Deth

Fitness and everything else

Milkweed Seeds

Last fall I gathered tons of milkweed sees from the pods as they dried out thinking it was worth a shot to try to propagate more plants from seeds because we had a few people ask us about where to get the flower that attracts the butterflies. I had no idea if the seeds were mature enough to harvest or anything like that but I got a baggy of seeds to try it out.

I put the seeds in the refrigerator a few months ago for a bit over a month because the need the cold stratification to germinate.

I ordered soil and jiffy pots to start them indoors and planted the seeds in early March. They did nothing at all for well over a month. I figured there was no harm in letting it sit outside on the table to see what happens if anything at all and nothing did for a few weeks. so I dropped a couple of more seeds in the pots. I’d kept the baggy in the fridge just in case.

Today I looked out the window and noticed some green so I went outside to take a closer look at them and saw all these seedlings growing. Hopefully they’re milkweed and not some sort of weed that blew in there or maple seeds that fell from the tree. There were a couple of those that I did pull out because the seeds themselves were still visible.

I guess time will tell if they are indeed milkweed plants but I have 18 pots of them so we’ll have more to plant. I took the rest of the seeds I wasn’t using and sprinkled them at the tree line in an empty lot across the street. Don’t worry I’m sure plenty of our seeds naturally blew over there too! With a little luck we’ll have even more food this year for the monarch caterpillars. That’s assuming the non parented neighbor kids leave them alone. They’ve already trampled our garden killing a few of our strawberry plants.

Milkweed seeds beginning to sprout finally

This picture contains milkweed seedlings in pots that are just beginning to grow.