How to harvest and plant milkweed

 plant milkweed seeds

Learn how to collect, harvest, and plant common milkweed seeds to attract monarch butterflies to your garden.

Support monarch butterflies with dairy

Do you want to prevent the decline in the number of monarch butterflies and help bring these fluttering beauties back into your garden? Milkweed Plants - This is the only food source for monarch caterpillars and attracts many pollinators for its nectar-rich flowers.

Growing milk

You can plant milkweed starter plants purchased in specialized nurseries. Milkweed does any species in the family but is much easier to grow, the common milkweed, Asclepias syriaca. Plant them in full sunlight in groups of three to six at intervals of 6 to 24 inches around your garden. Smaller groups are less prone to insect or parasite infections or predators than mass plantings.

Collecting milkweed seeds is also easy (ask property owners first) and start it yourself. See the gallery at the bottom of the article for our tips on how to collect seeds.

Planting milk seeds

Milkweed seeds should be stacked to help germination. Stratification is when a seed breaks down the germination barriers in seed coatings such as moisturizing, cooling or freezing, and thawing, waxes, hormones, oils, or heavy coatings. Milkweed seeds sown in the fall are naturally layered. Seeds planted in the spring should be refrigerated, which reflects the natural process of breaking the ice and cold seed pods.

Autumn seed planting

Plant the seeds in the sun in the fall. Sprinkle the seeds on the well-plowed soil, tap them, fertilize the top of the soil, and pour water over it. Seed sown in the fall will naturally stack outside.

Spring seed planting

In early spring you can plant milkweed seeds as soon as they are able to work in the soil, but for best germination, they should be stacked in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 months before planting in the spring.

Growing marigolds have three to four sets of leaves, with thin seedlings spaced 6 inches apart.

Starting seeds indoors in winter

You can start layered seeds indoors in late winter. Sow 2 to 3 seeds in a pot filled with the seed-start mixture, cover with the 2-inch mixture, pour a little water, and set under the lights. Germination takes 7 to 10 days. Plant 3 to 4 sets of leaves and seedlings in a sunny place when the ground is warm.

Step 1: Harvest the seeds from the milkweed

Remove the pods when they are brown, dry, and mature. The brown dried fruit on the upper left begins to split - suitable for seed harvesting.

Once the floss is out, it is difficult to remove from the seed, as in the lower left. Leave these pods alone to scatter the seeds in the air.

Step 2: Open the milkweed seeds

When you are ready to harvest the seeds, open the dried pods in the split seams before the fluffy floss comes out.

Step 3: Carefully remove the milkweed seed cluster

The seed cluster can then be carefully removed from the milk pods. When fully ripe and dry, the seeds are easily separated from the floss.

Step 4: Separate the seeds from the milkweed floss

Hold the flossing tip of the cluster with one hand and gently remove the seeds with the other hand and brush them into a bowl.

Leave to dry for a week or more in a cool, dry place. Store them in a freezer or refrigerator at 40 degrees F until you are ready for planting in the spring.