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Adventures in Growing My Own Magical/Medicinal Herbs

Scottish_Pride

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Btw, do you guys in different parts of the world know and use a plant called Guiné? I think it may be called Anamu in other places.
It's really popular here for spiritual and medicinal uses (even though it can be toxic if not used properly). I only came to know it when I moved here hence why I am asking...
Never heard of it before. What do y’all use it for?
 

Girlinthefields

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Yeah I’m too cheap for wood chips, myself. I just loot bags of leaves from all the neighbors as well as using my own. There’s tons of pine needles as well, but those take forever to break down.

Milk as a fungicide?? How does it work? That sounds useful as FUCK
Hey, yes, for me it works really well. Just mix milk into a water (i believe its ment to be about 1 to 10 /milk to water, even though I dont measure it myself) and than either water with it or spray on leaves.
If spraying, I would do it early in the morning.
As always, test one plant first...

I use it on tomatoes and papaya specifically as those are the two that suffer here with the 'black spot'. I use it as watering, prefer not to wet the leaves. Do it every 15 days or so. I also add grinded egg shells to the soil as most of the plants that suffer with this fungus like extra calcium (and i got chickens so easy for me).
 

saxazax

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i have a huge amount of wormwood and mugwort growing on my lawn L0l its been here since i moved here years ago
 

saxazax

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Leave it like this to chill (Haha, get it? Because it's cold?
xD
Oh yeah, we have shitty clay soil here too! It’s such a pain.
WHAAAT clay soil is hard to find for me and all i want to do is make ceramic pots for transporting water from the stream on my property!! my friend u have to make some pit fired pots!
 

Scottish_Pride

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xD

WHAAAT clay soil is hard to find for me and all i want to do is make ceramic pots for transporting water from the stream on my property!! my friend u have to make some pit fired pots!
You may still have a chance of finding clay if you dig down deep enough. Then you can also leave the soil to sit in a container of water for a while, let all the actual clay settle to the bottom. You'd probably get a purer substance that way.

I don't know how to fire clay in a fire, and I'm afraid to use the fire pit for firing something like that tbh. Besides, may not even get hot enough to do much good.

When I was a kid I once dug up clay to make an ashtray for my dad, though. It was this tiny little pinch-pot that I used a hair dryer set on hot to "fire" lmao. It worked until it got rained on and dissolved.
 

saxazax

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You may still have a chance of finding clay if you dig down deep enough. Then you can also leave the soil to sit in a container of water for a while, let all the actual clay settle to the bottom. You'd probably get a purer substance that way.

I don't know how to fire clay in a fire, and I'm afraid to use the fire pit for firing something like that tbh. Besides, may not even get hot enough to do much good.

When I was a kid I once dug up clay to make an ashtray for my dad, though. It was this tiny little pinch-pot that I used a hair dryer set on hot to "fire" lmao. It worked until it got rained on and dissolved.
yes you can levigate clay in water to purify it from basically any soil. but the amount of effort and time it takes to purify the clay is considerable if your soil doesnt have much. clay soil you can basically make a pinch pot with it right then and there. pit firing is also doable, it's just a process that takes some time to learn. you can make pinch pots or other vessels that will hold water without dissolving, but you need to learn how to pit fire correctly. what is more valuable, a pound of gold or a pound of soil? gold, obviously! but to a tree? - clay soil is not great for growing stuff but it is good for other things.
 

saxazax

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You lucky bastard! That shit hates it down here in Satan's basement. 😂
there should be places that sell it online. i would ship you some but i dont have a po box and im pretty skimpy on coin at the nonce. there are of course ways to induce lucidity without the assistance of flora.
 
