Wildharvesting natural materials

[unthing]

Yes they're not, but around here we have bunch of dead white nettles too (Lamium album, unless translations fail), which many people often mistake to to stinging nettles. I quess it's not useless, but not as useful?

 

[jaykush]

the latin name alone should give you a clue they are not related. dead nettle is closer related to henbit a common weed than it is nettle(urtica dioica). im not saying it isnt a useful plant, as imo every plant has some purpose or another. but people shouldn't be on the search for stinging nettle, find dead nettle and be happy for two reasons. its not the plant you were looking for, do not substitute similar looking plants, and it causes a path of learning that is just plain wrong. this goes back to my first post and "rule" #2.

i don't mean to be pushy or rude to anyone, but wildharvesting plants can fuck you up if your not careful. just because its a plant doesnt mean it doesnt have the potential to put you in bed, in the hospital or worse. know what plant/tree/fungi/other materials you are dealing with, use the tool called google to learn about the plant. chances are youll learn it has many potential uses outside of growing high quality cannabis.

that being said i will try and get some photos of yarrow harvesting and dividing up the runners for planting elsewhere later tonight.

 

[GoneRooty]

but wildharvesting plants can fuck you up if your not careful. just because its a plant doesnt mean it doesnt have the potential to put you in bed, in the hospital or worse. know what plant/tree/fungi/other materials you are dealing with,

THANK YOU!! I don't think this can be stressed enough. Check, and then double check, then ask someone else to make sure you know what you're dealing with. Especially dealing in common names of plants, just because something sounds like they are related doesn't mean they are. Stinging Nettle/Dead Nettle is a perfect example, common names sound related, but when you look at the scientific names, completely different family.

 

[CC_2U]

JayKush

A question about Yarrow plants - are there any major differences in the plants with different colored flowers vs. the native varieties?

Thanks!

CC

 

[jaykush]

i prefer the wild when using medicinally, i use all the colored ones at home for fpe and such.

 

[mad librettist]

deadnettle might actually make a decent companion plant...

it spreads like crazy, but tall plants next to it do ok.

 

[guest2012y]

JayKush

A question about Yarrow plants - are there any major differences in the plants with different colored flowers vs. the native varieties?

Thanks!

CC

I've wondered this forever..
I often see colored ones growing in with the white ones. Are they two species or just different phenotype expressions?

 

[h.h.]

Is that plant poison oak or not? Poison oak is a great imitator, its leaves take on the shape of those nearby....The leaves may be serrated, round, or oak-like depending on what other foliage is around the poison oak plants. They may be shiny, or not. They may have a red tinge, or not. Be wary, or you're in for a week of itchy torture.

http://walking.about.com/od/medfirstaid/ig/Poison-Oak-Photos/






Belladonna. don't eat the little tomatoes.

 

[VerdantGreen]

yeah, we call that deadly nightshade over here - same plant family as potatoes and tomatoes...

 

[jaykush]

was just out harvesting some nettle for tea, and some of last years stalks for some homemade bowstring. when i got stung in the arm. earlier in the thread dock was mentioned. so people know, this is one of the cures for the stinging nettle sting. it will reduce or eliminate the sting intensity and length. simply take a leaf, rub it in your hands until its juices have been broken out, and rub it on the sting spot. proceed to collecting more nettle. around here wherever there is nettle, dock is not far.

 

[CascadeFarmer]

If you guys don't hot compost horsetail, a fantastic source of silica as CC 2U mentioned, you risk it propagating in the area you put the compost. It's considered an invasive species around here by some and hard to get rid of/eradicate. Try cutting up some horsetail, cover with mulch/soil, water and see what happens. It likes areas of high moisture and can be found growing in/near swampy areas/creeks especially in shady areas but also in open sun in wet areas. Likes a high water table at the least.

As for using wild herbs/plants for agriculture use...first place I'd look is to those plants suitable for human consumption. If good enough to sustain you good enough for plants.

Horsetail is used as a base material for extracting silica. The resultant extract is put in capsules for consumption and sold as a natural silica supplement.

