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soil
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Location: N. California

I find it easier to lift the plant while flowering and put something like paper, cloth or cardboard under the purslane. when the seed ripen they pods are open to the air and drop with little disturbance. this way you shake the plant and collect all the fallen seeds.

you can cut the purslane back hard at this point and it will regrow for another harvest period.

letting the plant dry results in a lot of seed loss imo.

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Gary350
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Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.

That stuff grows wild in TN. It is a nightmare to get rid of. My yard is full if it and it spreads like wild fire. It has some very nice flowers in the spring. I have been told it is good to eat and makes a good salad but I have never tried it. It grows all through my garden from March to Oct in full sun, full shade, rain every day for 3 months in the spring and 100 deg F and no rain 2 months in the summer. The only way I have been able to get rid if it is to crawl through the garden on my hands and knees picking it by hand and putting it in a bucket. Don't throw it down I think it makes seeds after it has been picked. Any place you throw down a picked plant you will have 100 plants grow there next spring. It grows among the grass in my yard and in the spring it looks like I have no grass at all the yard is covered in 1000s of tiny little flowers. Its not very noticable in the yard in the summer during 100 deg weather but it is still there.

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PunkRotten
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Location: Monterey, CA.

I have it in a container right now. Yeah I read about how it can spread. So I wanna keep an eye on those flowers. I probably could harvest a little to eat right now.

The other day I found some in a bag of baby spinach I bought from the store.

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Runningtrails
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Joined: Tue Oct 19, 2010 10:52 am
Location: Barrie, Ontario,Canada

We love it and plant it on purpose! It's a very healthy green! It is also fabulous at relieveing mosquito and other insect bites. Just crush a leaf, rub the juice on the bite and it stops itching completely. You can just forget about it right away. It has saved me from having big red bites from horse files, as well. Just takes them away in minutes. I make salve out of it for mosquite bites in the summer months. Works great!

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rainbowgardener
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Location: TN/GA 7b

Runningtrails wrote:We love it and plant it on purpose! It's a very healthy green! It is also fabulous at relieveing mosquito and other insect bites. Just crush a leaf, rub the juice on the bite and it stops itching completely. You can just forget about it right away. It has saved me from having big red bites from horse files, as well. Just takes them away in minutes. I make salve out of it for mosquite bites in the summer months. Works great!
What a great idea! Can you post the recipe for the salve?

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Runningtrails
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Joined: Tue Oct 19, 2010 10:52 am
Location: Barrie, Ontario,Canada

Sure, salve is easy. Salve is simply oil that has been infused with the herb oils and properties, strained, heated and beeswax added to make it solid.

What I do:

Dry or wilt leaves for several days. I use the entire piece of purslane, stem and all. I gather a lot of it for this. When I have fair amount of wilted, half dried purslane I pack it into a jar, cover with olive oil until there is nothing sticking above the oil level. Anything in the air will grow mold. I then put on the lid and let it sit in a dark place for a couple of weeks, shaking and opening it everyday, checking on it. I usually have several different herbs in oil that I open and check on daily. It is important to open it and stir it every day, push down any pieces sticking up in the air and make sure there is no mold, etc. This helps prevent mold from growing.

In about two weeks or whenever I have the time, I strain it, heat the oil up to 180F to pasteurize it. When it is very warm I add beeswax to make the salve. Add about one oz of beeswax to a cup of oil, approximately. Depends on how much I have at the time. Stir and melt the beeswax completely, then pour into clean and hot/sterile jar with lid.

Let it cool and set up before using. Label it.

I will sometimes add vit E to preserve it if making it for someone else.

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PunkRotten
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Location: Monterey, CA.

This Purslane I had has still not produced seeds. Weeks ago it had flower buds but they never opened. The plant seems to be dormant maybe. Is Purslane a tender plant?

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PunkRotten
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I lifted some strands of the Purslane up and see tiny baby plants growing right where the stems were resting. So I ripped out the old plant cause it was in ugly shape.

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applestar
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Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

I think the flowers opened without you realizing it. They are tiny. Then they make small pointy pods and the top cone of the pods break off when ripe, dropping tiny black seeds and leaving small cup-shaped bottom of the pods on the stems.

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PunkRotten
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Location: Monterey, CA.

Yes I did see those pods. I knew the flowers were growing but I never seen them open. Maybe they open for only a short time then close. The plant had tons of pods on it.



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