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What about sand as soil?
Unless it has been sand covering topsoil, I've seen weeds grow at beaches, so it must have some of the right biochem requirements for growing.
 

saxazax

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What about sand as soil?
Unless it has been sand covering topsoil, I've seen weeds grow at beaches, so it must have some of the right biochem requirements for growing.
i have almost no idea about agriculture but it seems like you need a combination of decayed plant matter, gravel/sand and clay in order to grow things. im sure weeds at beaches get the necessary nutrients from saltwater. if you dont see a plant growing in a certain kind of place then it probably will be hard to recreate its environment artificially. not impossible, just hard
 
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So one thing I've really been getting into for the past couple years, is taking what I know about gardening and seeing just the kinds of "out there" plants I can grow. Whenever I read occult or herb books where it starts talking about plants that aren't the most mainstream things to grow where I live, such as valerian, angelica, mugwort and wormwood, part of me just kinda wonders what a live specimen looks like "in person". So whenever the nursery I work for has something like these, I'll snatch one up with my awesome employee discount, do the research and figure out how I can keep it happy. Overall, I've really liked just building a relationship with these different herbs I'd only read about before, observing them in their natural state. It brings dry correspondences to life for me in a way, and I can better understand just what makes different species special on the metaphysical level.

So anyway, I thought it'd be fun to share what I've learned with y'all. Just a basic overview of what these live plants are really like, and the practical side of keeping them around/harvesting from them. I'll probably make more than one entry in this thread, as there's quite a bit of stuff I could probably talk about. You should also probably know that my region's climate is very much a sad bastard child between swamp, jungle and woodland. Constant rains, scorching summers and little to no freeze, rich soil and poor drainage mean some plants are easier for me to pull off than others. Your attempts at growing these things may not look much like mine, depending on the climate you live in. For now, I'll start with two plants here.



Lemongrass
As the name suggests, this plant is in fact a grass. Each blade is about one inch thick at maturity, and the blades all shoot from a dense cluster of root stalks. It grows intimidatingly fast, and honestly has proven to be one of the most unkillable little shits I've ever grown. I got mine as a small baby nursery transplant a year ago, about a foot long and an inch wide at the base. It now has blades going on 4-5 feet long, with the clump of stalks about 2-3 feet wide. Now that it's established, I don't do jack shit for it. If I died tomorrow, it would probably still live on for decades, continuing to consume the entire back section of bedding. One day I'll probably have to divide it along the outer stalk edges, then hurriedly find people to shove the resulting baby plants onto. Then they, too, shall know the wonders and horrors of this all-consuming mound.

When it comes to uses for this bad boy, I personally love taking fresh top sections a few inches long to put in black tea. It ends up tasting like a bootlegged version of earl gray, which is awesome when you haven't dragged your ass to the store in a while. You could also cut and dry several long strands in a bundle to make your own smudge sticks; though probably not the biggest magical nuke out there, it's got enough cleansing properties to possibly work on its own. Great for if you want an uplifting undertone in your working. I also did a cute little halloween project last year, where I made a broom with the leftover grass from cutting and drying some for tea.


Moringa
Moringa is a fast-growing tropical tree, originating from Africa. Though it can grow over 30 feet tall, you can keep cutting it back regularly to keep it a manageable shrubby size. This plant has proven pretty low-maintenance for me, and I swear it's noticeably bigger every time I go out to look at it. It wants reasonable drainage, but will tolerate moisture so long as it isn't constantly waterlogged. This tree's one big weakness is if temperatures dip below 50-ish degrees Fahrenheit. If it does, it'll drop all leaves like it's hot and go dormant. This is your cue to cut the remaining trunk down to a manageable size, then insulate it with a cage of chicken wire and straw/leaves. Leave it like this to chill (Haha, get it? Because it's cold?) until things will consistently stay nice and toasty again for the year. From what I understand, this method only works if your area gets very brief instances of 15-20 degrees Fahrenheit at the absolute lowest. Otherwise, moringa may be better suited as a greenhouse dweller, at least for part of the year. I am very spoiled in that I live in the subtropics, where we are the precise temperature of hell itself for half the year.

