Hello I found a patch of stinging nettle growing in my old guerilla gro sight. I plan on growing there again so I cut back the plot and prepped the ground. I added the stinging nettle to the compost pile but first I harvested all the seeds and put them in jars most of the seeds are dry and brown. I want to grow the stinging nettle in a different location and harvest for the compost bin, but I can't find good information online. I have read from several sources that the seeds have to go through a cold period in moist conditions to germinate. I'm thinking about filling small pots with promix with 20% compost added and taking a pinch of seeds into a small hole and covering with 1/4 inch of soil, water it, then placing it outside in March while it will still be cold for a month or longer?
Nettle will grow anywhere but it doesn't like full sun. It is also a good companion plant for cannabis. You can mulch with it directly and it will increase resin production of nearby plants when the plant is in flower. It is an extremely rich composting ingredient and is great for teas, it rivals alfalfa and kelp in nutritional value. It likes disturbed grown and I have found it grows best by scratching the surface of the planting area and spreading the seeds on the surface then just imprinting them in a little so they don't get washed away.
Thanks Jollybud, that sounds alot easier than what I planned. I'm interested in how it increases resin production as a mulch, I have a feeling the stinging trichomes have something to do with it. Can it be used as a soil ammendment like I would use alfalfa and kelp or is it better to compost all of it?
It makes a great nitrogen rich fertilizer. All you do is collect a few pounds of nettle leaves throw them in a bucket, cover them with water and use a shovel to cut and crush them. Then you let us sit for a week stirring everyday. If you bubble it then it will be ready in only a few days. It also makes a great soil amendment when dried and made into a powder, just use the same proportions you would use for kelp meal. As for the resin production I think it is because the nettle and cannabis plants are closely related and the nettle produces a similar hormone to the one that triggers resin production in cannabis. That is my guess to causation however because I have read it in a few organic amendment journals but they never explain why it happens. I have acres upon acres of nettle on my property and I have been experimenting with it in my vegetable garden and a few cannabis plants. My vegetables loved it but I couldn't tell too much with my cannabis because I used a lot of different amendments. I do know that despite my buds being a little airy they are really sticky.
If I were you I would make teas with it and use it as a soil amendment or top dress and if you end up having more than you can use then throw it in the compost.
Nettles (urtica dioica) spread by rhizome as well as by seed you could propagate root cuttings. Will be much quicker than seed. I'm a gardener, I've spent 15 yrs digging them up and trust me, the roots will lift like a mat. Nettles and cannabis ARE NOT closely related, and come from 2 different plant families. Cannabis only has 1 other member in its family- hops, used in beer making. Nettles ARE nitrogen rich and make a good fertiliser, I would use the method of soaking jollybud suggests but I personally would soak for about 3-6 months. Stirring once a week instead of daily. That way you get a few more of the trace elements out of it too. ALSO, if you're growing outside, they make a good first line of defence against the casual passer by. Most people will avoid nettles for obvious reasons..... Hope this helps man. GL
Actually I just looked it up and both cannabis and stinging nettle are in the order Rosales which would make them related. However you are right to an extent because they are in different families. But again my theory that they share flowering hormones is just a theory but that is usually how proximity effects work when it comes to companion plants when it is not related to shared soil fungus.
I'm being pedantic now I know but, Rosales is the order, not the family. Around 260 specific genera and 7700 species.(thanks Wikipedia!) They are not closely related. There are 54 different genera of plant in the nettle family (urticaceae) and most don't even look like nettles. There are 2 different types of plant in the cannabis family ( cannabidae) cannabis and humulus (hops). It's like saying I'm closely related to my dog just cos we both have four limbs, large hairy bollocks and a pair of eyes.
Well in terms of genetics we do share a lot genes with dogs. We are both mammals and we share most of the same biology. I am saying the nettle and cannabis are in the same order and in terms of plant biology they are pretty close. I would argue that plant genetics is very different from animal genetics and order is similar in shared genes to the family segment in animals.
i've always kept my seeds in the fridge strawberries need a cool period before they will bloom again so i have put them in the fridge and take them out two weeks later and they bloom and make berries.
nettles and yarrow were grown in herb gardens as a border around the garden because plants grown nearby will have greater scent and terpene production. from what i read about it, it is due to the plants roots pumping out an exudate that i think breaks down sulfur where other plants do not have this or its not in the amount that nettle and yarrow can. whatever it is exactly i'm not sure but the exudate from the roots make those within a few feet smellier. i am not too sure about if you just mulch with it but if it is creating an exudate that breaks something down to make it more smelly, i imagine that would be sulfur and so the plant in turn would also contain more of it if the assumption is correct. i recently read an article about growing nettle in shade to produce larger green material than when it is grown in the sun. the leaves grow much larger to captured the low light and the plants grown in full sun have small leaves because they have direct light so the leaf doesn't need to be as large? pretty interesting.
Jolly, We also share a lot of genes with bananas (about 95%) That doesn't make us related though does it?? But believe what you like man, I only studied horticulture for 4 years and spent 15 years with my hands in the soil....What would I know?
if you like making compost/and compost teas ,,you cant go wrong in growing Comfrey ,,,its full of minerals great for growing weed ,,,it rots down really quick as well ,,,mac,
Thanks for the replies everyone, I want to grow comfrey, alfalfa, and stinging nettle. Since I will be growing these in a field out in the woods would I be better off getting the type 4 comfrey instead of the #14, I believe the #4 has a deeper taproot than the #14 and it's invasive which would be a benefit. I will be planting #4 around the side of my house. I'm strictly organic and have followed lumperdawgz advice for years, I want to start producing my own organics (wormcastings, alfalfa meal, black leaf mold, ect). I have 3 compost piles going and about to start a large black leaf mold pile which I understand takes years. I built a worm bin but I'm not quite their yet. I plan on using black leaf mold and compost as the bedding/food. Here is the worm bin I built, I should have used pipe going horizontal instead of wire fencing to make harvesting the castings easier. I will post my compost piles I have going when the sun comes up.
I have a ton of that stuff growing in my yard. Been trying to get rid of it for 12 years now. Im close but they grow runners underground so its hard to get. What is the benifit of this plant?