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How much tribulus terrestris to plant for personal medicine production ?

 
pollinator
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Location: France, 8b zone
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Hello,

I want to plant tribulus next year, and I want to have enough plants to use as medicine.

Does anyone have any idea about how much plants would be needed, for one person use ? Does one plant produce a lot or not that can be used ?

For example if I want around 300g of the dried fruit, how much plant would I need ?

It seems too that this plant is dioecious, is that true ?

Does it produce a lot of leaves ? Does it produce a lot of roots ?
 
steward
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There are a few plants in this world that I would not want to plant.

Puncturevine is one of them. If the seed is the fruit that you are wanting they are rather small and cause a lot of damage to anyone who might come in contact with these.

I would rather take a dietary supplement rather than grow this on my property.

Here is a thread you might find interesting:

https://permies.com/t/21516/Goatheads
 
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Oof! And here I've almost eradicated puncturevine / goathead thorns from my land. Ugh! I have no advice for you on how much is produced by a single plant, as I've always pulled it as soon as I see it. I have seen some that have already grown large, but I have no idea what weights or volumes you get. Probably depends on the soil and climate.

What is the actual medical use? You think you want 300g per year?

It produces plenty of fruits (damn them!) that get underfoot and are painful, and plenty of leaves, but seems to produce only one puny taproot that is completely possible to pull right up at least until the middle of summer. With heavy leather gloves and keeping a bucket or basin under it so none of those horrible seeds is left.
 
Mike Lafay
pollinator
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Wow, if even on permies I'm advised to not plant it, it's that it has quite a reputation !

It's fruit are the main part used, but other parts, such as the leaves and root also contain the active compounds. It's mainly used for man health (testosterone and stuff), and I'm growing more to try it out than really out of need.

I had seen that thread, but since the first few post seemed to only focus on removing it, I didn't bother reading the rest. I did read it all now so it gave a few information.

So, instead of planting it directly in the garden, perhaps I should put it in pots, to minimize its spread ? Obviously if some ants decide to use its seeds as backpack, of if some bird decide it'd be a nice weapon to throw around it will spread, but that should be "safer" than having it directly in the ground ?

3g powdered fruit seems to be used daily in infusion, so I thought that 300g would be plenty. At the moment I'm planning the garden for next year, and trying to estimate how much plants I'll need to get enough for the year, and funnily enough, I'm focusing more on medicinal plants than on vegetables in that regard.
 
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