About Poppy (Papaver somniferum)
As almost everyone knows, morphine and its common form as opium are "controlled
substances"--that is, illegal drugs. What most people also know is that opium is derived
from a variety of poppy flower ("pipe of poppy"). What very few realize is that that
variety is not some hothouse exotic: it is your basic, familiar, old seed poppy--the same
flower whose seeds grace your bakery buns. The amount of morphine in the usual "poppy seed"
used for culinary purposes is laughably negligible--nevertheless, growing some poppy seed
for your home-baked rolls is a big-time crime.
No, that's not a joke or an exaggeration; possession of the seeds per se is
legal--which is why you can buy them in the supermarket or from some seed catalogues--but
planting those seeds makes you a drug lord. (There was a long article--the cover story, in
fact--on the subject of poppy seeds and our looney-tune laws in the April 1997 issue of the
prestigious Harper's magazine.) Chances are that the feds won't raid you if you just
have a couple of plants for seed purposes, but be warned that a spiteful neighbor
could, with an anonymous telephone call, in a flash have you in the slammer
explaining your cooking habits to a G-Man.
The following appears on a Purdue University "In The Grow" web page from 1996:
According to the May/June issue of Fine Gardening, "In the U.S., all parts of Papaver
somniferum, except the seeds, are considered a controlled substance. Seeds, many of
which have been bred in the Netherlands to diminish the opium alkaloid content, are
available for cooking or cultivation. Still, sensitive drug tests can detect the presence
of opiate alkaloids in someone who has recently snacked on baked goods peppered with poppy
seeds."
If you question any of this as exaggeration, feel free to do your own homework with a search
engine. One thing you will quickly find is that advice and information on growing seed
poppy is relatively rare and hedged round with precautionary warnings (unless it's from some
druggie site, which searches on poppy seed grow OR
growing turn up with monotonous regularity). Fortunately, this seems to be
a very easy plant to grow, so not much detail is needed.
Cultivars
The variety Przemko was, it is claimed, especially bred to be low in morphine--which
is silly, because the dried seed almost always is anyway. There is also a variety called
Hungarian Blue Seeded that is said to produce most of the culinary poppy seed grown
commercially. Doubtless either would do for home-gardening purposes, though seed catalogues
only rarely give cultivar names for seed poppy.
Planting
The seed poppy is a perennial best grown in a pot, because it is almost impossible to
eradicate once sown anywhere--it is said the the merest scrap of cut root (and its root
system is extensive) will regrow as a new plant.
Despite its Oriental aura, suggesting steamy jungles, poppy is a cold-loving plant (think
"Icelandic poppy"). You can plant very early in spring--pretty much as soon as the snow
cover is gone. Just plant a seed or three in a pot and water regularly. Germination is
anywhere from 1 to 3 weeks.
Though the plant is perennial, it is probably best to renew it every few years: perennials
maintained for very long periods tend to lose some vigor. Or, as one grows it for seed, it
can be grown as an annual--a little of the fall-harvested seed can be planted, in the fall,
for a new crop the following year.
Growing
When the plants are about 10 inches tall, you can start occasionally fertilizing with a
liquid fertilizer.
Seed poppies grow long stems with a flower the seed pod atop them. The flowers usually last
a few days (3 to 8 days, one source says), then the petals drop off. After that, the plant
gets busy making seed--the seed pods fatten up, usually to well over an inch in diameter.
Eventually, the pods' seed vents open up and release the seed. You want to harvest at that
point: one way is to secure a small, permeable bag of some sort (cheesecloth, or perhaps an
old bit of row cover) around the growing seed head to collect the seeds when they are
released; another way is to estimate seed ripeness and pick just before release (but you
really, really want the seeds fully ripened).
The flowers of seed poppy are lovely, being similar to those of poppies grown for floral
decorative purposes. If you want, you can treat the plant as an annual and, after harvest,
cut the stems for dried-flower arrangements.
Relevant Links
Besides any links presented above on this page, the following ought to be especially helpful.
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Poppy -
from Gernot Katzer's immensely valuable Spice Dictionary
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Plants For a Future Database: Poppy -
lots of data on the plant, and links to yet more
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How to Grow Poppies -
Pacific Northwest Poppies: despite the off-putting site name (opiumpoppyseeds.com), the
nominal purpose of the site is to retail poppy seed for culinary and floral
growing; though that seems dubious, all told, the growing advice looks sound.
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