 

[CascadeFarmer]

Yellow Dock
Latin name: Rumex crispus
Common names: Yellow dock, curly dock, curled dock, narrow dock, sour dock
Location: Very moist areas including next to running streams, swamps, areas with a high water table and somewhat dry areas. Guessing areas with high rainfall during the growing season could support growth but that's not where I live.
Availability: Can be fairly prolific.
Harvest recommendations: Deeply rooted in fact you can get dried Yellow Dock roots. Very hardy and grows back fairly easy.
Sustainability: Seems very good if not uprooted and some plants are let grown to seed. Can be harvested multiple times through the year if done selectively.
Growing season: Spring through Fall as water is rarely an issue with this plant.
Opinion: Moderate use in salads, strong tasting and some sources warn against consumption due to the high oxalate content. Has a very high iron content (note for agriculture use), low moisture content, leaves are generally pretty tough. When leaves are damaged they look rusty in that area. Supposedly a good herb for women or when needing to build blood. Leaves can get vary large almost like dinner plates.

Close up of typical leaf.

A plant I topped as an experiment and coming back very good after 2 weeks.

Another plant I topped more vigorously.

A group of plants growing in a wet drainage trench...basically a mini swamp down there. You can see it going to seed. The tall plant to the right with the thinner leaves is not Yellow Dock.

 

[CascadeFarmer]

Miner's Lettuce
Latin name: Claytonia perfoliata
Common names: Miner's Lettuce, Winter Purslane, Spring Beauty or Indian Lettuce
Location: Good explanation from Wikipedia...

It is common in the spring, and it prefers cool, damp conditions. It first appears in sunlit areas after the first heavy rains. Though, the best stands are found in shaded areas, especially in the uplands, into the early summer. As the days get hotter, the leaves turn a deep red color as they dry out.

Availability: Can be very prolific.
Harvest recommendations: Plants are very easy to uproot like Candy Flower and if you look closely have a similar basic structure.
Sustainability: Can be easy to over harvest. You can probably leave about 20-25% of the plants in a particular area and let go to seed for next year. While a pain plants can be selectively harvested by cutting some of the large leaves off but be careful not to uproot. I avoid harvesting areas where the plants never grow very big or are sparse.
Growing season: February, even when very cold plants are small, through very late in the year. Will grow long as there's enough moisture. Seeds can be obtained from places like Johnny's Seeds. Plants will grow large in good soil, adequate nutes and water.
Opinion: My second favorite wild green to Candy Flower and much more available, high moisture content for composting, no real medicinal value. Can provide a lot of mass for composting when available.

This field is about 200' x 300' under oaks with a high water table. The cattle have grazed here once a year for over 50 years. This is after they were through almost a month ago. In the spring the Miner's Lettuce is so thick like a carpet. I pulled about 400-500 lbs in under a few hours ripping and tearing cause I knew the cattle would be worse...lol. I could have easily gotten a ton.

Cattle path and recovering plants.

Close up...going to seed. Very similar basic structure to the pic of Candy Flower I posted. Juicy, tender and very sweet.

Soil sample...like light fluffy compost. Miners Lettuce seems to like pretty loose structured soil. I've started collecting buckets of this soil and adding to my composting experiments and using in other things I'm trying.

 

[jaykush]

excellent posts cascade, now if we could add one more thing to be picky. the nutrients and plant chemicals in the plants if possible. i know there hard to find but its out there.

around here the miners lettuce grows in pretty crappy soil. always in the shade though. we have the biggest miners lettuce around too. some leaves reaching 5-6 inches diameter. yea just one of those little round leaves. i find they go good in the worm bin when things are on the dry side.

 

[CascadeFarmer]

excellent posts cascade, now if we could add one more thing to be picky. the nutrients and plant chemicals in the plants if possible. i know there hard to find but its out there.

Thx but I'm not gonna break things down that much and someone else can finish things up. To my understanding virtually all wild herbs are very high in K. Bruce Tainio has a good CD out of a talk he gave which really got the fire going for me regarding wild herbs/weeds. Basically he said wild herbs have a high K:N ratio, rarely get diseased or attacked by insects, are excellent at extracting minerals/elements from the soil whereas cultivated plants have a much lower K:N ratio. High tissue K levels act as an antifreeze.

Candy Flower - grows along running water, I do know of an area that's a bit different, a small Candy Flower field, but still water constantly seeping from the ground. Must be very high in trace minerals/elements.
Yellow Dock - sources say high in potassium oxalate...once again the K thing. For sure high in Fe.
Miner's Lettuce - must also have a good mineral/element profile like Candy Flower.
Horsetail - For sure high in Si.

