Milkweed seeds

Well, I think the season is over (This is my first year growing milkweed for my girl scouts) and the milkweed is now 5 feet tall. I was going to cut them back today but I found many seed pods on them. What can I do to preserve these seeds? Should I let it grow more?...when do you know the right time to pull the pods? Then what do I do? Open them up and just lay them out to dry in the sun?

Please help
Chris

The pods should get dry on the plant and turn brown. They will start to crack open. Then they are to be picked.

Darn, How long is that process approx? I really wanted to cut these things back but the seeds are important to me. We are in Florida if that makes a difference and right now many of the pods are at least 2 1/2 inches long

The seeds are real "hairy" looking kinda like esperanza seeds (tecoma stans) if you have ever seen those. They will reseed like crazy here in Houston.

The pods will turn brown and the silky hairs will puff out of the split that opens up. If you want to save the seeds, bag the pods with an old piece of pantyhose. Tie loosley at the stem. The pods can go ahead and mature without you losing any seeds....Milkweed makes tons of seeds though.

Until the pods turn brown and dry, you will not have viable seeds...they will be too inmature to germinate. Sounds like they are about the right size for mature pods, so you shouldn't have to wait a whole lot longer.

You can pick them when the outside starts to turn purple and bring them in the house.
They will finish ripening and split open when ready. See my post in the thread for pictures I just took this morning of my asclepias opening.
Jan...

they will open in the house - that's what I did. Boy, what a pain to clean those seeds. The hairs are so fine and get all over!

Anita, just put the entire pods in a paper envelope and let them sit in a cool dry place until Spring. They will usually drop off by themselves in storage. Then you just shake them out of the envelope. Much easier, works for me.
Andy P

oh...excellent!! I'll remember that for next year. Thanks Andy!

Anita

Actually, I do that with many seed. I think they store better within their own shell.
Andy P

sound advice - thank you

If you like to replant them right away, remove them as soon as the pod splits but before the fluff has a chance to dry. They will brush right off leaving the fluff intact. You can then use the seeds or dry and store them. Then you won't have to deal with the fluff flying out at you or all over the house if you open the envelope inside, in the spring.

Be carefull tho of my mistake last year. I brought 3 of my seed pods to my store to plant on a Friday. Forgot about them on Saturday.....am closed Sun. and Mon. Tuesday morning I had seeds floating all around the office area because of the ceiling fan. Many, many seeds all over the place. Picked up all that I could and threw them out in the back yard. Three months later, still was finding milkweed seeds.

PS to self at the time: Use pantyhose !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

LOL!
The same thing happened to me a few years ago. I took some cattail along the road to make a bouquet, left them a few hour in my car were temperature rose, and they litteraly exploded in some kind of fluffy mess. LOL!

This message was edited Jan 16, 2006 8:27 AM

Hi. I do drieds, and am here smiling at the fun with the milkweed and cattails. I was given a new batch of cattails (they are an escape here) and as before, I coated the heads with varethane (liquid plastic), drilled a hole in the stem, and hung upside-down to dry. They took a while to dry....... and I still had some burst open later on display. The first sign of a fluff emerging, out they go. I concluded that a second coat of varethane would have prevented the problem. Milkweed I have been given for use in dried arrangements - it is a fabulous item in a mixed dried bouquet. I have tried to grow it here w/o success. They must need a lot of heat. Pic is downhill view of my dahlia bed - sw corner of 5 acres.

Bill in SE Newfoundland zone 5a (our 3 day summer in Jan is over)

Did not know it was summer in NF; here in Montreal, its freezing though the forecast for tomorrow is rain with strong winds
;-))

I take the pods and when they are ripe I open them into a brown lunch sized bag close the bag and shake the dickens out of it. I then take the bag outdoors and empty it onto a plate and let the fluff fly away. I have a plate of clean seeds left behind to store. I store mine over the winter in the fridge.

I am so glad i found a thread on milkweed. I need to grow some for my monarch butterflys garden i ws a bit unsure how to grow them but i feel more confident now.Can anyone give me anymore advice, are they pretty easy?
thanks
sue

Sue, when I planted them as seeds it took a couple of years for them to flower. I don't know if it was just the conditions they were growing in, or if this is the norm.

Hi, taynors,

I noticed on the Wintersowing site that you can 'winter sow' milkweed and that is what I am doing.

If you would like info on how to wintersow check out the Wintersowing Forum:

http://davesgarden.com/forums/f/coldsow/all/

I am trying to start from seed 3 kinds of milkweed, so we shall see! I hope the Monarchs will like it, anyway! t.

