Want to see my root?

The wife and I were cleaning up around a sink hole today and she
pulled up several pokeberry roots. Dang things are big.

What the heck is a pokeberry-----------------------loren

They are very poisonous.
We have them all over here.
Richard in NW SC

I think you can boil and eat the leaves. Remember the song " poke salad anne"?
The berries don't affect birds, they will crap them and stain the paint on your vehicles.

There was lots of poke salad eaten when times were tough.

Poke is a weed that had a song written about it. Poke Salad Annie by Tony Joe White back in 69-70. Its leaves are edible if cooked properly. It gets 5-6 ft tall or taller. Grows mostly in South.

Looks kind of like purple nightshade, poisonous plant related to the potato. Potato seeds are poisonous also.

the south has no exclusive claim to pokeweed. it is all over in the north, too. just after I started farming on my own, early 80s, there were a couple good sized plants along the hedgerow with the neighbor. I chopped them in with the green corn that I was feeding. for the next 2 days, the cows didn't care if they lived or died. watery manure and no milk. I didn't make that mistake again.
Loren, you have seen it, I'm sure. clusters of purple berries, sort of like small grapes, on a purple stalk.

Goats love them once the berries get dead ripe,they'll eat the berries and strip the leaves off.

Here you go Loren.
Pokeweed/Pokeberry

My neighbors have those dang things growing in their pine trees. Apparently too lazy to get under there with a mower, weed wacker or machete. It just never ends. And the one moron is mowing 10? into my hay field but can?t keep his noxious weeds under control. Unbelievable. He actually drove over his own poly tarp he was too lazy to move and wrapped his zero turn mower blades pretty good.

show it to the wife.

Potatoes don?t have seeds the tuber grows eyes and you cut it up and plant it

that stuff is thick around central ohio, will lay dormant for years till you plow or kill the other vegetation, then it comes on with a vengence, i've seen them plow next to me and the roots are almost as thick as a mans arm. dad loved the leaves as a salad.

Yes we have enough of it around here in NY.

(quoted from post at 01:51:04 10/24/19) Potatoes don?t have seeds the tuber grows eyes and you cut it up and plant it

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Oh, you sure?

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/vegetables/potato/true-potato-seed-growing.htm

I think that was Anthony Weiner's slogan!

The leaves are edible when the stem is green and tender. Once the stem turns red, the leaves become poisonous. My great great grandmother took the leaves, dried and rolled them and smoked them like tobacco. She said it gave her energy. It has many uses. Some folks took the berries and made dye and ink from them.

I have about 100 goats that will prove Polk isn't poisonous when the berries get ripe and the plant turns purple (ripe) they'll strip it down to the stalk.The grown plants make
great garden mulch as the roots go very deep and draw up a lot of minerals.Of course those inflicted with Weed Psychosis won't be able to enjoy the benefits of this very useful plant.

(quoted from post at 23:21:04 10/23/19) Potatoes don?t have seeds the tuber grows eyes and you cut it up and plant it

Click to expand...

Although most people plant pieces of the previous years crop in the potato garden, potatoes do on occasion produce a berry that looks like a green tomato on the top of the plant.

We experimented with them years ago and created a new variety.
Something about an odd number of genes means every seed in a berry is different from the other app 300 seeds in it.

Save the things that look like tomatoes
briefly bust them up in a blender with some water
Pour into a bowl and let sit a few days
All the pulp will rise to the top and the seeds will settle to the bottom
Separate out the seeds and let them dry out on a paper towel

Let them sit a year to break dormancy

Plant indoors early, treat them like you would treat a tomato seed

Many will be duds or do poor so out of the hundreds you plant by the time they are ready for the garden you might be down to only a few dozen plants

In the garden some will do good, others not so eliminate those as you go

End of season dig them up and decide which ones did the best in your soil and decide which ones taste the best

Because they were started from seed they will not produce as much in the first year compared to a plant started from a cutting so you will only have enough harvested to use for cuttings to start the next years garden with.

By the time year 4 comes around you will have ample to eat and start the next years crop with and you will have created a completely new variety of potato exclusive in taste, color and disease resistance that will thrive in your climate and soil.

Yes it takes a lot of time but you end up with something nobody else has or can sell you and you earn the right to name the variety after yourself if you do so choose.

We have Russian olive trees, Rhodes roots will grow 30 feet long. That was the longest I ever found. Theses aren t fun trees.