Pokeweed and its Roots and Berries

Hi,
[disclaimer: this has nothing to do with using roots or berries, except for making better soil]

I'm currently in the winter and I'm collecting pokeweed seeds. I heard they have a low germinating rate (2% unless you use sulfuric acid then it becomes 90%). So I guess I'll need a lot.

I'd like to use this for two reasons.
A) I need something cheap that can break up my clay soil big-time. I'm also using forage carrots and daikon. But...
B) I also want something to act as a support for my peas or beans. Probably beans, since the pokeweeds would be big enough for scaffolding by the time I put in beans. Not sure if I can get peas up that fast in the spring.

Last year I had a bean plant hanging off a pokeweed plant. This year I want to scale up.

I am a little worried that the roots won't decay fast enough, or (gasp) will stick around until the following year or the year after and the year after and the year after.
I'm also worried that birds will make sure that it goes all around the place, unless I can get out there before them and snap the stems/berries off, which seems a little cruel.

I don't have kids around or animals that could get sick. I don't really plan to eat the plant (at least not now).

I just want deeper soil with big fat roots that will decay and give me humus. Do you think there are any problems with planting it with beans/peas? I guess what I want to know is: can pokeweed be my friend?

thanks,
-w

My pokeweed (phytolacca americana) is a perennial. I am at the northern edge of its range and in a bad year I will lose some. I've noticed that the frozen roots are a fibrous mush in the spring. Just my experience.

My 2 Cents, you can never get rid of pokeweed. I've tried and tried and all I wind up with is stained clothing from head to toe and a guaranteed resurgence in the spring. Just my experience

I live in South Mississippi and we have bumper crops of poke weed every year. Last year, I harvested some, cooked it up by boiling it three times, and blah, blah, blah. I'm sure you know the story. Knowing that my father grew up in the post-depression era South, I figured he et poke weed on a fairly regular basis. I picked a bunch, cooked it up like a mess o'mustard greens and invited him to come see if I was able to make it as good as "Sister Jule" (a locally famous cook AND my great aunt).

Twent like this:

"Youngblood (my father's nick name but that's a whole other topic), you wanna come over and eat a messa poke sallet?"

"HELL NAW I DON'T WANNA EAT NO DAMN POKE SALLET. HELL, I WAS RAISED ON THAT SHIT!"

"A'ight then."

I thought it tasted purt good. So good in fact that I went out and gathered a second mess, boiled it three times, and cooked it like mustard greens. I was planning on having it for Sunday dinner after church along with a bunch of other stuff. Since I lived at the time right across from the church, after services was over I approached m'pappy and asked, "Youngun (a corruption of my father's nick name), come on over t'the house fer a spell whilst the women talk. I gots sumpthin I wanna get you to sound off on."

He walked over, I tore a hunk of corn bread off'n the pawn, put it in a bowl and spooned a big heaping of pole sallet on top with PLENTY of pot liquor.

I had to choke the old fool out t'pot.

He was like a kid in ice cream.

He likes it so much he started gathering the hell outta ever clump he saw. The poke weed didn't stand a chance that year. It never could get started good for there he was like a goat getting it all. He ate so much that he ran out of poke on our place and started ranging out onto the neighbors places, stopping side the good road, and generally bugging everyone in each of his social circles about their respective poke crops.

And that whole thing about poke having to be eaten when it first sprouts or it's poisonous - well, m'daddy et the stuff all summer long.

And that whole thing about boiling it three times or it's poisonous - well, . . . he didn't do that either. He simply picked it, wilted it down in a little water and a bunch of bacon grease, added water and salt and cooked till tender.

Go figger. I'm guessing he had one of them moments like that food critic dude did in that movie Ratatouille when he toke that first bite of ratatouille.

So summer wanes, the poke dies back and he collected a WHOLE BUNCH of seeds. Then I came along needing a bucket and I happened to find his bucket of poke seeds. Y'all ever seen a bucket full of poke seeds? Not very appetizing. Looked like something that someone ought to throw away. Figgerin I was helpin out, I dumped em, washed the bucket and thought, "Damn, that looked like a bunch of damn poke berries. Dang younguns (what I call my kids when I'm put out), always effin something up." I then used the bucket to slop the hogs.

Fortunately I washed the bucket out before I returned it because pops don't like when someone other than himself uses a bucket without washing it out when done.

Unfortunately, those seeds were to be his seed crop the following year as he was intent on raising poke along side th rest of his greens. More unfortunately still, he asked what happened to his seeds and out of pure innocence of intent, I admitted my guilt as it related to the destruction of his new, old-favorite green.

I toted a good cussin for that one (any many more both before and since).

So he climbed in Ol'Huldie (the name of his farm truck) and scoured South Mississippi looking to replace his seed crop.

Fall faded to winter and then winter became spring and twas time for the earth to awaken with all its glory and there was m'daddy as he has done lo these many years, sloggin through the mud, planting his spring annuals and cussing Boweevil (the name of his plow horse) for doing something "as bone headed as them two sons o'mine!" One particularly long row was reserved for the planting of poke.

