The poppy harvest

The poppy harvest

The poppy, also called wild poppy or corn poppy, can certainly be used for cooking, but other varieties are used as a baking ingredient, such as blue poppy or gray poppy. The names indicate the color of the seeds. A well-known growing area for poppy seeds is Austria. Various types of poppy seeds are grown there that have only a low morphine content.

also read

  • Do you have to cut back poppy seeds?
  • What is the best way to sow poppy seeds?
  • How to cut poppy seeds

When do you harvest poppies?

If you want to harvest poppies for sowing next year, it is best to do so on a dry day. The capsules should already be dry, then the seeds are ripe and can be released from the capsules by gently shaking them. Store the seeds in a cool, dry place until sowing.

About four to six weeks after flowering, the seed pods are mature and can be harvested. Industrially grown poppies are usually harvested in August or September. The exact harvest time always determines the degree of ripeness of the capsules. This can be recognized by the brown color and the rattle of the loosened seeds when shaken.

How do you harvest poppy seeds?

If the poppy seeds are to be harvested by hand, it is a very time-consuming undertaking. The stems are cut individually and bundled together. The bundles are then shaken upside down to allow the seeds to loosen. These fall into a container where they are collected.

Machine harvesting is now widespread. The ripe capsules are harvested with converted combine harvesters and collected in a storage facility. Capsules that end up in the field rather than in storage are used as fertilizer. Mechanical harvesting is much faster because the combine harvesters can harvest around one hectare in three hours.

The most important harvest information:

  • Main supplier for baked poppy seeds: Austria
  • Harvesting by hand is very time-consuming
  • mostly machine harvest

Tips & Tricks

If you want to bake or cook with poppy seeds, use German or Austrian poppy seeds, the cultivation of which is approved. Other types of poppy may contain more morphine.