This is actually a plant I had never heard of before in my life, until it showed up on the tables at work. I decided to buy one of my own and give it a try, since it was just a few dollars for this allegedly low-maintenance plant. First world health nuts seem to be making a huge deal about moringa now, as if this is the one plant to rule them all. It's to have a whole laundry list of vitamins and minerals in the top growth, as well as protein and fiber, basically a living multivitamin. The seeds can be used to make cooking oil or purify water. The seed pods are also supposed to be good food when cooked and eaten in moderation. The thing I find appealing about its use, is that the leaves can be hidden in other food. Dried and ground into a powder, it's just tasteless enough to throw in with many of your meals. This would be good once I actually bring some in to experiment with for the first time, as I'm a picky American who doesn't like gutting through tastes I'm not used to in the name of health.
So what is your garden up to now in pertaining to species of medicinal/occult herbs?
I'd like to have 600 and my own place for a grow cabinet, and grow a few herbs side by side. With Roses as well and Orange peels/Coffee grounds as mulch.
 

Scottish_Pride

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So what is your garden up to now in pertaining to species of medicinal/occult herbs?
I'd like to have 600 and my own place for a grow cabinet, and grow a few herbs side by side. With Roses as well and Orange peels/Coffee grounds as mulch.
Right now I’m actually in a bit of a lull when it comes to new stuff in the ground, because I’m preparing to hopefully move in next few months. If I’m growing something, might as well be keeping it in a pot so I can take it with me.

With that being said, I will very likely have to move into an apartment next. Therefore, I need to consolidate space as much as possible. Things I don’t use much can’t have a lot of space dedicated to it, because I don’t know how big a balcony I’ll get to have.

I do have a few small projects in the works, though, like some watercress that’s currently coming up and I may write about that soon. I have plans to help maximize my container space more and more, using things like hanging planters and vertical setups.

This slump of necessity is why I haven’t made many updates recently, as well as the fact that I’ve been busy as fuck securing a means of moving.
 
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That's cool. When I got my first medical MJ card, I wanted to get a grow cabinet, but the flowering and humidity I couldn't deal with for various reasons.
I can only imagine if I just grew fruits and veggies in it. Som models have circulated air, humidity and temp and lighting, and some irrigation.

I could set the plants in the main room I suppose, which wouldn't be a bad thing, but my kitty left alone in my room for ten hours, I dont know about that. The last time she tore apart my golden dawn rose on my sewing table of an altar at the time.
I can't obviously grow a full Hoodoo assortment, but I do need to hone in on botany and geology.
 

Scottish_Pride

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That's cool. When I got my first medical MJ card, I wanted to get a grow cabinet, but the flowering and humidity I couldn't deal with for various reasons.
I can only imagine if I just grew fruits and veggies in it. Som models have circulated air, humidity and temp and lighting, and some irrigation.

I could set the plants in the main room I suppose, which wouldn't be a bad thing, but my kitty left alone in my room for ten hours, I dont know about that. The last time she tore apart my golden dawn rose on my sewing table of an altar at the time.
I can't obviously grow a full Hoodoo assortment, but I do need to hone in on botany and geology.
There was one time last year where I helped walk a dude through growing a seed he found in his weed. Honestly, some strains are princesses but some seem to be very low-maintenance. With the stories I’ve heard, I thought you shouldn’t be able to grow this plant from a single seed, in a sunny windowsill with some tinfoil reflecting the sun back onto it, using banana peel juice and tea bags as the only fertilizer. Yet it worked. With some proper FIM’ing, this single plant got HUGE.
 

Scottish_Pride

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Now you know why it's called weed. It's an amazing plant. Got me into gardening.
Y’know, it’s really funny how common that is. Pretty sure I’m the only person from my horticulture degree program who was not wanting to take that degree and grow weed with it. Hell, I haven’t even technically grown weed myself, I just had some friend online who I gave general plant advice to and it ended up working.
 
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Do youi know offhand if roots like High John the Conquerer can be grown, or is it extremely rare?
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I can probably find that answer out myself. In the meantime, I think I will start growing a basic herb kit from Walgreens and Pet Grass and Catnip from Petco.
 
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