Is it too late to grow opium poppies in South East england?

[atv]

Hi,

I've been reading and researching about growing poppies and heard they should be planted in the spring to be ready to harvest by the end of the summer.

Although, since the winter has seemed to go on forever this year would it be possible to theoretically plant them now for harvest at the end of summer still or has the boat sailed?

Any other tips? I heard you could just sprinkle onto the ground in a field that catches a lot of sun without preparing the soil too much.

Summary of questions:

1. Is it really this easy?

2. Do you need to cut the grass or anything before (its quite short few inches probably)

3. How long could one expect to wait until they are ready to harvest if one sowed today?

4. How do you know when it is ready for harvest?

5. Instead of 'milking' and leaving to dry on site could you not just cut the pods off and do this elsewhere or must it be done while still in the ground?

6. Papaver Somniferum Lilac Pom Poms are the seeds in question. Do they produce a good yield?


Any other tips would be great. Also as I'm noob if anyone thinks this would get more responses in a different section could they re direct it please? Would be very grateful for the answers to these questions.

***This is just for theoretical research, one fully understands the legal implications of this process therefore wouldn't be silly enough to do it***

 

[Tommyboy]

I'm going to move this to your regional forum, but I'm not sure if their rules will allow it so it might get closed.

Homeless --> EADD

 

[Ceres]

plant the seeds now, sprinkle on broken earth and roughly cover over,, they will grow like mad and don't require much maintenance atall. They are a pernicious weed.

 

[BlindHelperMonkey]

growing anything halfdecent this year may be a bit difficult. what happened to the seasons

 

[Ceres]

mine have only just started growing, they are about 3 inches wide across the leaves. They will do fine.

 

[Foreigner]

Poppies love sun and as they flower they need well draining soil. But keep in mind that plants grow according to daylight length. Even if the sun is not out as much, the day is still longer, so they will still grow. But more sun is better for poppies.

If you plant the poppies now and the summer isn't an extended one, then they probably won't reach maturity, but they'll establish and come up next spring.

 

[pinkpapaver]

yeha, I think they're ideally best planted early winter/winter. I had loads last year, but there were loads everywhere last year. Yeah, I think they're coming late this year like everything else. no need to panic. A bit of sun and everything 'll be up nicely.

 

[Ceres]

yeah the sun/rain cycle at the moment is doing plants a lot of good.

 

[mydrugbuddy]

They need a lot of sunshine as they start developing their own pods. Too much rainy weather is bad at this point. That was exactly what happened last year; it rained constantly after a gardener i know planted some, it rained constantly from the moment his pods podded. As a result his gigs only produced very small heads. Maybe he tried to pack in too many in to too small an area. Whatever may be the case they were stronger than old brown dried pods. The fresher and greener the better (as soon as the crown turns upwards they are ready)

IIRC the time taken from the sowing of the seeds to the pods developing to full maturity was about 3 months.

This guy has twice had all his seeds successfully germinated. He planted his seeds as soon as winter was over. The seedlings appeared in about 2 days ! You could plant now, and get a crop in before winter. You can also plant during winter, but i don't get the point, as the seeds will only remain dormant until the spring anyway.

 

[atv]

plant the seeds now, sprinkle on broken earth and roughly cover over,, they will grow like mad and don't require much maintenance atall. They are a pernicious weed.

Ok great. I did this in a few different areas, but just on normal ground in fields. It was hard to find places where no people and dogs or animals are. Out of 5 plots i found two private unused land, and the other 3 public fields but off main footpaths. But not many people walk through these places. I ripped out some of the grass and sprinkled onto the soil but didn't really cover with soil just made sure they were in contact with it and also I'm worried about a couple of things.

- Some seeds were close together in small patches will they grow close together does that matter? I'm gonna be no good at going and spacing them out is this necessary, I just want to let nature take its course really and collect when ready!


- A couple of areas were in places that were not completely shaded but may not come into contact with direct sunlight for the whole day. For instance one patch had loads of weeds growing but a bit closer to the hedge where i planted there was just long grass which made me think maybe weeds weren't growing because of the sun, so I just ripped up the grass and sprinkled on soil


I also sprinkled some on a dis-used patch where there was some manure thinking that it would act as a fertilizer.

I must have planted about 300-400 hard to tell as they are so small.
A friend reckons he knows a good place where we could try as I have more than 100 left.

I'm so sceptical though! I've never planted a thing in my life and don't know if i did it properly, soil etc...I just have a feeling nothing will come of it, and I don't want to go and have to check on them all the time. When should i go check on them, in about 2 or 3 weeks will it noticeably sprouting? And how will i know its definitely a poppy sprout and not something else I'm a complete noob!

Also they are papaver somniferum lilac pom poms. Not the usual 4 leafed poppy, but still somniferum...anyone know much about these ones?

 

[swampdragon]

Ok great. I did this in a few different areas, but just on normal ground in fields. It was hard to find places where no people and dogs or animals are. Out of 5 plots i found two private unused land, and the other 3 public fields but off main footpaths.

Given they're legal to grow here and a lot of people (myself included) grow them as ornamentals, I wouldn't worry too much about the stealth thing.. (Unless you're somewhere where they're completely illegal.)

- Some seeds were close together in small patches will they grow close together does that matter? I'm gonna be no good at going and spacing them out is this necessary, I just want to let nature take its course really and collect when ready!

Should be okay, but bear in mind that poppies don't like to be transplanted. You should be okay thinning the seedling out once they've germinated though.

I also sprinkled some on a dis-used patch where there was some manure thinking that it would act as a fertilizer.

I seem to recall that poppies don't like fertilised soil - they generally prefer poorer meadow-stylee soils.

I'm so sceptical though! I've never planted a thing in my life and don't know if i did it properly, soil etc...I just have a feeling nothing will come of it, and I don't want to go and have to check on them all the time. When should i go check on them, in about 2 or 3 weeks will it noticeably sprouting? And how will i know its definitely a poppy sprout and not something else I'm a complete noob!

Generally, put seed in soil, water, wait. Check in a few weeks, yeah.. and you'll know what they are as there should be lots of the same thing in the same spot that you put the seeds.

 

[mydrugbuddy]

Should be okay, but bear in mind that poppies don't like to be transplanted. You should be okay thinning the seedling out once they've germinated though.

If you dig down several inches below the roots they have no problem being transplanted, but just pulling one out by its roots and trying to plant it somewhere else will not work. Pissing me off that no ones listening to me in this thread, white man speak the truth, but still gets ignored.

 

[swampdragon]

Well, depends how big the plant is.. mature poppies generally sulk if you disturb the roots at all. But yeah, little'uns don't mind it.