I have 6 plants, they are pretty but will get big, heavy and blow over. I expect you could stake them or plant them in firm soil. I have not noticed any ill effects from them. We grew them when I was a child and we played under them because they make a heavy shade. If you need seed I expect to have many.

Larry

Lisa, both me and my daughter grow them. I don't have pets, nor small children. She has a dog. She cuts the seed pods out, as soon as they appear.

I have had no ill effect from growing them.

Moni

PS, the picture is from last year.

{{gwi:1123887}}

and you should see my rosemary now... it is HUGE! :)

Lisa,

Well, the toxic part is the beans themselves because they contain ricin, and ricin can be very deadly. There are ways you can enjoy the plants without really worrying about the beans. You could grow the plants and never let them bloom. Other than the ricin in the original seeds you plant, you'll never have a ricin issue if you don't let the plants bloom. (I like to let them bloom though.) Or, you can let them bloom, but cut off the flower stalk well before the seeds mature.

Have you ever seen a flower stalk on a castor bean plant? They are really pretty, but it takes the plants a while to go from flower to seed. Once the flowers start fading, the beans are forming of course. You could let the flowers bloom and then remove the flowers before they form the seeds. Or, you can let them go ahead and form the bean seeds and then, just before the pods start popping open, cut and remove them from the plant. The bean seeds are enclosed in spiky pods(picture something similar to datura pods) that eventually split open and scatter the seeds. As long as you remove them before they split open, the bean seeds are closed up inside and wouldn't harm anyone. If you want to let them set seeds so you have the seeds for the next year, you could put something like a netting onion sack over the stalk containing the seeds before they split open. Tie the sack closed around the stalk. This would keep seeds from dropping or flying around once they mature. I didn't capture all my seed pods one year and had new plants popping up for three years thereafter.

I have a dog who will chew on anything, so grow castor beans only within the fenced garden areas, and the dogs aren't allowed into those areas. Nor are the castor beans close enough to the dog yard for any of the beans to mysteriously end up in the dog yard. Our cats have never shown the least bit of interest in the plants, but.....a couple of the cats like to eat bean sprouts, so when I am growing castor bean from seed sowed directly in the garden, I put a cage over the seeded area to keep the cats away from the young plants just in case they might think a sprouting castor bean looked like a regular bean sprout.

Whatever you do, if you save seeds, label the package clearly so the castor bean seeds never accidentally end up being cooked and eaten. Only a few of them can be deadly to a human.

I have grown castor bean plants, on and off, every year since we moved here, and as far as I know, no person, pet or wild animal ever has become ill because of them. One drought year the deer did eat all the castor bean leaves that were sticking out through the garden fence, and I never found a dead deer. Remember, the poison is only in the beans....not that I am recommending anybody eat any other part of the plant because I am not....I think that would be foolhardy.

I didn't plant any this year until the voles started eating all the fennel and lantana plants in the new back garden. When they ate a plant, I'd drop a seed into the spot where the plants' roots used to be. I figured either the voles would come back and eat the bean seed and die or the seed would sprout and we'd have a replacement plant for the vole-eaten plant. So far, this method has given us 5 new castor bean plants in the back garden, though they were planted really late and are unlikely to get big enough to bloom this year. I planted more than 5 seeds, so maybe a few seeds were eaten by the voles too. I haven't had as much of a vole problem since I started dropping castor bean seeds into vole holes.

Remember that castor oil is processed and safe to use, and even can be found in some commercial products, including chocolate. It is only the ricin itself from the beans that is deadly. Having said that, I always err on the side of caution and don't even let the pets come into the garden with me when I'm planting the seeds. Better safe than sorry.

Mike McGrath wrote a great article about castor oil beans some time ago and it quotes some interesting poison control center statistics on the ingestion of castor beans by children. I'll link it.

I love castor bean plants for their big bold foliage and huge flowers. They really give an area a tropical look, and some varieties can get 10-15' tall in one season. One year I planted one of the large varieties (probably Zanzibariensis or Zanzi palm) on the Fourth of July and had plants over 10' tall by Labor Day. By Thanksgiving they were close to 15' tall and were stopping traffic because everyone wanted to ask "what is that?"

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Mike McGrath: Castor Bean Question/Answer

I wouldn't plant one because I have seen too many TV shows where they were the murder weapon. There are other pretty plants that aren't that toxic.

As long as you're responsible it's totally doable.

Just bc you saw something on tv doesn't make it true. It takes more than picking castor beans to make ricin.

I grew them without any trouble. I do like the flowers. I don't have any kids or pets, so I just make sure I keep them away from the edges of my yard where curious kids and neighbor dogs might be in reach.