Monarch caterpillar feasting on a common milkweed. Madison Audubon photo
Milkweeds are the host plant for monarch caterpillars, making them essential for healthy monarch populations. This fall, Madison Audubon and in particular our staff at Goose Pond Sanctuary have established a goal for volunteers to collect 50 pounds of milkweed seed for the butterflies, and we need your help!
The primary focus is on common milkweed since it is indeed common and found in old fields, along roadsides, and possibly in your yard. We also would like people to collect butterfly, whorled, and swamp (red) milkweed seed as they are highly desirable species that are not easy to locate in large numbers.
Two five gallon buckets of pods equates to about one pound of seed.
We're asking you to collect ripe pods and drop them off at one of two sites:
Goose Pond Sanctuary’s Kampen Road Residence (W7503 Kampen Road, Arlington). Please call Graham at 608-333-2947 or Mark at 608-333-9645 before making a delivery or with other questions.
Brenna’s house on the east side of Madison. Call 608-513-0630 or email bmarsicek@madisonaudubon.org before making a delivery or with other questions.
Collection tips:
Peak milkweed collection will be over the next two weeks depending on your area! Pods will pop and seeds will be gone with the wind after that.
The best time to pick milkweed pods is after the seeds have turned brown, but the pods themselves have not opened.
Paper bags, left open work well for storage as they are breathable.
Please drop off pods ASAP and not more than two days after they are picked. Seeds may rot after that time. Check to make sure by opening a couple of pods that they do not contain any fungus due to the wet, cool conditions last week.
Cleaned seed is much appreciated. For some good visuals on collecting pods and cleaning milkweed seed check out this video (also found on our Facebook page here).
Collecting milkweed pods September 2020, video by Seth McGee
The seed will be planted at Goose Pond and also provided to public land managers and private landowners that are interested in helping monarchs. Every 30 milkweed common stems provides enough resources for a monarch to reach Mexico. We are also going to look at how much seed should get planted to produce enough stems for monarchs but also not take over the planting.
Please feel welcome to share this with others. Thank you for your help and caring for monarchs and milkweed!
Mark, Sue, and Graham, Madison Audubon’s Goose Pond Sanctuary managers and land steward
