Just got Toucan Mix from Geoseed. It is now pretty cheap. It is priced comparable to good portulaca. I read on the PanAm site that Portulaca (Happy Trails) is very sensitive to salts (ammonium) during germination ... wonder if this applies to Purslane. The following is a quote about Happy Trails: "Portulaca is very sensitive to high salts, particularly high ammonium, during germination." I'll find out...Sorry for rambling. They are also sensitive to ants :-). Once I planted portulaca seeds and watched them daily to see if they were germinating. I finally noticed that the ants were hauling them off and were piling them by the entrance to their hole. This year to offset that threat I bought Happy Trails and Toucan in pellet form and a bare seed - 5000 seed double mix. The theory being thet may not like pellets and they can eat 4990 of the other seeds and I might still get plants. :-) Bob

I grow wild or common purslane in pots all spring and summer outdoors in full sun and they give me plenty of salad greens. I currently have 5 pots of them growing in the full sun. When fall comes I take 2 pots of purslane and bring them inside and put them under powerful grow lights that run 24 hours a day, and they continue to grow, but weirdly. I get a few harvests off of them during the winter, but mainly I just keep them alive until spring. Once spring arrives, I bring them back outside to full sun and they jump back into full growth mode, giving me plenty of greens again. Meanwhile at that time, I start 3 new pots with fresh seeds. It takes over a month for the new plants to get big enough to make any harvests off of them without damaging them. Eventually the old ones do die out on their own, mainly from salt building in the container. We have very hard water where I live. They are a fun and easy and tasty plant to grow and I encourage people to try growing them in containers.

Where are you in NM? I suspect you put the seed down at least a month too early. Bermuda needs hot soil to germinate. If you are more toward Albuquerque, it's too early. If you are down by Las Cruces, you can probably seed now. I believe Weed-B-Gone spray will work on purslane. You want to be sure your bermuda is doing okay, first. Wait until you mow the bermuda for the second time before spraying. Weed-b-gone is not a soil drench. You only have to moisten the leaves of the weed to kill it. Find the Bermuda Bible online and memorize it.

I recently reseeded my lawn with Scotts Bermuda Grass Seed. My lawn is now covered in patches of Bermuda Grass and Purslane. Is the Purslane going to choke out the Bermuda Grass? What can I do to remove the Purslane but not the new Bermuda Grass?