PurslaneKit Introduction

Updated: June 11, 2011
«©PK» Our purslane crop started sprouted last month and the plants are roughly 6" in height and length at the moment. Some plants have already started flowering and seedpods should be forming in the next week or so. Thus begins our new season of seed collecting and propagation. We've found that purslane tends to grow the best in the wild. They don't do as well when they're sproted in pots or planters. Why is this? It's probably because the wild offers a lot more room to grow, spread roots, and arc its branches to reach for the sun.

Updated: October 14, 2010
«©PK» Temperatures in New York City are still reaching the 60s during the day and going down to the high 40s at night. There's a bite in the air and all of our purslane plants outdoors are beginning to shrivel and suffer from the effects of the cold. Purslane can't take frost so this year's crop will die off in the next couple of weeks when temperatures hit the low 40s and high 30s. We've collected about 6,000 seedpods from this year's crop so we're well stocked up for next year's planting season.
 
Updated: September 03, 2010
«©PK» We have a rooftop garden where we've been growing vegetables and herbs for a few years now. We also grow succulents such as cactus plants, aloe, and purslane which we bring in when winter strikes. Our purslane grows fast and bountiful every year because our rooftop gets great sun exposure and isn't blocked by adjacent buildings here in New York City. Purslane can be used as a salad vegetable and we recommend tossing it with some sliced cucumbers, lemon juice and a dash of olive oil.

   This product listing is for two little Purslane Seedpods from one of our purslane plants. They're whole seedpods which were taken from the plant on September 03, 2010. There are two hemispheres on the seedpod so you'll have to nudge it open to release the little seeds inside. The seeds look like caraway seeds and there's about 20-50 of them in each seedpod.

Update: August 17, 2010
«©PK» The seed collection for the 2010 season began about 2 weeks ago. We could've started earlier but it's been a busy summer with new businesses that we've started locally in the New York market and on the internet. But let's get back to the Purslane!

   Purslane is a seed producing machine that uses its resources to grow more stems and more leaves just so that it can collect enough sunlight and energy to make seeds. We have a small patch of land that isn't being used at the moment which is filled with all sorts of plants including sunflowers, weeds, grasses, and unnamed specimens that seem to have elongated seedpods. We don't seed the field or anything but it self-seeds at the end of every year so that the same plants grow on it the next year. We took some cuttings from our purslane plants and stuck them at the edge of the field so we could monitor them. The cuttings rooted fairly quickly and there's one plant that has outgrown all of the purslane plants on our rooftop with a branch to branch diameter of about 30". We think it must be the availability of land that allows the plant to grow huge because its roots can spread out. The purslane plants that are in our rooftop containers grow to a more modest size of about 15" in diameter from branch to branch. We've collected about 3000 seedpods so far and there's roughly another two months to go in the season before the weather starts to get chilly. Purslane plants start to wither once temperatures begin drooping into the 40s and low 50s.

Questions and Answers

1) Why should I buy two little Purslane Seedpods which contains roughly 100 seeds when I can buy 500 seeds from other sellers on Ebay?
   We think 100 seeds from two little pods are plenty to start your little Purslane crop. The plants grow quickly if you give them water, sunlight, and some fertilizer. We've found that putting worm castings in the soil with purslane makes the plants grow into rambling monsters that'll threaten to take over your patch of soil. Oddly enough, purslane seems to do better if you neglect it after the initial fertilizer application in early spring once all danger of frost has passed.  There is one trick you can try if you're looking for a lot of purslane plants in a short amount of time - after starting the seeds and the plants start growing to about 3" tall, you can take cuttings from the plants and root them in moist soil to start more plants. Purslane is a hardy plant and you can chop up a plant on moist soil and the parts will take root and become new plants. 

2) Do you guarantee that the seeds in the Purslane Seedpod will germinate?
   Yes, absolutely. We started our Purslane crop with one plant in our rooftop garden in 1999 and we've used the seeds from our own purslane plants to start every annual crop since then. We have about 1200 plants from this year's crop that were grown from seeds that we collected from our 2008 crop. Purslane seeds will germinate as long as the temperatures are about 60 degrees, there's moisture in the soil, and sunlight's beaming down from the sky. 

3) So you mean that once I have a Purslane plant that grows to maturity, I won't ever have to purchase Purslane seeds again?
   Yep. You can collect the seedpods from your plants after each season and save them for the next growing season. Sadly, that means we won't be able to sell purslane seeds to the same customer once they grow the plants from our little seedpod. 

4) Why does NCS sell purslane in the form of a seedpod?
   We think that seeds should be sold in the packaging that Mother Nature gave them. A seed pod is unprocessed, unmilled, and untouched by commercial processes. NCS does not use insecticides or chemicals on any of the plants in our roof garden and we believe in clean growing procedures and natural fertilizers.  

Price
$1.95 with free first class shipping within the United States - Buy Purslane seedpod on Ebay

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