Catnip (seeds,plants,growing,saving,selling)

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I know it probably to late in the year but I want catnip seeds or plants and no one around here has them anymore this year. Can it be grown inside? Also does anyone out here grow and market catnip? Any info. on to start? how well do you do?

-- TomK(mich (tjk@cac.net), September 08, 2001

Answers

One fall I found catnip growing wild on a vacant lot. It had gone to seed, but I brought some home for my cats. I stripped the leaves and flower heads from the stems outside. The next year, and ever after, I had catnip growing in various places in the yard, and they spread around too. Just from chance scattering of seeds.

That source is no longer available to me, but I know of a few places where it grows. I'll see if I can find you some seed. If I do, then I'll let you know so I can send it to you. Haven't tried growing it indoors, but I don't know why NOT. Also, if you can find any plants growing wild, they transplant well. It's very hardy. I've found little green leaves under the snow in the winter.

I've just gathered and dried the stuff for my own cats, but I would think that catnip would be a good seller at farmer's markets and the like. Fresh when you have it, maybe dried for earlier in the year. To dry, I just laid mine out on cardboard on shelves in a dark closet for less than a week. I usually strip the leaves (after drying) from the stems and pack the leaves into jars (like mayonnaise jars) and put lids on them. Even the stuff several years old seems more "potent" than the expensive catnip sawdust that you can get at pet stores!

BTW, the biggest, best "crop" I ever had of the stuff was the year it grew up around a compost bin that I had filled with leaves the previous fall. It got huge! Warning: Bees and wasps like the flowers.

If your farmers markets are in a populous prosperous area, you might find a market for cat toys already made up. Small pillows with a bit of batting and a pinch of 'nip inside. Easy to make. That kind of toy cost a couple of bucks at least at a pet store.

80% of cats have the gene that finds catnip attractive. Purrrrrrrr!

-- Joy F [in So. Wisconsin] (CatFlunky@excite.com), September 08, 2001.


A little off the subject (Well a lot off the subject)

I recently heard on the radio that catnip oil was a better mosquito repellent than DEET. Was I smelling too much catnip myself or did somebody else hear of this also? I hope it is true. Catnip is a natural product, but I really don't know what deet is.

-- Bob in WI (bjwick@hotmail.com), September 08, 2001.


Ive grown it indoor, for the cats. Doesnt last long,, as soon as one smells it,,its gone. Dont know a market for it,, maybe per stores? Once it gets established,, its hard to kill,, unless you try. Ive got it in a few places. Where are you? I could send some seeds

-- stan (sopal@net-port.com), September 08, 2001.

I have seeds, will send them to you. A private e-mail is already on its way.

I beg you to take them!!! catnip is a weed in my garden!

a weed is an unwanted plant! to late for plants and too expensive to ship the ones in 5 gallon pots! they grow everywhere.

how come the ones I want to grow won't and the ones I think weeds are!?



-- westbrook (westbrook_farms@yahoo.com), September 08, 2001.


Bob in WI, nope that is correct, all natural and 10 times more effective then Deet and I can hardly wait to get started on my new enterprise. Now I just have to find small bottles and print some labels and me and Reba McEntire will be partying in the moonlight.LOL!!!!!

-- TomK(mich) (tjk@cac.net), September 08, 2001.


Are some varieties of catnip more attractive to cats than others? My cat goes crazy over the store bought kind, but she couldn't care less about the stuff I'm growing in the garden.

-- Sandy in KS (scwilson@mindspring.com), September 08, 2001.

If you can't get seeds from private sources, try some of the seed catalogues. I still have some seeds in a packet I picked up somewhere a few years ago. Seemed all our friends had cats, so I grew some in a clay pot on the windowsill. Took some with me in a film cannister when I visited friends, they couldn't figure out why I was suddenly so popular with their cats! LOL!

In these news articles claiming that catnip is more effective than DEET, is there by chance any mention of HOW it is to be used? I plan to plant those seeds in pots this winter and grown it in our new greenhouse, and be ahead of the pack come springtime and the fresh crop of skeeters.

-Chelsea

-- Chelsea (rmbehr@istar.ca), September 08, 2001.


Chelsea, using the oil from the plant.

-- TomK(mich) (tjk@cac.net), September 08, 2001.

Okay....and how exactly does one go about extracting the oil?? ;-)

-Chelsea

-- Chelsea (rmbehr@istar.ca), September 09, 2001.


Chelsea, by crushing the plant,(leaves and stems). I am now trying to design a catnip crusher with a drainage hole. on the same as a garlic clove crusher or apple press. I will be posting another thread here in a few days about all I have found out this.

-- TomK(mich) (tjk@cac.net), September 09, 2001.


may friend taught me years ago that cat nip grown from seed the cats will leave alone in the garden. it is when you try to transplant it the cats will attack it. it tried for years to take starts from other people, and the cats ruined them. then i moved here where they are wild plants everywhere, and my cats leave them alone until i rip them out and throw them crushed in a pile or bring them in to dry. they mustn't be hard to start from seed as i have new plants come up all over every year. geez, its hard to type and watch x files reruns at the same time. oh, dana just gave birth...

-- marcee king (thathope@mwt.net), September 09, 2001.

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