I fill a chinese food container (any clear container will do) with water and sprinkle the seeds in. Then I set it in the hottest, sunniest place that I can find. If you're starting them inside, a heating pad and light would work. As the seeds sprout a little white tail, I immediately prick it into soft soil. I like coco coir and perlite b/c the coco stays evenly nice and moist longer than potting mixes
Then I cover the seed with 1/8" of damp vermiculite and I mist it so everything gets wet but stays in place. I keep misting it until a little plant pokes up, then I use the regular hose shower.
After it produces it's first true set of leaves, I start feeding lightly. You'll want to use a diluted formula for coir and some epsom salt.
When they get to be about half a foot tall, I pinch it back so it'll make multiple branches. That sets the flowers back but it makes more food for the cats.
I realize that I could directly sow the seed or start them in vermiculite but I find this to be the easist and fastest way and with the highest germination rates. Starting them in vermiculite makes it inconvient because you can't stay ontop of it and the tap roots start growing and then I have to tuck them into the soil.
My super cool way to start tropical milkweed seed
Capt, thanks for the tip, one can never have enough butterfly weed. Which one - tuberosa? I'm going to try it. Usually I just throw them in my beds, but it's pretty hit and miss.
I was just thinking this week that I needed to try to start some or throw some seed out, just in case.
I usually do the "baggie method" and put the seeds in coffee filters in the baggie until they germinate then plant them. I've not done it with milkweed tho. How long is it taking your seeds to germinate?
fly_girl, last year I believe that it was CaptM that taught me how to re-root milkweed. If you have a cutting that you've been using for cats you can burn the end of it (probably should do it outside since milkweed is toxic) and put the stalk in water and it will quickly grow roots and you can replant it! It worked like a charm.
konkrete, wow, I'm always trimming them because they get tall and leggy. I usually just throw away the tops. Who's CaptM?
It's me! Lol.
I've been using this method with the tropical ones, like curassavica or fruticosa. Basically any ones that don't need stratification.
I did the sandwich bag with vermiculite method with my hardier milkweeds but first I soaked them in gibberellic acid to break the dormancy (I am NOT a patient person!) and I had very good results with that. Otherwise, they can take months in the frig. The acid doesn't work well on all seeds but milkweeds are one of the ones that do extremely well with it.
The acid is pretty expensive so I found a "fertilizer" with it that beats the packet price in comparison. Wormsway has it, MegaGro concentrate.
I don't use that on plants because it burns them very easily but it's very good for seeds.
I was thinking that I was never able to get milkweed seeds to germinate in the baggies, so I must be right. I have never heard of this "gibberellic acid" but it sounds scary! I doubt I'll go to that much trouble tho.
I'm impatient too so I've learned that just throwing seeds out and forgetting about them has relieved the stress of starting seeds for me. Oh, I can always do just what fly_girl is doing and cut off a piece and root it and have an instant new plant!
CaptM, what ever happened with your batch of cats last year that were running out of food? Did you find some? I ended up having too much milkweed and very few cats! :(
I don't want to think about that... VERY sad. I did everything I could but couldn't come up with nearly enough food for them.
I'll only breed them this year IF I have bunches of milkweed (which I think I will), if I can successfuly feed larvae defrosted leaves (that would be SO great for winter), I won't hand pair and I'll have to cull the herd.
I hand paired them and each female laid masses of eggs and I had a lot of females. Take away predation and desease, it was Mother Nature teaching me a lesson.
As a backup, I'd offer some to people via the insectnet.com forum and garden forums. And find some wild and rampant clumps of milkweed. But I really hope I won't have to, that it won't get out of control again.
Oh, that is sad. I didn't know you were breeding them. It seems like a noble thing to try and do and help the population but I guess nature does know best.
It's enough trouble for me to raise the ones that come naturally to my yard. I do hope to have more than last year tho. I've had Monarchs visiting for a few months now, which is a little unusual, but it's usually just one at a time so no eggs yet.
I'm being over-run by Black Swallowtails at the moment! (oh, which reminds me to go get more dill from outside!)
I've got some plants that are getting to be big but not big enough to feed the masses yet. I have Queen's daily too so I'm hoping for them too. I love them because the cats are have the blue and red in them. Do you have Queens in your area?
I don't think so, aren't they a western species?
