Castor Bean contest?

Hee heee Thats good to hear, since I was shooting for the Jungle look!

Beautiful pic, Mollybee

Here are mine at 11 1/2 ft.

This message was edited Thursday, Aug 21st 10:55 AM

I'd like a picture of Bruce when he tries to get them out of the ground this fall. LOL!!

Will have to break that to him . . . gently!

LOL!Chef!!!!He odesn't know what he is in for!They look great!I can not believe how they came on for you!!!Amazing!

Sooooooooooo, how does one dig them out?

Very carefullllly! Sorry I couldn't resist! Although the roots do go to china!!

;0)

My Red.Carmincitra(Sp?)

Okay....great pictures you guys and I'm not even in the running. Now, I have a stupid question. I've never harvested the seeds before and tonight I picked some dried ones. How the heck do you get the seed out of the pod sections. Those things are like armor.

Brugie, if you just seperate the four seed sections, put them in a brown paper bag in a dry place, they will pop on their own :)

I'm way behind everyone, here's mine sofar

LOL!!!I let some sit in a shoe box over winter,they would pop from time to time and shoot a seed across the floor,good thing I don't have castors growing out of dustbunnies!Let them dry,I put them dry in a shoe box,stood and ran my foot over them in a tennis shoe.it will get them out of the husk!

I actually put them on a sheet one year on the front porch where my dogs couldn't get to them. Covered the sheet with aluminum foil.............those things popped all over the place and then I just picked them up. First year I grew them I harvested 3000 seeds. That was when I began to garden........LOL

Thanks. I thought I was going to have to get a chisel and hammer out and beat the husk off of them.

we posted at the same time Brugie, have another suggestion for ya above your post

Since I have never collected seeds, does anyone have pics of what you are talking about? I am a visual learner and need help!

here's the actual seeds

http://www.sewamart.com/products/farmproducts/castor_seed.htm

the round ball looking soft spiney things are the seed pods

http://www.pwbelg.clara.net/seeds/Seedpics/Ricinis_communis2.jpg

This message was edited Thursday, Aug 21st 10:30 PM

Thanks flowox. Mine seem to be just popping out when I pick them. Will have to go look again.

Thanks Susan. I'm not going to harvest all of them, just enough to share a few and plant a few next year. After I try digging them out of the ground, I may even change my mind about planting them again. A couple of them would make a good bonfire for a couple of hours.

Brugie, no need to dig them out of the ground, just cut them down and the weather will take care of the rest

I want to till my bed this fall and put a cover crop on it, so I have to get the roots out. I've had brugs that didn't decay away and these things are much, much, bigger than brugs. Almost scary when I look at the size of the trunks.

but they don't root like the brugs :)
shouldn't bee too hard to get them out of the ground and they don't come back from the roots anyway but I know what you mean. Good luck with your cover crop next year!!!

Mine don't look anything like yours.

They will Chef,the red flower will wilt after it is pollenated,then the seed swells.

Thanks Root,
This morning ~ tried to email you and it bounced.

TLC,just hit you back.

Mine may not be the tallest, but I know for a fact that mine is the strongest! My concrete castor bean leaf cast-

This message was edited Tuesday, Aug 26th 7:58 PM

Here is the 'model' plant in my front bed!

Kristi,I have to learn how to do that!!Nice color on yours,I thought your first pic was a dry leaf!LOL!Do you have a thread showing how to make the concrete ones?

That is beautiful, Datdog! How did you achieve that color, did you color the concrete or paint?

Whew, that leaf is beautiful.

hmmmm looks like I need to try this on one of my castor bean leaves too. I also have a HUGE elephant ear leaf that would make a good one.

I wanna know more!!

Now that you mention it Mollybee,I have a EE that would make a nice patio!

Thanks! Here you go guys! I use 1 part portland cement to 3 parts sand PLAY sand. I add a concrete fortifier and a concrete stain. The color I used for the above leaf was buff. You add enough water to make the mix wet, but not gooey. You don't want it to slide off your leaf.
Place the wet mix on top of your leaf to a thickness of 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cover with some plastic wrap and let sit for 24 hours. I cheat and turn them over at about 12 hours- but be warned, they will sometimes break.

The above castor bean was the hardest leaf I've done. All the serration and detail in the leaf was a 'B' to cast and get it to come our right. Took a lot of work to get it to look right after I took the leaf off. The best leaves to use are those with lots of veins and detail. I love the serrated leaves, but that is a ton of work to get them to keep their character when they are unmolded. Try using a hosta leaf. That seems to be the easiest. The EE ear leaves turn out good, but don't have as much detail/veining. So it looks kind of smooth to me. Have fun, practice makes perfect. Let me know if you have any more questions.

Garden Gate magazine will be coming out with an article on these in the future. We saw several in different colors when we visited their test gardens last Friday.

Thank you for the info ~ would like to try this; just don't what to do with it after it is finished! Theirs were cupped slightly like for a birdbath. But they had them just laying around . . kinda like garden art.

Here is my Royal Thai castor. It has some huge leaves. Kinda like Doc says....big enough to be a patio. Just took this picture a day or two ago. It sure won't win the tallest castor bean prize, but it is definitely a pretty one and doesn't seem to go to seed as readily.

The early worm gets eaten by the bird, so sleep late. (Unknown Quote)

Hey Shirley, if you are not completely overtaken with requests, will you save me a few of those?

Hi Rootdoctor and everybody else, I have a castor been plant right now that is between thirteen and one half to fourteen foot tall. I don't have a picture yet but I will be taken one soon. Root Doctor my malanga is also doing well.

Fantastic!Glad to hear from you ClaytonDT!!!You could be leading at that Height!

Sure Michele. That is if the seeds have time to mature. The seed head has just formed, waaaaaaay up there at the top. I would think that another month or so would be enough time. I picked seed from the Red Spire, Green Spire, and Dwarf Green tonight. Remind me in October, okay?