There's a book out, which I can't remember the title, where you can look at what native herbs/plants are growing on the soil and tells you what the soil is deficient in/has high amounts of something(s). Pretty sure it was Bruce Elliot at composttea.com that told me about it or could have been Robert Pike at pikeagri.com and have lost track. Mr. Pike was a direct student of Carey Reams and offers sap testing.

we have the biggest miners lettuce around too. some leaves reaching 5-6 inches diameter.

Yeah under the right conditions those leaves get large and thick...I'd take it over regular table lettuce any day of the week!

 

[CascadeFarmer]

No one's done comfrey?

Comfrey
Latin name: Symphtyum officinale or Symphytum asperum or Symphytum x uplandicum (Russian comfrey)...I have no clue what this is I'm showing pics of. Been growing here for at least 30 years.
Common names: I know it as Comfrey or Boneset.
Location: I find it in sunny areas with high to good ground moisture levels.
Availability: Can be incredibly prolific.
Harvest recommendations: Can be aggressively harvested.
Sustainability: Very sustainable. Easy to transplant, propagate and cultivate.
Growing season: Spring through Fall.
Opinion: Like eating velcro and not recommended for internal consumption. Recommended more for topical applications for injuries (sprains and breaks). Workhorse for teas, composting and a general growing supplement/amendment. Contains high levels of calcium, potassium and phosphorous. Very high organic matter content.

Comfrey...

...more comfrey (I left out the middle third of this scene)...

...and directly across the street even more comfrey.

Close up in flower. Within a 4 block area of these pics I've easily got access to a few pickup loads of it and then some. For sure some ICMag members can contribute more detailed info about comfrey including links to threads here.

 

[xmobotx]

As for using wild herbs/plants for agriculture use...first place I'd look is to those plants suitable for human consumption. If good enough to sustain you good enough for plants.

long thought that was a good rule of thumb

 

[CascadeFarmer]

Cleavers

Latin name: Galium aparine
Common names: LOL...Goosegrass, Amor De Hortelano, Barweed, Catchweed, Cleavers, Cleavers Goosegrass, Cleever, Clivers, Eriffe, Everlasting Friendship, Gia Mara, Goosebill, Goosegrass, Grateron, Grip Grass, Hashishat Al Af'A, Hayriffe, Hayruff, Hedge Clivers, Hedgeheriff, Kaz Yogurtotu, Loveman, Mutton Chops, Robin-run-in-the-Grass, Scratweed, Sticky-willy, Stickywilly, Zhu Yang Yang...mainly what happens is parts of the plant break off and stick to you. Some of the names are very appropriate!
Location: Likes mostly shaded areas and somewhat moist. Favors loose soil. Does OK in drier conditions but not great. I usually don't find it in very wet areas and definitely not in very sunny or dry areas...kind of in between and more in areas like where chickweed grows.
Availability: Not widely spread but you can find fairly dense patches which are healthier in later spring/early summer for the most part.
Harvest recommendations: Can be fairly aggressively harvested especially earlier in the year. Cut back like a hedge and will grow back...like chickweed.
Sustainability: Very sustainable and vigorous if not torn up by the roots. Easy to transplant and cultivate. Some consider it an invasive species like horsetail.
Growing season: Spring through Fall.
Opinion: One of the first herbs I ever learned about...from an old African American dreadlocked rasta medicine man Bill White back in '87. Said main use was as a tea for weight loss. Raw not palatable but seems some have used in soups. After more research also seems to have a wide range of medicinal properties. Cut and hack this stuff if you find it...lol. Seems much more of a medicinal plant than a nutritive plant. I've never eaten it cause thin enough but for sure will hack the patch shown below and compost it...lol.

Here's a nice patch of Cleavers right in my back yard...probably about 100+ pounds here and off to the sides of this pic.

Like sticking your hand into a patch of velcro...lol.

While not uncommon to find it growing with chickweed this time found some nice patches of Miner's Lettuce nearby.

 

[jaykush]

lol wow i hate that plant. i figured it have some use. but i hate plants that grab me.

 

[CC_2U]

CascadeFarmer

Several growers on this board are growing the non-invasive comfrey cultivar - the Bocking 14 which arrives as a piece of root (a stick really). The root stock is only $2.00 each and there's a discount for a small order of only 6 root pieces for $10.00

It definitely grows fast - crazy fast.

CC