While living in Calexico, CA, in the Sonoran desert, I had a friend that had a very exotic looking plant in his backyard - wanted same. Learned that it was a castor bean plant, took some seeds and planted in my yard. Later yielded many, many seeds. It that area my first plant grew over nine feet, was more beautiful the first year but always nice. No frost, lasted forever. The following is from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention: Has anyone ever died after being exposed to ricin? "Yes, several deaths have resulted after a victim was injected with ricin. People have been poisoned with ricin after eating castor beans, but most cases of eating castor beans do not result in poisoning, because it is difficult to release the ricin from castor beans. Also, ricin is not as well absorbed through the gastrointestinal tract when compared to injection or inhalation." Am not that worried about the swallowing of castor beans but would be careful around children. Have you ever seen a report of a person dying as a result of ingesting a castor bean? Neither have I. I brought some beans with me to WA, couldn't find them so purchased some on the Internet. No luck so far in starting these. Every bean I planted in southern CA sprouted. Someone asked why plant these? They are a very attractive tropical looking plant. Many plants are poisonous, even the Washington state flower - the rhododendron. The oleander growing en-mass in freeway dividers, etc., in southern CA. Take care...

I'm shocked to see some of the comments here on castor seeds being poisonous. Growing up in the Caribbean we picked the pods and laid it out to dry just to hear it pop and see the seeds fly out. Now that I'm older and trying to adopt a much healthier lifestyle I have been using oils such as castor oil, rosemary oil to name a few for my hair. It does wonders for my hair and scalp, no itching no dandruff and promotes great hair growth as it helps with circulation . Picked some pods just this morning. Rastafarians have been using it for centuries in their hair and to oil their bodies after a shower. I also know that fresh pure castor oil can be ingested to purge and it works immediately too. Someone mentioned on this forum it's cheap. Let me tell you good pure castor oil is not cheap you can easily pay a good US$50.00 or more for a liter. I know that pharmaceutical grade is available as well and seem to be a little more affordable but I don't use it.

I too would like to know how and when to safely transplant young castor bean plants that I am starting from seeds from last year's plant. I have soaked and planted 8 seeds in one large pot. Also...can I harvest the pods before they burst so I don't have to look for them all over the place? If so when do I know its time before they burst? I would like to put them in a plastic bag so they will burst in there. Lastly....how long can I keep the seeds? I still have many seeds left from last year and would like to save them. Thanks Terri

Helen, I'd just separate the seeds and keep them. The fact that they stuck together doesn't mean they aren't viable. I've planted a clump of tomato seeds before where 2 or 3 seeds were stuck together, and they all germinated and then I pricked them apart, using a toothpick to separate their roots while they were very small, and potted them up separately and they grew just fine. If you feel like your seeds might not be viable, you could try germinating 10 of them and then calculate your germination rate based on how many of those 10 germinate. Then, based on your germination rate, you could decide if you should save some more seed or if you are happy with the seed you already have. I have grown several of the tomato varieties from The Dwarf Project, including Rosella Purple, and none of them have produced well for me nor have they had flavor that impressed me. Keep in mind that we have had nothing but drought years since I started trying to grow these varieties so it might not be a fair trial, but that's the weather I have here and it isn't likely to change. Of the varieties I've grown from The Dwarf Project, Rosella Purple produced better than the others, but it didn't produce well enough in 2 or 3 consecutive years to make it worth growing again. I grew it both in large containers (molasses feed tubs, which are about the size of whiskey half-barrels) and in raised beds filled with well-amended loamy clay. Rosella Purple set fruit well in the heat in the ground, and didn't do much of anything in the container, but the flavor was only average at best. For someone looking for a purple tomato that sets very well in very high heat, I think Rosella Purple would fit the bill, but I am very picky about tomato flavor and it just doesn't taste as good as I'd hoped it would. I've grown Indigo Rose a couple of years and it is just your typical novelty tomato that you might grow as a conversation piece. The flavor is only so-so. I do like having one of them in a large pot by the driveway (beside the red barn so its' color really stands out) where everyone can see it and ask myewhat sort of freaky blue tomato I'm growing. Eating them though? Not enjoyable. They produce loads and loads of fruit, which is a plus, but having loads of bland fruit that is not especially tasty is just silly. What's the point in growing them then? I think I used up the last of my Indigo Rose seed this year and won't plant it again. With tomatoes, cooking them, particularly when combined with olive oil, is supposed to release some of the healthful compounds and make them more available to your body and more easily absorbed by your body, so I think that the blue tomatoes could be combined in anything you cook---like tomato sauce or salsa---but I haven't done it. I just feed the blue ones to my chickens. I have learned to be careful about blending too many differently colored tomatoes together in sauce or salsa because you can end up with some odd colors....kinda like mixing together too many paint colors and ending up with a muddy color. Jay, Ditto on the heat here. We have had highs of 107-110 as recently as this past weekend. Yesterday our forecast high was 95 but our weather ignored the forecast and hit 100 degrees anyway. Because the drought continues and the heat is just ridiculous, the plants are really suffering. One fall tomato plant just gave up and died, and it was in a container and I could move it into shade on the worst days, but I just think too many hot temperatures since it was planted in late June or early July weakened it and it couldn't take the heat any more. Another couple of the fall plants look pretty bad and I'm not expecting much from them. I still have several varieties of tomatoes from the spring planting that look reasonably good and have a chance of producing in the fall if I keep watering, but I'm kinda at the point where continuing to water probably isn't smart. I think the return, in terms of a harvest, wouldn't be enough to make it financially smart to keep pouring water onto the veggie garden. Momotaro is still producing in the front garden and it will get water because it is right beside the asparagus. Several SunGold plants likely will continue to get some water because they are growing near the fig tree in the back garden. All the others, except for the fall tomato plants in containers, likely are done. I'll keep watering those fall tomatoes, but with highs remaining around 100 degrees all week and no rain in the forecast, I don't know that they're even going to get a chance to set fruit before the first frost arrives. Our weather is cooler this week than it was last week, but only marginally so. Only three of the fall tomato plants have set fruit. From those three plants, I have harvested three ripe tomatoes and have another one at breaker stage. That's not much of a return so far given that I have had them in containers and have watered them regularly (at least every other day, and often every day) since I planted them the last week of June or the first week in July. Our high temperatures have consistently gone 5-7 degrees above the NWS point forecast for our exact location all summer long, and they've consistently been hotter than the highs at our county's mesonet station. It has driven me nuts. I kept thinking that all our thermometers surely were broken, but then bought two brand new thermometers (the old-fashioned mercury type) and put them right beside the digital thermometers (5' above ground in full shade) and they are recording the same temperatures. I guess the fact that a lot of the rain has kept missing us while hitting the area where our mesonet station is part of the reason we're going hotter than expected, and hotter than what is recorded at the mesonet station. If I had known we'd stay so insanely hot and dry in August, I likely wouldn't have bothered planting fall tomatoes. We had a great spring crop, harvesting from the last week of April through the beginning of August, though it mostly has been only SunGolds the last couple of weeks. I'm about done with the garden for this year. I can't control the weather, and the plants can't set fruit in this heat. Being able to water enough to keep the plants alive is one thing but if they aren't setting fruit, it seems like a (pun intended) fruitless endeavor. Dawn