Some people do not realize the same poppy seed that is on your bagel are the same seeds that opium poppies are grown from. Now you may wonder why I would post a thread about growing opium poppies if the seeds are virtually unobtainable. Well their not.
The same seeds that you see in your local grocery store for baking are opium seeds. The company that produces these seeds say they are sterile or heated enough as to not be able to germinate. This is true.
However in a small, regular size bottle of seeds in the spice section has probably (this is a
way rough estimate) several thousand seeds.
Now this is the important part. There are so many seeds in the bottle that maybe 1 out of 300 will germinate. Trust me I've seen it and this guy who is not me has done it. Just place them in a
very lightly damp paper towel. The towel cannot be too wet as the seeds are a food product and will rot rather quickly.
Don't bother trying to throw handfuls of seeds out onto the ground because as I previously stated they are a food product and ants and other hungry insects will carry them off and be eaten.
Well I have told you the important part if this thread has enough interest in it I will tell a few other secrets in proper plating and cultivation. Like taking your fresh home grown opium and using calcium sulfate and a few other chemicals to create a morphine base then if you want, turning that into the almighty
diacetylmorphine AKA the big H word:D. Yes I said diamorphine. That's all for now kids, happy planting.
Btw- it is not illegal to posses, germinate, or plant these seeds. It is when you cut the poppy pod that a major law is broken. The last felony you want is manufacturing opium. The DE.A tends to frown on that a bit
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and no i don't want to buy it from someone lol, i'd rather just be patient and grow it myself.
4 months later in the summer, my garden was looking positively lovely.
I don't think you can buy pods on e-bay anymore (although I haven't checked.) Luckily though, a buddy of mine gave me the business website of someone who used to sell pods on e-bay. PM me if you'd like a link. Also, like someone has already said, buying pods is completely legal, I believe it is the poppy straw that is illegal.
I have been interested in doing this for a while, however, never got around to it. would enjoy seeing someone else try though haha
Very nice. You are sure you got the right seeds correct?
Thanks for the pics also.
All bleed when they're cut, no?
Although supermarket grade seeds can be viable, the germination rates are low. Any seeds that aren't viable will be dead and quite vulnerable to pathogens, which will quickly spread to live seeds. Not to mention the strongest ones that have survived that far will be seriously stunted.
Some brands, like McCormick(which seems to be rinsed and bad for seed tea) have high germination rates. Brands like Spice Island(which I have used successfully for making seed tea), usually give weak seedlings and a bunch of mold, if anything at all.
Buying horticulture grade seeds from a refutable vendor is worth it. So many seeds will sprout so fast, mold and other pathogens wont have a chance. You will have stronger specimens, more of them, and can choose their characteristics depending on the varieties sold by the vendor.
Strain can be very important as far as yield and quality of the opium. You have huge plants like giganteums which produce alot of latex in total, but not much in proportion to it's size. You have strains like Tasmanians that make alot of very potent latex per pod (Tasmanians are also nice because they are capable of growing multiple pods per plant). There's many more, including actual opium poppies(P. Somniferum....) bred to produce very low levels of morphine, but high levels of thebaine (which is very bad, unless you likez to chem ), which I'd say in most cases is worst than no alkaloids at all(unless, like I said, you likez to chem).
Gonna have to read up a little bit more on that, friend.;)
That's more my territory though probably, so I would feel obliged to help if necessary....
PS: Avoiding the sulfate ion all together when choosing the reagents to alter the pH is quite necessary. If you understand phenolate salts, it's obvious why you can't use calcium sulfate. But if you use ammonium sulfate to precipitate the morphine freebase instead of the chloride or acetate, well, enjoy the shelac you now have mixed in with your morphine! Calcium sulfate will be quite water insoluble, like your freebase morphine. The process is called a redox reaction, and you must make sure as few of the byproducts as possible have similar solubilities to freebase morphine.
Thanks for clearing that up.
Yeah, good thing, cause if people decided the gamma-anhydrous calcium sulfate in plaster-of-paris would be a good OTC reagent, they'd be pretty pissed when it formed a solid block of calcium sulfate hemihydrate, trapping their goodies in a impenetrable brick of solid rock.:p
I have found that three vertical lances(per pod) in the evening is the best way to milk them. Let it dry a day or two and then scrape off with a razor and compile on wax paper. Be sure to space your lances out a bit, otherwise the liquid will drip back into the old cuts.
EDIT: Here we are. http://forum.poppies.org/index.php?showtopic=10790
That's a guide for a tincture, but I imagine that you could stop short, dry and smoke the stuff off foil or something instead.