Poppy flowers (somniferum) anyone?

[fractal]

I love poppy flowers and finally got some started. Seeds can be expensive, 10-30 bucks for a teaspoon full! What I did instead was order some dried poppy pods online and they all came chock full of seeds, maybe a 1/4 pound of seeds in a 60 dollar box of pods.

After you make some nice herbal tea with the crushed pods, and decide you like those particular poppies the seeds sprout easily in well drained soil. The sprouts are tiny and develop into weird looking weedy cabbage type growth.

Poppies in flower are really beautiful, the way they throw up a slender stalk and develop a bulb on top, which opens up into a colorful flower around june. Then the petals drop, and you can cut and dry the pods to begin the cycle over again! Legally though you are not supposed to milk them for opium, I'm not here to talk about that though.

Papaver somniferum is an essential and beautiful plant with huge importance to human well being, I would like to see your guys' poppy flowers so post them up.

 

[convex]

Standing guard while the troops sleep ...

 

[nor cali farmer]

they grow wild here in cali

 

[Seamaiden]

Papaver somniferum may be able to naturalize itself here in Cali, but it's not a naturally growing wild plant here. The California poppy (Eschscholzia californica) is, and I am currently popping a lovely variety that is pale pink with a darker center. And fractal isn't kidding about how small the sprouts are, I've never seen such a tiny sprout except on mosses.

I have never seen P. somniferum seeds going for that much money, either. I'm pretty sure I saw the usual Ferry-Morse seed packets at Lowe's going for $2-$3 or so, maybe even less.

 

[junior]

:flower

 

[Jimmynitz]

they grow wild here in cali

I think you mean California Poppies, like Seamaiden said....those likely aren't somniferum's growing wild in Cali.

I've been sitting on a pack of persian white's I've had for a while now..got them from a now-shutdown supplier out of B.C....just been too paranoid to start them here in suburbia along with what else I'm growing..........:weed-sign:

 

[winta]

i dont have any ....yet im just here to learn :)

 

[nor cali farmer]

i stand corrected!!!

 

[foolsgold]

when to milk?

 

[Seamaiden]

When they show up at the barn door mooing, that's when you milk.

I think you mean California Poppies, like Seamaiden said....those likely aren't somniferum's growing wild in Cali.

I've been sitting on a pack of persian white's I've had for a while now..got them from a now-shutdown supplier out of B.C....just been too paranoid to start them here in suburbia along with what else I'm growing..........:weed-sign:

I wouldn't be. They're commonly sold as landscaping plants. On the corner of the main highway and the road leading out of town up here there's a huge, huge bed of them in front of a little business park. They're perennials, only bloom in white and I betcha nobody would know the difference.

 

[7rayos]

When the petals fall and the pod stands fat, as seen in the smiley face up there.

 

[foolsgold]

lol. was about to change my comment to "when to milk a cow" thats some funny shit.

 

[Jalisco Kid]

I do not know but I've been told you milk them when that beveled ring below the pod turns dark. Poppies are good for the People but not for all persons.She is a wicked bitch to serve. Suerte JK

 

[fractal]

That's about the best way to put it I can think of, she is a wicked bitch and gets her claws in fast. Takes a lot of willpower to date her on a regular basis.

Got to get some batteries in my camera, there are some beautiful blooms coming out right now and one dropped its first petal today :character0103:

 

[fractal]

Here they are

 

[TortureKill]

I planted sum persian whites, and another blue variety directly in the ground outdoors early spring. None have come up. Im bummed. I have a few pinches of seed left, was thinking about st arting indoors. How do u start urs ? Is it too late to start em?

TK

 

[Seamaiden]

I think going from seed they need a season to really get established. My California poppies are still really super tiny (they're in my veg-table). Still just cotyledon leaves on them.

Those are very pretty poppies, fractal!

 

[Illmind]

I take it you guys don't process the juice.. I always wondered if you could grow in process good ish in the states. I'm sure it can be done but I also was told you need like fields upon fields just to produce a respectable amount of Big pharmas money maker.

 

[fractal]

They do produce only a small amount of resin per pod, I can't even estimate how much yield per acre. I'm starting to think I want to start a "medical opium" movement since the pot thing is totally played out here in cali. Opium for the masses!

Would be a great idea to move out into the sticks and grow an acre or two, even selling the dried pods would be a huge money maker and totally legal.

 

[RonMac559]

Im not familiar with poppy cultivation, are they strain specific as far as the "juice" they produce??? or can you milk any old poppy pod??