posted 3 weeks ago
Hello!
We've allowed two ricin plants to flourish in our near-vertical gabion cage garden, mainly because they shade the terraces during our harsh winter. (Harsh in a different way - our Mexican mountaintop winter is dry with piercing sunshine in the day and cold nights). They're about 4 m tall and their branches spread out to an approx. 5 m diameter. Now we've learned that the seeds can be super toxic if chewed. Nobody in our household has shown any indication of picking and chewing the seeds so far, but who knows, visiting children etc. And the plants are ridiculously prolific, sprouting new clusters of seeds constantly.
Earlier we've cut down the seed clusters and left them in a bucket with lid to grow mold and, we hoped, eventually turn into useful compost because it's a lot of biomass. But we may need to get more proactive and maybe dispose of both the trees.
US websites seem to propose cutting down the entire plant in full hazmat gear, boiling the plants "in a large pot" (this makes me think the person who wrote the articles have no clue, because we're talking medium tree-sized plants), burying the soup three feet deep and double/bagging then disposing of the hazmat suit, the pot and the tools at your local hazardous waste treatment centre. HA!
Do you permies have more common-sense suggestions?
We live in a dense urban area so "burning the plants on a windless day well away from people and animals" is not an option.
Apparently the ricin dissipates once the seeds germinate and sprout, so maybe letting them grow for a week and then murdering the seedlings would work?
Our roof terrace gets extremely hot with the abovementioned sun, might the seeds die broil and stop being toxic if left in black bags out there?
Appreciate ideas!
(P.S. getting the plants to stay dead will be another issue, they are ridiculously determined to live and sprout new leaves constantly in response to pruning.)