>>992146I don't boil the bark. I just put it in with the willow cuttings in the water. You can try both methods and report back.
Cover as much of the cutting with water as you can. Sometimes the lower most nodes die and an upper one will send out roots.
>>992234Cattails. You can get so much pollen from them that you can make a loaf of bread with it. Here's what a loaf will look like. This isthe last one I made before I got ducks in my pond. The ducks almost completely destroyed the cattails by eating the young shots in the spring. Which is fine because the pond was in danger of being choked out by them at one point.
Just slip a bag over the pollen spike on the top of the cattail, lean the cattail over and bang on the bag to dump the pollen off. You will need to sift the pollen a few times because there will be TONS of insects having a party in it. Store it in your freezer for long term storage, but you can dehydrate it properly and keep it in bags for a long time.
FYI, this shit is ULTRA expensive. Like $30 to $100 per pound depending on the source. Personally, I'd never trust buying it from China, where it is the cheapest. This stuff is too expensive and too easy to cut with something else for fraud.
Cattails are super easy to grow. You can make a semi-swampy area in your yard/garden by putting a low dike around a normally watery/moist area and planting them there. You can use the starchy roots for flour too. You will need about 50-100 blooming cattails to make it worthwhile.
You'll get more pollen this way than using a bee hive (I own bee hives, fyi.)
