OK - I am obsessed. I keep missing the pods when they are ready and the seeds are blowing away. I made some Pod socks. I placed them on pods this morning ... I will let you know if they work. :) I took 2" wide mesh ribbon and sewed the edges - tied a knot and tada...
This message was edited May 6, 2009 12:13 PM
Nicely done Ruth! You can count on having a gazillions babies to come. Happy butterfly-gardening. :-)
Good idea and I would say your not obsessed just passionate.
Enjoy hope you get a ton!
I've done that. Actually, I have a bunch of those old knee high hose that I use.
I cheap knee highs just for that purpose too. They're easy to use and work well.
When you clip the seed pods off, put them in a paper bag to dry. Then you can shake the bag really good and they will release from the fluff. Don't open the bag inside! LOL!
Saw a thing somewhere on the internet.. put the seeds with fluff in a jar with a few coins .. shake and twirl it - the fluff winds itself into a ball.
I also read that if you cut the pods before they open the seeds won't germinate..
any oppinions?
From experience; seedpods aren't ripe until they crack open on its own. That's why bagging the seedpods helps in the end.
I have taken seed pods off just before a freeze was coming and put them in a paper bag. They would be green but continued to turn brown and dry fine. Not sure about the germination rate.
The jar discription sounds interesting. My mind saw a cotton candy type vision! LOL!
Ruth....give us feedback on the sock on the seed pod.
sock on the seed pod worked pretty well, In fact too well.
anyone need milkweed seeds? I think I have thousands..........:)
I've decided to just let them "volunteer" in my neighbors' yards.......for now.
My next project is to build a "nursery" for the Cats.
Saw a neat one in Birds&Blooms made from and old medicine cabinet.
I knew it would work well. Congrats. Now,
a nursery for butterflies
these milkweed seeds that are blowing everywhere and the ones that we're pulling off and helping mother nature distrubute, will they come up this year or next year?
Yes, to both. They will come up this year, next year plus some. lol. Also, the A. tuberosa (Mexican MW) are hardy in my zone, so they should be in yours as well. Here winter frost will kill them back to the ground, and they will resprout in early spring. Mine did so in early March, and just now begun to send out flowers. Enjoy.
You just have to learn to recognize the seedlings so you won't yank them out prematurly!
I live in orlando and have a screened in lanai... i've noticed cats ... going from 13 one day to none the next. I read on line that wasps eat them. Buggers. I put 2 huge pots of milk weed on my lanai with those tomatoe cage things and collected 25 cats. I plan on buying some Tule.to cover them over to hold butterflies to release.
I'll let you know how it works.. and will post pictures .
thanks for the reply on my seed request info, also I keep getting so many yellow aphids on my milkweed, and I have been spraying them with an insect killer in a squirt bottle. Should I be killing those yellow aphids or not....looks like if I didn't kill them they would suck the milkweed to death....there are so many in no time flat, and they just apear out of nowhere. I don't find any catapillars on the milkweed, but the plant is growing fine and really putting out the seed so I keep harvesting the seeds and spreading them around so I may have milkweed "everywhere" next year.....Oh well, I'll pot it up and send it to the club plant sale....
I forgot I was going to send you all a pic of my plant
Sometimes, I will just have to hose them down. Some gentle scrubing to rub off the little aphids. Once they fall off the plant and land on the ground, they die because they can't crawl back up. If you use insecticide that will hurt your butterflies/caterpillars because the plants absorb the chemical, then when the caterpillars eat them they'll be poisoned.
When the weather was cooler, aphids were presence here. Ladybugs kept them in check. Now, the weather is too hot for those little soft body bugs. I don't see them anymore here, and I don't use hardly any chemical here.
Dayflower...
The aphids are a nusance sometimes, but if you hit them with the spray that will cut down the numbers. However, by spraying the pesticides you are eliminating the insects that eat the aphids too. Milkweed is the only plants the Monarch and Queen butterflies lay their eggs on. So the caterpillars of the future butterflies die. Please thoughtfully reconsider your choice.
I clip the plant stems with aphids and use them to root for new plants; plus clipping back causes the bush to be fuller...means more blooms. :-)
Monarch and Queen butterflies.....
OK, thanks for the tips, I'll try using the water spray and see if that'll work, I only have 2 big plants at this time and only one seems to be affected more than the other, try to ck it every day because D/H doesn't like the seed getting into the pool.
Hello - I released my first Monarch butterfly today.
I ended up not getting around to the "nursery" and just let them use the whole lanai.. they are everywhere. I have to watch where I walk.. LOL
I have 10 pupae (sp) and about 15 more cats, hard to tell - every time I look I find more.
picture is of pots with milkweed.
I have to buy more on my way home... not enough for all the cats.
Its a boy
he's drying his wings.
What's fun! Congrats Ruth on the newly eclosed butterflies!
