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market-farming - [Market-farming] Re: 6' tall marigolds, no flowers... yet

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  • From: Steve Diver <steved AT ncat.org>
  • To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Market-farming] Re: 6' tall marigolds, no flowers... yet
  • Date: Sun, 14 Sep 2003 14:28:09 -0500

Thanks Dorene -

That link to Seeds of Change gave me enough clues
to look around.  The mystery marigolds are almost
certainly Tagetes minuta, the kind SoC supplies.

It can take 105 to 120 days until flowering.
The flowers are "non showy".  

In addition to a bushy green lanscape plant, hedgerow plant,
and shade-producing intercrop, it has the potential for use as
an important on-farm pest control plant.

Tagetes minuta has a number of secondary plant
compounds that impart pest and nematode control.  

The dried leaves can be added to the soil, root extractions have strong
properties and a long shelf life, and
fresh or dried leaves can be soaked
in water as an herb tea /
fermented plant extract, applied foliarly.
 
Essential oil of Tagetes minuta has anti-bacterial / anti-fungal
properties.  A chemical profile is located on the ALNAP
website:

Essential Oil:  Tagetes minuta
African Laboratory for Natural Products (ALNAP)
http://www.ics.trieste.it/EssentialOils/EssentialOil.aspx?ID=75

Interestingly, among the web articles I found on Tagetes
minuta and related pest control plants:

Cannabis as repellent and pesticide
John M. McPartland
Journal of the International Hemp Association
Vol. 4 No. 2 December 1997
http://www.druglibrary.org/olsen/hemp/iha/jiha4210.html

This is a really good review article on pest control with a local
plant.  

It occurs to me that Tagetes minuta could be raised, harvested, and dried
in 2003, as a dried leaf pest control material
for use in the 2004 growing
season... early in the season, long
before any Tagetes plants are of
sufficient size to harvest fresh
green leaves.   

The New Crops website hosts these two articles of interest:

Soule, J.A. 1993. Tagetes minuta: A potential new herb from South America.
p. 649-654. In: J. Janick and J.E. Simon (eds.), New crops. Wiley, New York.
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/proceedings1993/v2-649.html

Soule, J.A. 1996. Novel annual and perennial Tagetes. p. 546-551. In:
J. Janick (ed.), Progress in new crops. ASHS Press, Arlington, VA.
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/proceedings1996/v3-546.html

This latter article says Tagetes argentina, T. remotifolia, and T.
subuluta are mostly wild species with ornamental value.  Not sure
any seed is available, but I'd sure like to grow these marigolds as well.  

Steve Diver






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