Milkweed Seed Success

I planted 6 milkweed seeds I sprouted on a wet paper towel. All of them grew after I planted them in some 4" pots after a few days of germinating in a heated humidity tent. It seems like the key is to cut or scratch the husk, and keep them moist, but not in a condition that'll rot the husk away after a few days.

I think you could have a really high success rate by prepping the seeds, then scattering them onto a thin layer of straw or grass clippings just on top of some bare soil. You might be able to get a hundred of them to grow with some pretty minimal effort.

If you just plant them in the ground, chances are they won't grow at all.

No-Till Sunflower Update

Sunflowers do really well around here. On our property they'd rather grow than not grow, when a bird drops a seed on the ground, chances are it will grow. It's no surprise, then, that my no-till planting of sunflowers in our future expanded garden are doing well. I planted them with three methods. One was to poke a hole in the ground and stick a seed in the soil. Another was to mash one into the ground and cover it with a handful of dirt. The third was to scatter them around under straw. All the seeds are growing. The most labor intensive method was the least effective. (poking the soil)

I think all I'd need to do is throw handfuls of sunflowers around and cover them with some straw and they'd grow like grass. I will probably give that a try.

Milkweed Seed Update

Mix of Clipped and Unclipped Seeds

I nipped the bottom of several milkweed seeds with a pair of sharp clippers. The pair I used was actually for electronics, but anything would work--scissors, a pairing knife, etc... I just clipped away at the seed husk until I could see the interior of the seed just a little bit.

I then spread those seeds on a paper towel and covered them with a paper towel and kept them moist. (covered with a dishcloth). A wet dishcloth keeps the paper towels moist overnight. You can check the progress of the seeds during the morning, then soak the dishcloth.

A number of the seeds sprouted in just a couple days. The unclipped seeds take a very long time to sprout. Actually I haven't witnessed any sprout yet. I planted the sprouted seeds in pots and am growing them inside.

Sprouted Milkweed Seeds (4 days later)

How to Grow Milkweed from Seeds

In the late autumn, you can find milkweed seed pods in meadow-like areas alongside the roads, under power lines, or along paths. If you want to grow milkweeds in your yard, it can be difficult to get the seeds to germinate if you scatter them in your lawn, or even if you put them in a prepared bed. The outer husk of the seed prevents the seed from just germinating. It's pretty likely the seed will rot or be eaten by a critter before the plant ever gets started. If you start them inside, you'll have more luck.

You can buy seeds online, or go collect them yourself. The seeds are ready when the pod splits open. If you take a seed pod too soon, the seeds will be immature. One pod has hundreds of seeds--probably more than you'll be able to use.

There are many people who provide tutorials on scarifying seeds. I tried a couple methods on milkweed seeds. One was to deep freeze the seeds for a number of weeks. The other was to simply snip open the seed shell to expose the interior slightly, which is super easy. The seed has a tear drop shape. I snipped off the pointy end by a small amount. I put the snipped seeds in coir/worm-casting planting soil in an egg-carton style container, since I figured the germination rate would be low. I kept the container in a heated humidity tent.

The deep-freeze seeds all failed to germinate and simply rotted. The snipped seeds actually sprouted recently. I'll update this when I get a sense of the rate of success.

No-Till Sunflowers and Strawberries

Sunflowers grow really well on our property. They barely need to be planted. Sunflowers grow voluntarily from birds and chipmunks dropping them on the ground all the time. I planted several in areas we'll expand the garden into next season. I mowed the grass down with some hedge trimmers, then poked a small hole in the ground and dropped a seed in. Some germinated about a week later. I also scattered some clover seeds around. Hopefully the sunflowers will overtake the grass and the clover will survive through the summer into the fall.

I probably planted the sunflowers too deep. It seems like it would have been sufficient to just scratch a small divot in the ground and cover it with some dirt to keep birds from eating the seeds, or make some seed balls with dirt to accomplish the same thing without even poking a  hole in the ground.

We also planted some strawberries using a similar method in the newly expanded garden. The strawberries were started inside from plugs that we planted in peat pots using coir and worm castings as soil. A couple weeks later, the strawberries are still doing well. The only problem with this approach is that the soil near the berries is more compact than the coir/worm castings, so the berries are in a sort of bowl. A couple of them seem to be a little stressed and are possibly sitting in some water.

The strawberries are surrounded by straw, plus some leaf mulch compost that's been aged about a year.

NPK and the Soil Food Web Video

This video discusses the difference between fertilizing soil and how the soil food web feeds plants.

Using Sun Path Charts

There are a few web sites that calculate sun path charts when given the latitude and longitude of a point on earth. One of the sites is www.sunearthtools.com. It generates a report that you can download as a PDF or view online.

I think the cartesian plots are easier to understand than the polar plot for northern and southern temperate latitudes, so I'll explain that.

The plot shows the apparent paths of the sun across the sky from a point on the earth throughout the solar year. The path traces from left--representing the position of the sunrise--to the right, representing the position of the sunset. Note that for us, the sun's zenith is at about 1:30 PM in the spring and summer months. (we're pretty far west in the Eastern US time zone. In New York City, the zenith is at around 1PM. In Maine it's 12:30PM.) The shape of the paths vary by north-south position. (We're in northern Ohio around 42 degrees north of the equator.)

The uppermost line is the path on the date of the summer solstice (June 21 2017). The lowest arc is the winter solstice (December 21, 2017). The intermediate lines are the paths on two dates, one on the lightening side of the solar year, and one on the darkening side of the solar year. The center line is the spring and fall equinox--note that it runs directly through the east and west cardinal points. The gold line is the day the chart was generated.

The figure 8 is the "analemma". The analemma represents the position of the sun in the sky at the same time of day throughout the year.

Summer Solstice Sunset

The pictures at the left were taken at Observatory Park in Montville, Ohio on the solstices and spring equinox. You can see the compass rose inlaid in the brickwork, and the solstice lines. If you look at the chart, above, the summer solstice sun set is around 300 degrees Azimuth.

0 degrees is North
90 degrees is East
180 degrees is South
270 degrees is West

The summer solstice sets about 30 degrees north of west. You can see that's the case on the photo at the left. The summer solstice sun rises about 30 degrees north of east.

Winter Solstice Sunset

You can see the winter solstice sunset is south of west. On the chart above, it's about 30 degrees south of west, which you can see on the pavement in the photo.

Finally, the equinox sunsets are due west in the spring and fall.

Spring Equinox Sunset

One application of these charts is determining which parts of your yard will be in shadow or sun during the day. How can you do that?

Go out in your yard at some location and face due south. (you can use a compass app on a phone or a real compass for this purpose). Look at the chart at the elevation of the sun on the summer solstice. Point your arm up at that angle. For us, the solstice zenith is about 72 degrees above the horizon. If your phone has an inclinometer app, you can use that to find the angle, or just estimate using your arm. If you're pointing at a tree, you're in the shade. If it's the sky, you're in a sunny spot on that day. You can then repeat the procedure at the zenith -4 hours, and +4 hours positions, and you'll have a really good idea of how sunny that spot is.

If there are some trees in the way, depending on what the species are, the area might still be partially sunny. Locust trees, for example, allow a significant amount of light to reach through their leaves, spindly conifer trees, like scotch pine also allow quite a bit of light through their branches sometimes.