Hi joylawson,

Welcome to The Seed Exchange!

Please see the link below to get set up for trading and for the forum instructions.

hth.

Sue

Here is a link that might be useful: sticky: please read before posting! **REQUIRED**

Caster bean seeds produce during the summer months. You might look around your area to see if anyone has them in their yards, etc. Even cutting are easy to start as well as the seeds. The variety I grow only have small blooms and the seeds explode so they have to be harvested as soon as they the seed pods start to change or some type of cover to hold them before they explode.

When anyone trades Castor, please us a padded envelope so the seeds don't get crush. Castor beans contain Ricin. Yes, the poison we hear about in the news.

It is very hard and complicated process to extract the ricin from the seeds. Mostly they will only make you sick, much to the disappointment of one wife trying to kill her husband. Ended up getting 10 years for attempted murder. Yes they do need bubble wrap due to their size.

joy- do you have any trades?

i have a few kinds of castor i can share

email me

wally- is that a picture of castor?

it sure doesnt look like any ive seen before...

Yes this variety only produces small blooms and when the seeds ripen the pod explodes and broadcasts their seeds. So I have to either watch to be sure to pick them as soon as they change from a shiny color to a rough dull color and harvest them then. The only other choice is to put a gauze wrap around them and just wait. My trees are just starting to put on seeds for this year. By the time summer is over I should have enough for anyone. But I would have to be sure I do harvest all the seeds. Yes they do need to be in a bubble wrap to protect them from being crushed. This is what they look like when they finally have their true leaves. The primary leaves oval and plain green until they start to put on true leaves. They will start almost any location. I know as I have to keep killing off all those where the seeds fall that I did not caught

-wally, I think I remember seeing you posted a pic of your plant on the herb/herbalism forum too?? I've been wondering for awhile about it....

I think your plant is actually Jatropha gossypifolia, or "belly ache plant".

Here is a link that might be useful: Jatropha gossypifolia

christinmk;, Thanks as I kept trying to find this plant on the web but never found what I was looking for. I does look a lot like a Caster Bean plant but now I will have to stop offering seeds for a caster bean plant. Even the sprouts look like a caster bean sprout. The only thing different I can see is the seeds explode and broadcast themselves unlike caster beans which have those thorny pods that do not explode. The seed pods on my bush are smaller than the caster bean seeds also. So now I guess I need to tell everyone I did not send them caster bean seeds.

-wally, it's a handsome shrub anyway. If I lived in your zone I would certainly want to try growing it ;-)
CMK