Spring came and went, eventually turning into the heat of summer when one day he shows up on my porch with Tadpole (the name of his coon dog) by his side. I spied him through the screen-wire door and noticed he was smiling. I knew then he wanted something.

"Junior! How you doin today?"

I'm thinking, "Yep, he definitely wants something."

I said, "I'm good Youngun. What you got in the pot?

"Want you to look somethin up for me on that 'puter of yourn."

I thought to myself, "I knew it. He does want something."

I replied, "A'ight, what ya got?"

"I want you to find out why not a damn one of them poke seeds I planted come up."

I thought to myself, "After the cussing I toted for pouring that disgusting looking shit out, I ought not to do a DAMN thing for you, you old MFer!"

I said, "Yessir."

So I did a little research and, if I remember rightly, poke will only germinate iffn a bird shits it out. (Since this is in Mississippi it might have t'be a Mocking bird but I aint sure).

He cussed a little when I told him.

Our whole neighborhood is covered with pokeweed. Started with one house, now its the whole block. They're pretty good for chop and drop mulch, hard to kill and deep taproot
Birds spread them which makes sense why they don't germinate without acid. Just feed some berries to your local birds

The fact that pokeweed is agressive and potentially rampant is slightly secondary. If the root creates soil through successive cuttings, I find that the plant itself is pretty easy to maintain, you just chop and drop.

Well, at least one, two, or even 10 or 20 might be easy to maintain. I could potentially pick seeds before they become bird-food.

I just don't really want a root that doesn't become soil. That's the main reason I'm putting it in.

-w

I'm really getting the idea that this might be a no-go. A little too risky for me.

A) this looks like a really hard seed to get going. I feel a little weird about using battery acid. I suppose I'll try and get one going anyway without the acid.
B) it's perennial. I'm not sure that the "frozen roots [will become] a fibrous mush" as Kota says (as much as I hope it's true).
C) Controlling seed spread would be pretty tedious and the seeds remain in the seed bank for 40 years.
D) I might be inviting an infestation that I don't want to deal with
E) I saw that it lowers legume and corn yield. I was going to plant beans next to it.

I might do this experiment anyway on a limited basis and see how it goes.

William

Thanks for pointing me to this post, William! I put a link to it at the bottom of my blog post.

http://www.appalachianfeet.com/2012/06/13/how-to-get-excited-about-poke-sallet-native-options-for-permaculture-nutrient-accumulators/

I'll let you know how my experiment goes. I have less neighbor-ethical concerns about the berries reseeding since we all live next to a woodland that is full of the plant. We're all going to get bird-planted seedlings either way. I may put mine in the backyard though -- so people who hate how it looks won't suffer.

I did a search for poke seeds but this was as close as i got to my question,is anyone feeding poke berries to their chickens? I have fed mine sparingly because im not sure of any ill effects from them.My poke plants are about to kick in high production of berries and i would like to use them for feed.Any suggestions,or advice about this?


Sorry to steal this topic,just did not find anything else related to poke seeds.

This reminds me of something odd that happened. Last year, a number of poke plants began growing vigorously from one planter out of nowhere. They must have been swept up with some other scraps and added as mulch. But then last fall I gathered plenty of poke seeds from those plants and scattered them to leave out for the winter in a bed. Not a single plant came up! Maybe next year they will be all over.

Perhaps scarification with sandpaper would help?

So, that having happened, I planted the poke out in various locations at the edges of gardens. They transplanted easily; though the leaves died back, they recovered quickly, and even bore fruit.

I also had some runner beans happily growing up one of these poke plants, until that plant suddenly fell over. It may have been wind, or the vines pulling the plant over, or both; but I can say that they were quite enthusiastic about it, perhaps too much so.

I am glad to learn the word “pot liquor”. One of my favorite breakfasts is to boil many kinds of greens together and then eat it all as a soup. Often I add a spoonful of miso as well, to add more flavor and nourishment; sometimes also potatoes or rice. I think the broth from the greens, the pot liquor, is possibly the tastiest part of the dish.

I bet they will sprout this spring and you might have more than you want,this is my problem now,i have way more berries than i care to eat and the chicks do really like them but im not sure if too much of a good thing can be bad.

I have found a roundabout way to get birds to help you plant pokeweed.

This technique requires having pokeweed berries in the general vicinity and the acceptance of non-targeted plants potentially being deposited in the general planting area.

Get some chicken feed, bird feed, anything that birds will eat. Throw it on a patch of dirt and... wait.

The birds will poop where they eat, and with any luck will deposit some properly processed pokeweed seeds! I have three separate plants coming up this year from the area that I would toss a handful of birdseed. How awesome is that!?

Thank you for that technique! It sounds like an excellent one.

David Miller wrote:My 2 Cents, you can never get rid of pokeweed.  I've tried and tried and all I wind up with is stained clothing from head to toe and a guaranteed resurgence in the spring.  Just my experience

It sounds as if they may do well from crown divisions too, like asparagus or rhubarb. So once a plant is established maybe they can be divided once they get large enough and eventually there will be so many that getting new plants established is—no longer a difficulty.

I've got Jerusalem artichoke racing pokeweed upward right now. They are neck in neck currently.