Seed Storage: Datura seeds are best kept in a cool dark place that is dry. Keeping them in a Brown paper bag in the refrigerator is a great way to store them. Datura seeds seem to be winter hardy as I have seen many germinate after winters that get below freezing.
Germination:
Datura seeds germinate extremely easily. Simply put them in the dirt and keep them moist. They can be planted fairly deep but they tend to do better when they are in the first few centimeters of soil. Datura seeds do not have an incubation period so the moment they come out of the seed pod, they can germinate. This allows you to plant several plants in a single grow season.
General:
I have found it is best to start them where you plan to keep them during the growing season. If they are started inside, it can stunt their growth. Although they do fairly well when transplanted, it takes a while for the root system to get established before it starts growing at its normal rate.
Datura do best in full sun, and will grow very rapidly if they are fertilized and watered well. Mine grew up to at least a meter in one grow season, and they were in full sun and they often got miracle grow, bloom builder, Urea, and lots of water. In order to increase bloom and growth, I made sure I cut off the forming seed pods since the plant put a significant amount of its energy into developing the seeds instead of having it go to the leafs and flowers.
P.S Datura seeds are self pollinating.
Harvesting the seeds:
Since the seed pods form at different rates, they mature at different rates. This makes it really difficult to judge when to harvest them. I would check daily to see what pods had opened, and I would collect the seeds that were about to fall out, this way, I knew they were going to be viable. It is very difficult, if not impossible to collect all of the seeds, but if you have given the plants enough sunlight, and fertilizer you should acquire more seeds then you would ever want. I know I didn't even collect half of the seeds and I ended up with approximately 3 pounds.
Harvesting the roots:
Assuming you are after the tropane alkaloids in it, you will want to dig the roots up at the end of the grow
season. This is the time of year when the alkaloid content is the highest in the roots, and their is little in the leafs. This is because the plant is begging to enter dormancy.
A simple Acid/Base Extraction will take out the various tropane alkaloids from the roots, leafs or the seeds.
Here I have attached a picture of my Datura Inoxia plants, I believe there is only three plants in the planter box.
