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How Do You Get the Seeds Out of Your Milkweed?

Bach55

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2019
Messages
231
Location
Indiana
Simple question…. I have found executing it is not so simple. Tried the “loose change in a bag” trick. Did not work well for me.

What do you all do? This is to go from picked/dried pods to loose floss ready to hunt with.
 
Just keep it in the pod and wrap a rubber band around it. Works like a charm. Just slide the rubber band as needed. And I prefer to scatter the seed as well. Least we can do for the ol butterflies and other pollinators that keep habitat diverse.
 
I honestly don’t worry about it. I take it all out of the pod and stuff it in a little bag and just pick out the fluff as needed. If I empty the bag of fluff, by the end of the season the seeds are laying at the bottom and I just dump them out.


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This year I started saving them. Going to try planting some in a pot and will be spreading some in areas unlikely to be disturbed.

I store my milkweed in a coin purse so throughout the season they usually end up at the bottom of the bag
 
If you take the the inside out as a hole you can pinch the top of the milkweed inside the pod that has the seeds on it and scrape the seeds off. Hard to explain through text.
 
Just keep it in the pod and wrap a rubber band around it. Works like a charm. Just slide the rubber band as needed. And I prefer to scatter the seed as well. Least we can do for the ol butterflies and other pollinators that keep habitat diverse.
This^^^
I've shipped out a few thousand pods and each and every one is wrapped with a rubber band. Light duty rubber bands seem to work better than heavy bands. Most seeds will remain in the pod but some do pull out. I don't normally release them but the reason is mostly because they float better without the weight of the seed attached.
Here's a tip...put the rubber band on the pod as its beginning to dry (before it splits open) and when the pod is fully dry, firmly pinch it between your fingers with a bit of a rolling action (like you are rolling whatever it is that you might smoke, lol). That action really helps the floaters completely expand when they are plucked. I find that the tiny hairs often stick together slightly and they don't fully expand...that floater will not drift very well when winds are light. It certainly won't float as well as a fully expanded floater regardless of the wind speed.
Plus, that rolling action of the pod does seem to help separate the seed from the floater within the pod.
 
There's a hard "splitter" inside the pod that seperates it in half. I open the dried pod up and make sure the seeds are facing away from me. I turn one half of the pod facing up with one hand and swipe the seeds off with my fingers from the other hand. Flip the pod over and do the same. Then I shove them all into my milkweed pouch. I do about two or three pods to fill up the pouch. I just did some tonight as a matter of fact. I do it outside and usually in the field when I come across them if they are dried out enough.
 
I use the pouches with the larger mesh holes. I only use them for this reason of removing the seeds. I go from that pouch to a container... all fluff.
 
Just keep it in the pod like @Allegheny Tom said. I steal my daughters tiny hair rubber bands they are perfect size for milkweed. The pod is its own natural storage and it floats better straight out of the pod when it is max fluffed. I don't get why people use separate containers.
 
I ran the elastic bands for a couple of years. That worked well. Now I run a film canister with a small hole punched in the top. I cram the canister with fluff, including seeds and it works great.

Now loading the canister is now done outdoors. The first time I did it in my workshop - bad plan....
 
I tried this and then tossed them after they didn’t bloom. Then I heard it takes 2 years to mature. May try it again. I
I've done some germination tests on the seeds. I've yet to have any of them show viability. Not sure why that is.
I've never tried stratifying them, I wonder if milkweed requires a freeze cycle for the seeds to be viable.
I'm sure the answer is on the internet somewhere.
 
I've done some germination tests on the seeds. I've yet to have any of them show viability. Not sure why that is.
I've never tried stratifying them, I wonder if milkweed requires a freeze cycle for the seeds to be viable.
I'm sure the answer is on the internet somewhere.
They do. I lucked out and found ONE milkweed plant on my local public (only one I've ever seen) and I saved the pods and read up on it. They apparently need to be kept in a fridge/freezer for a bit before being planted according to the hivemind.

Never did get around to it. They may still be in the freezer behind the Gadwall drake I'm eventually taking to the taxidermist.
 
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