I've been reading this thread since the start.
I wonder, is Asclipias Tuberosa 'Butterfly Weed' included when talking about Milk Weed in general?
I grow the B'Weed.
Andy P

Well, I include it, and it's one that I am trying to grow from seed this year, although I had it in my garden last year from a nursery plant. (I hope it comes back.) Some times it takes a while to come into bloom, I guess.

Do you grow it from seed? Wintersowing?

I have read a lot of places about cutting the plant down at the end of the season and hanging it upside down for the seed pods to finish maturing. Does that only apply to some plant? I used that with some Morning Glories and it worked really well (I mean I didn't hang it upside down - how could I lol) but I cut the vine and brought it into the shop to dry out.

Well then, They are very easy from seed and they re-seed themselves easily if you let them.
Here is a pic from last Fall. A cluster of 5 plants Asclipeas Tuberosa 'Butterfly Weed' in full seed.
If I want to save seed, I pick the pods at this stage. Put the whole pods in a paper bag and forget them until Spring. Shake the bag and pour out the seed.
Andy P

You may ask why I plant them so tightly?
So they can look like this.
Mixed color 'Gay Butterflies'. There is supposed to be a red in the mix, but I never had one.
Andy P

Yes, they do attract B'Flies, and feeds the 'cats', too.
Andy P

OOOOOOOOh AAAAAAAH purty flower
Do the catapillars eat the milk weed ? or just the butterdly weed? i want to grow it for food for the catapillars.
So it takes a few seasons to get it to flower milk weed? Windy?
Sarahskeeper i love the pics ,i m all over the link you gave .
thank
sue

Up here in Zone 6 the B'fly weed flowers the second year. They can be difficult to transplant, in part because of the large tap roots. I've also found broken roots grow into new plants, go figure.
If you have a 'nursery' with soft soil they are easier to move, otherwise put them in their permanent place as young seedlings. Don't cramp the roots in 'too' small cells.
Move yearlings in very early spring just as they wake up.

Taynors, Yes the caterpillars eat the plant and the adults drink the nectar.

My best B'Fly attractors are the B'Fly Bush, Buddliea, but they only feed the adults with nectar.
Andy P

I will sure look into the imfo you gave me tobasco .
thanks windy i hope mine do ok this yr, My neighbor who is a master gardener told me it is just a weed and to dig it up, well it was my first yr here in ohio and new to gardening so i was picking it like a weed and throwing it away, AAAAhhhhg :( Well i know better know . So i m growing it on our property line just to be mean, mewhhahahaha. I don't understand why she told me it was a bad weed??
hmm go figure
sue

Maybe you can tell her that it is a host plant to the catterpillars of the Monarch butterfly. Surely you can teach her a thing or two. LOL

You flowers do look great! :-D Do you know if it is too late to wintersow milkweed? I have some to try this year, but I have never wintersown them.

I think as long as it's cold at night and 'chilly' in shirtsleeves during the day, you can still winter sow, or so they say on the Wintersown.org site.

I am wintersowing more Milkweed this week along with lots of other stuff.

I am going to soak my seeds in the 3% hydrogen peroxide/water solution (1 part to 20 parts) for a few hours first though... probably not needed but I'm experimenting.

taynors, interesting about your master gardener neighbor's opinion of milkweed, but I guess any plant, even a rose, in the wrong place would be considered a weed... I think sometimes the MG programs don't have enough time to cover all the interesting details of gardening--many can just hit the highlights from what I've seen of the curricula.

She will be surprised when you have all those beautiful Monarchs this summer!

I am planting Pipevine seeds, a larval plant for the Swallowtails, too. Also parsley, rue, and several others wintersower seeds for the swallowtails. Butterflies really make the garden come alive at least I think so, some gardeners don't agree though!

p.s. Where is St. Paris, Ohio?

We have tons of milkweed growing native here along the margin of the pond. I've left them when I cleaned out the less desireable weeds for the Monarchs. If you need more seed, just d-mail me come seed time. I'd be happy to send pods or seed for the flutter-by's!

I am so fascinated with this wintersowing and H202 mix that I am trying to do anything I can to get stuff growing. This year gardening is a real blast for me.

Thanks sstateham for your offer of Milkweed seed this summer. I will d-mail you this summer if I find I need more for my Monarchs.

Obviously I am fascinated by the WSing too, and find it a 'blast' so far-- I will really be bummed out, though, if nothing comes up!

I am so bad at growing under lights and I would love to stay on budget with plant buying this year, so I am really hoping the WS works well for me!

Thought I would cross link this thread with another that is discussing Milkweed in the Perennial Forum...

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/578460/

Lots of interest in Milkweeds this spring...

Hope later we will have lots of discussion about Monarchs on the Butterfly Forum, too!

I'm trying wintersowing for the first time this year. I'm keeping my fingers crossed! If I can get even 50% of what I planted I'll be in plant heaven.

Stacy