegal there!

[mindperformer]

yeah, you're right, ;-)... I understand,

then its only the oil which is legal there?

[Stillman]

Alot of the white poppy seeds (the actual white seeds) are used in Indian and Middle Eastern food in desserts and also savouries Its a very traditional and important ingredient in certain curries etc . Its called Khas khas over there apparently from the rattly sound of the seeds in the pod.

Edited August 29, 2012 by Stillman