I'm so excited about my milkweed collection, I'll have plently to share in a little while.
A. curassavica,
A. fruticosa,
Calotropis gigantea (didn't start the seed yet),
A. speciosa
A. latifolia,
A. verticillata,
A. asperula,
A. syriaca
A. incarnata (if I can get it to come up! The roots are alive)
A. tuberosa
A. hallii
A. purpurascens
Cynanchum laeve
... I guess you might say I'm a little obsessed?
WOW, I'm impressed.
I cant even find A, Gigantea.
FRYI,
I put some stalks though the lid of a take out plastic container and forgot about them. When I re-discovered them, they had roots- no burning necessary. The only drawback was the roots were at the very end. Next time, I'll try scratching the middle part to encourage roots there to see if I can get them to anchor better.
Maggie
I didn't even know there were that many different kinds!! Are you just now starting to grow these or do you have any pics of blooming plants? Why are you obsessed with them? Just for the Monarchs? Do you have a Waystation sign? I have meant to get mine since they started it and never remember!
Hi, everybody--
Read through the thread from top to bottom and thanks for the good tips on milkweed culture.
I started several kinds using the Wintersowing method and got some good results, but yours seem sure-fire, using the 'dino' or the chinese food carton method and I will try that next.
I have not had good luck overwintering my A. tuberosas in zone 6a, but maybe they are getting too much water and rotting out? From this culture sheet, it seems like they should be easy to grow--
http://www.hardyplants.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=SP&Product_Code=ATGM-A6&Category_Code=Asss
So yesterday I bought several Curassavica 'Silky Deep Red' for a dollar each at the garden center sale, but maybe I should go back and get more in anticipation of lots of Monarch visitors...sounds like you can never have enough milkweed!
http://www.hardyplants.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=SP&Product_Code=4XS1&Category_Code=Asss
Koncrete--'Specialty Perennials' has lots of different kinds of milkweed seeds if you are interested in trying a range. They don't seem to have A. gigantea, though...
CaptM-- I hope you are entering your asclepias collection in PF. I am especially interested in seeing a pic of the whole plant, because maybe I am (stupidly) pulling out my milkweed babies, thinking they are weeds? That couldn't be true, could it?! (Yes, I'm afraid to say!)
Happy gardening this weekend, everybody!
I was considering the way station thing but I didn't feel like spending the $15?. I wonder why they charge money for that kind of thing if they're trying to get people to help the monarchs. I would definably have done it if it were free or just had to pay s&h.
My milkweed obsession was for the monarchs, still is but I also just really like them for some reason. I think gigantea will take the cake for making the most food but I'm just trying a different bunch to see which is best to use while breeding. The hardier ones I want to put in my new butterfly garden when it gets built. It'll be a milkweed exhibition of sorts.
I have pictures of the regular ones, swamp, common, tropical and honey vine. The rest I have are just started.
Maggie, I found gigantea on ebay from a seller in India, I can give you their name if you'd like.
The tuberosa likes to have a dry winter, otherwise it rots and if the ground stays wet, I'd think that it would freeze deeper too.
Of course I'm gonna enter them in the database! I'm proud of my little milkweed babies! Lol. It's true, you can never get enough milkweed. I'm even saving every single common milkweed runners.
After last year's incident, I don't ever want to run out of milkweed again. I'm going to try feeding a few larvae leaves that were frozen and see how that works out. That would be great so I can have a steady supply through the winter.
I decided to put 2 cats in a big jar and try to raise them. I hadn't been seeing any for about a month, but lots of assassin nymphs. They're really growing fast, but sometimes they stop eating for a day or so, and I think they aren't going to make it. Then they start eating again. Are they resting, sleeping? It probably is tireing to eat nonstop. Any ideas?
What's the temperature you're raising them in? The colder it is, the less active they are and the less they'll eat.
fly,
they seem to rest when they are changing from one instar to the next.There is alot of cellular changes taking place in order to grow a new body and shed the old.
I've noticed in the very very small 1st and 2nd instar larva sometimes they rest for along time and then shed and you see a long shaped outline of the cat in the frass left behind on the milkweed leaf.
A True life adventure.
Don
Yes, they do get very still before shedding their skin. And maybe they ARE resting from all that eating. It would wear me out!