Tell me how I'm not supposed to propagate mullein!

I'm trying to grow mullein. Lots of it. Gobs of it. Whole heaping truckloads of it, if possible. It would seem that, as usual, I'm a weird person trying to do things that you're not supposed to do. All the research I've done on the internetz tells me how to grow mullein with purchased soil. And.... no. Thank you, no. I know I'm a total, abject, unmitigated noob, and I've never grown anything from seed to seed-maker in my life.... but I really can't stand the idea that I can't grow things in my own ****ing dirt. I don't have finished compost ready, because this is my first year growing, and I really don't want to purchase compost either, because Grazon. I have mullein seeds, I have access to local (side of the road) mullein plants. I have access to information on how you're supposed to grow stuff. So please, fellow permies... can anyone tell me how I'm not supposed to propagate this delightful plant?

Meh, what does the internet know about stuff?  Mullein is a weed in a lot of places.  They say once you have it, you'll never be rid of it.  If it can grow by the side of the road, it doesn't sound like a plant that needs cosseting to me.  

I couldn't get mullein to grow in "nice" soil so I thought the seeds were no good and tossed them on the sandy soil.  It grows great there.  It has deep roots and doesn't seem to need watering (but it does like it from time to time).  

It might be worth doing an experiment.  Plant a few seeds in the nicest soil you have and baby the heck out of the plants, and then plant the rest of the seeds in the worst conditions you have.  See which does better in YOUR conditions and adjust your growing accordingly.

Here's a giant thread about mullein https://permies.com/t/mullein

Where I'm at, mullein will grow pretty much anywhere that dirt has been upturned. The soil isn't fantastic and not much else will grow so prolifically, so I'd imagine you could just plant them and see what happens!


May I ask what you're growing it for? There is so much mullein growing here I'd love to hear some uses for it!

My father-in-law uses it regularly for a recurrent cough (damage from past illnesses). My husband also has a tendency to severe coughs during a cold. My toddler has an inherited tendency towards earaches. And getting organically-grown mullein that doesn't come from countries where one is inclined to question whether organic standards are really being upheld... well, that ranges from 'doable, but expensive' to 'difficult to find and even more expensive' to 'nowhere to be found'. Like a lot of remedy ingredients, I'm attempting to source my own. Even better, share them with others. Maybe many others. Maybe for legal tender to help support my family. And if nothing else, it seems to be a bit of a soil builder. Which I need rather badly on our newly-acquired-and-mostly-untamed homestead. Lots of clay, compaction, and pioneer plants. But no mullein. YET!

I make an oil for itchy ears by soaking the flowers in olive oil for a few weeks, shaking daily, then straining.  

I don't get to use the leaves because the chickens and ducks eat them when they need a boost. But I was mostly planning on using the leaves to improve the soil quality.  

From what we've seen on our property, mullein grows prolifically on piles of excavated soil but not on nearby forest soil, even though the sunlight and rain are the same. It goes against my nature to say that you should abuse your soil to get mullein to grow, but that's where it seems to do best. Unfortunately, churned up soil or damaged soil are not rare anymore.

I used lots of mullein making our hugel garden beds. Great biomass with a huge tap root that stabilizes soil and pulls up nutrients. I think of mullein, knapweed, and thistle as nature's way of saying "back off for a couple of years until the soil recovers." Once the biomass from these plants improves the soil, other things move in.

So from that, I would not add any fertilizer to the soil. If you have existing soil that's not great, that would be the place to start.

We have a strip of ugly old asphalt running through our front yard. Maybe I should try a few seeds there. And there's a patch of almost-nothing-growing where I planted some freshly-gathered root cuttings earlier today. Planting root cuttings is something I'm guessing my way through, never done it before. Robin Katz, could you go into more detail about how you arrange your hugel garden beds? That's another thing I'm doing by guesswork and from hints foraged from around here. When I have time to do so. See aforementioned toddler.

Saira, below is a picture showing the layers in our kitchen garden. This garden bed is shaped in a multiple keyhole design. Our later garden beds are 4x30' rectangles so they're easier to build. They layers are the same as the kitchen garden though.

Essentially it was cardboard first, although that's not really necessary if the bed is high enough. Bottom layer is fairly large log sections. We used pine and fir because that's what we have. Then some wood chips to fill in the large gaps. Then some mullein for biomass although that's not necessary but we had to pull it and wanted to use it beneficially. Then a thin layer of dirt. The next layer was smaller logs, chips, then dirt. Our thought was to have a variety of wood sizes so that some would break down quickly and some would take several years.

Depending on what you're trying to build, you can shape the beds in a mound like our kitchen garden, or make them flat like in our other garden beds. For edge support we used upright log sections for the kitchen garden. That has worked well and gives you something to put tools on or sit on while tending the garden.

All of these beds take a huge amount of wood to make since that's the majority of the volume.

Where I am at 6500 ft elevation and 37 degrees latitude with a dry climate, the mullein tends to grow on the eastern and northern slopes. It is commonly under pinyon trees and in rocky soil. I have seen it grow out of sheer rock cliff faces, so I don't think you need to amend your soil or use any potting soil. I have got mullein to establish in my swales by just crushing the heads of dried stalks and sprinkling it on the soil. If you want better germination then just lightly rake it in. Gathering mullein seed heads is something I do on hikes and I don't even have to bend down to gather them.

Growing mullein can be a bit tricky, especially if you're trying to grow it in your own soil. However, with a little bit of patience and perseverance, it can certainly be done.

One option is to collect some wild mullein plants from the side of the road and transplant them to your garden. Mullein is a hardy plant and can adapt to different soil conditions, so it should do well in your own soil.

Another option is to start your own compost heap so that you can use homemade compost to fertilize your plants. This will take some time, but it's a great way to enrich your soil and promote healthy plant growth. As for fertilizer, mullein doesn't require a lot of it, but you can use a balanced organic fertilizer once or twice a season to help it thrive.

Just remember to be patient and don't give up! With a little effort, you can successfully grow your own mullein.

Ok, transplantation... total and unmitigated noob here... how do you do that? I'm asking here because I want to know how permies gardeners do such things, not how conventional instructables say to do things. I've got compost in the works (many thanks to David the Good for his book!), but I've only been at it for a couple of months so far. I'd certainly far rather make fertilizer than buy it... for many reasons... not least because we don't have much capital to throw around. So, transplants? root cuttings? crown cuttings? Details!

Speaking of which, many thanks also to Robin Katz for the information on your hugel beds! We are looking at the upright logs notion for our own prospective hugel, because it's midslope. And I like the idea of something to sit on as well.