Are castor bean plants perennials?

Are castor beans edible?

Just be sure not to eat the beans from which the oil came. If castor beans are chewed and swallowed, they can release ricin, one of the most toxic poisons known to man. Eating just one or two castor beans can easily cause the demise of the eater.

All fertilizer labels have three bold numbers. These three numbers represent the primary nutrients (nitrogen(N) – phosphorus(P) – potassium(K)). This label, known as the fertilizer grade, is a national standard. A bag of 10-10-10 fertilizer contains 10 percent nitrogen, 10 percent phosphate and 10 percent potash.

Before you start fertilizing tomatoes, it is best to have your soil tested. If your soil is correctly balanced or high in nitrogen, you should use a fertilizer that is slightly lower in nitrogen and higher in phosphorus, such as a 5-10-5 or a 5-10-10 mixed fertilizer.

Prominently featured will be the N-P-K ratio, the percentage the product contains by volume of nitrogen (chemical symbol N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K). A 16-16-16 fertilizer, for example, contains 16% nitrogen, 16% phosphorus, and 16% potassium.

Bone meal and rock phosphate are high in phosphorus, and they typically don’t include nitrogen or potassium. Meanwhile, kelp, granite meal, greensand and wood ashes are excellent sources of potassium. Some of these organic ingredients also contain trace elements such as iron and magnesium that are beneficial to plants.

Liquid Turf Builder goes to work immediately, according to the lawn food section of the Scotts company’s website, and begins to green up the lawn within 24 hours. The granular form of Turf Builder, which you need to water in to activate the fertilizer, takes two to five days to show results.

When it comes to lawn maintenance, many factors determine how healthy, lush and green a lawn is. Lawns require regular mowing, water and fertilizer to keep them in pristine condition. When fertilizing a lawn, it is best to apply fertilizer after the lawn has been mowed so it has a few days to absorb the fertilizer.

A day or two before applying fertilizer, water your lawn thoroughly. After grass dries, apply fertilizer. Then lightly water again. This second watering is vitally important, because it washes fertilizer off grass blades and into soil.

This just causes the lawn to grow faster and need mowing more often. Don’t apply fertilizer to wet grass. It’s much better to apply fertilizer on grass which is dry and then water in well. Watering in washes the fertilizer off the grass leaves without burning them.

To much rain washes away the fertilizer before it is able to soak into the soil. Often, it is best to play it safe with your investment. This means fertilizing two days before rain arrives. The Southwest Florida Water Management District places the necessary time period between fertilizing and rainfall at 36 hours.

Your lawn needs at least 1”-1 ½” of water per week, year-round, during the winter, too. Water deeply 2-3 times per week, rather than daily. Water as early in the morning as you can, when possible. If you can’t push a 6” screwdriver into your lawn, you’re not watering enough.

Steps for a Thicker Lawn

Choose the Best Seed for Your Area. Choose a high quality grass seed that works for your location.

Prepare the Area. Before overseeding your lawn, mow your lawn short and bag the clippings.

Seed. Use a Scotts® spreader to spread your seed.

Water.

Mowing.

The Turfgrass Water Conservation Alliance service recommends overseeding at least 45 days before your average first fall frost. In southern areas, overseed thinning lawns in late spring, as warm-season grasses enter their active growing season. For winter color, overseed lawns in fall.

Sowing new grass seed over your existing lawn is known as overseeding. While it is often done to fill thinning or bare spots, you can also overseed your lawn to prevent browning during the winter by overseeding a warm-season lawn with a cool-season grass.

Seed warm weather grass seeds in early spring and into the summer. Wait until temperatures get above 65°F during the day and then seed. This will allow the warm weather grasses to get the benefit of warm temperatures that come with summer while giving them time to become established prior to cooler weather in the fall.

For colonial and creeping bentgrasses, the seeding rate is usually 1/2 to 1 pound per 1,000 square feet. Plan on requiring about 3 pounds of bluegrass seed, 10 pounds of ryegrass seed, 4 pounds of red fescue, 5 pounds of hard fescue or 8 to 10 pounds of tall fescue seed for every 1,000 square feet of turf.

Most weed and feed fertilizers contain a herbicide that prevents seed germination, so it is recommended to wait until your new grass is well established and you have mowed it a minimum of 4 times (usually 6 to 8 weeks) before applying a weed and feed fertilizer.

Fall is the best time to introduce new seed into an existing lawn of cool-season grasses. But, depending on your grass type, overseeding in spring can yield good results, too, if it’s done early enough in the spring to give seedlings enough time to mature before the onset of the summer heat.

Castor beans contain ricin, one of the most toxic substances known. They may cause an acute and potentially fatal gastroenteritis. Delayed visceral damage is another serious complication; however, the latter is quite rare. The toxicity is dose related and depends on the amount of castor beans ingested.

The general procedure involves first removing or softening the outer coat of the castor beans (some recipes suggest soaking them) and cooking the beans. Next, the beans are mashed and filtered. Then solvents are added to extract the ricin from the solution and congratulations, you’ve just made ricin.

Just be sure not to eat the beans from which the oil came. If castor beans are chewed and swallowed, they can release ricin, one of the most toxic poisons known to man. Eating just one or two castor beans can easily cause the demise of the eater.