How To Grow Milkweeds From Seed - Secrets! - Proven Method! - Tips & Tricks!

We spoke to an expert that has growing Milkweeds down to a science. I am so happy to find out a tried and true way of growing these really important plants to support the Monarch Butterflies. We are located in Zone 9B in Corpus Christi, Texas.

[seamus]

Funny how we work so hard to get our seeds to germinate and the plants to flourish. Yet when I was a kid, I remember a huge Milkweed growing in a small dirt square that a Telephone pole was in behind my grandma's house. It received water from rain was all. I was probably 6 years old when I learned what the plant was and why there were so many butterflies on it. Each year a new Milkweed plant grew there.

[justyves]

Jim: "Yeah, there is nothing special".

People act like it is so difficult to grow Milkweeds from seed. Nothing Jim did was in any way special or some "secret science".

I am glad you shared this video because people can then stop worrying and being intimidated by all the other YouTube videos out there. Just keep it simple. :)

[thedayfliesby]

I’m seeing more monarchs around here in south Texas. I’m planting milkweed this year too. Thanks for the video

[huntresskira]

"Monarch butterflies were in abundance just a few decades ago, but now they’re a rare sight indeed and that’s likely because they’re now endangered. And in Mexico where large populations of the insects go to hibernate for the winter, their diminishing numbers are on epic display. According to Mexico’s Commission for National Protected Areas and the World Wildlife Fund, their count was down 22% over last year." - March 23, 2023

I've ordered free milkweed seeds to plant for dear monarch butterflies <3 <3 thank youuu!!!! -There are plenty of organizations that give them away for free for anyone who would love to help increase the population for Monarchs that we have lost .

[kimandstevelimmcintyre]

As a kid, I raised caterpillars on common milkweed leaves in large (peanut butter plus-sized) jars with lots of nail holes punched in the lids. The barbs under the nail holes gave all the holds they needed to suspend their chrysalids (after spinning some webbing over the prickly hole bottoms). I could unscrew the lids and set them out as emergence drew near (so obvious by colour changes to dark). Thanks for the video.

[mellowyellowmom]

God bless you for doing this important work! I’m trying to figure it out here in NY State. I hope to get a bunch of milkweed growing in my yard so I can do my part to help the monarchs. I don’t use any chemicals and I let the weeds grow because the weeds draw in so many pollinators. But no success with milkweed yet.🤞
Thank you for your dedication to this conservation effort!!!

[colleenross]

3:21 im four blocks from the Mississippi River... Been using mix of clay (5-10%), Vermiculite, sand, sandy potting soil, and about 15% peat, epsom salts and sulphur dash. I have about 400 seedlings 😂😂cant go fast enough 😂😂😂....thank goodness i see you using large tubs too! Whew!!! Great set up you have!! Magnificent and well developed!!! Ill get there with help from videos such as yours! Yours is my fav i think--total awesomeness!!! 🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋

[marilynnschroeder]

This isn’t the first time I’ve heard about using rocks! Good advice!

[pattibrown]

Thanks for this!! I ordered the seeds and received them, but had NO IDEA how to plant them! ( I'm in zone 9b as well) Just got lucky finding your video on the search🤙

[mrsamancio]

Incredible how nature works, my milkweed don’t grow in pots, but they pop up in the backyard announced lol

[ModestMaker]

Nice - the secret is just to mimic what they do in nature. Awesome- thanks for this nice summary.

[anthonycollins]

Do you plant the milkweed seeds in the spring or in the fall?

[diannebartkus]

Cool video. Im wanting to grow these milkweed seeds to encourage and help out the Monarch Butterfies...🦋

[pozzowon]

6:12 how do the native weeds survive the cold without a garage? Are they annuals in nature?

[jiho]

You can stratify them in the fridge for a few weeks. Wet paper towels, place your seeds, cover with wet paper towel and put it in a baggie in the fridge. Remove after a few weeks and plant and keep moist in the sun. Works every time.

[fitztastico]

3:40 From what I know, the opposite is actually true - plant roots benefit from air and oxygen. That is why clay is a tough soil to grow in because it compacts and does not allow for air pockets

[DJCannon]

I did my first Milkweed sewing recently, I am working an abandoned lot with rocks into a mixed garden. I went with raking in the seeds into the rocky soil thinking it might work, now Im seeing this video with the rocks and Im more hopeful, I really dont have extra money this year to run my grow lights for seedlings. Ive never grown weeds before but Ive seen weeds grow and figured theyd be fine in unprepared soil and rocks since they seem to grow in cracks around my house. I think my biggest mistake so far was defluffing the seeds inside my house!

[WarmFuzzyVibes]

"This person here .. "? The expert has a name, right? 😊 Anyway, thanks for this information video! I am in 8b, Central Texas and I see rhe Antelope Horn milkweed growing in full sun at Pickle Research Campus (UT, in NW Austin), and it was in gravelly dry soil. I live four miles north of that but have clay soil so I grow natives that like the clay, but I do grow alot of other flowers in large pots and raised beds with better looser soil. I want to germinate some Asclepias. I have a packet of seeds (Asclepias tuberosa) the well-known butterfly weed with the orange flowers. Last year I bought an Asclepias plant that is more exotic (like swamp or for wetlands) the big box store sold and it lived one season but didn't come back. It needed alot of water. I figured it was better than no milkweed at all. However, I wish they sold the more regional native ones. So, seeds it is!

[bkibew]

Great job… I had my best year this year in southeast Houston, where it’s extremely hot by doing the same thing I used old soil, amended it with compost manure and an old bag of coconut shell mix the old soil was three years old from old pots. Lion it with some vermiculite started out with two pots. Now I have six simply by separating the original first two pots into three bunches. The pots were completely full of roots. it was amazing… And I only use common yellow milkweed, because of the dangers of the tropical milkweed to the butterfly population

[bysquared]

Good to know. I have so many on my farm this year it’s amazing. Super, super dry year here. I’m going to collect all the pods and try what he suggests