Turk's Cap Hibiscus, Malvaviscus penduliflorus, Sleepy Mallow, Mazapan

Uses: Edible, Xeriscaping, Forage, Medicinal. Native to: Mexico.
     This is another great plant that looks beautiful and blooms for most of the year. It's a great candidate for turf replacement, since it is very well-behaved once established. The bright red flowers attract pollinators including butterflies and hummingbirds.
     Perhaps one of the best things about Turk's Cap Hibiscus is that the leaves and flowers are edible, like all members of the mallow family. Wikipedia says, "Certain species of hibiscus are also beginning to be used more widely as a natural source of food coloring (E163), and replacement of Red #3 / E127." I have used it to color handmade soap, by making a tea for the water portion of my recipe, coloring the soap a pinkish hue.
     Have you ever had Celestial Seasonings Red Zinger tisane? According to their website, Hibiscus flower is their main ingredient. And after reading that list, doesn't it sounds pretty simple to make a version at home?

     Hibiscus flowers are known to be medicinal. They contain vitamin C and other vitamins and minerals. A study in 2008 found that it can lower blood pressure in mild cases. The flowers contain anthocyanins, acting as natural ACE inhibitors. This study reveals hibiscus' strong link to lessening the effects of metabolic syndrome. With a bit of looking, much more research can be found regarding the downward blood cholesterol effects of hibiscus. Some people are convinced the properties mentioned above can help them to lose weight.

The Clone Bucket, Week 3 and Potting Out

The third week of the clone bucket, the week of promised clone finishing, had finally arrived. I opened up the bucket to hopefully find masses of white roots... only to find this...

    Need I say, I was a little bit disappointed. 

          I hadn't followed the directions. The operator is supposed to use rooting hormones in the water. Then it is recommended to use hydroponic nutrient solution for feeding the plants while they are rooting.

               And what is this? It can only be described as a bacterial slime mold.

     So, I have planted out the remaining living cuttings, one of which has three or four tiny roots on it, the rest have no visible roots but are not dead or sliming. If these 5 live, then that ratio of 5:8 survival rating is not too bad, considering there is nothing but water in the system.

The Clone Bucket. Week 2 Update

     For the second week of the clone bucket project, I was delighted to find that only one of the cuttings had seemed to fail, by turning brown at the bottom and getting a little bit slimy. I removed it from the others and tossed it into the compost pile. Then rinsed out the bucket with water, added fresh water,and started the pump again. Although there is not much visible difference in the leaves of the cuttings, I did notice the green hibiscus (turk's cap) had grown a little bit. None of the cuttings have visible roots at this point.

Clone Bucket Experiment, Setup and Results of Week 1

     I was so excited with the gift Santa brought for me, an "aeroponic" cloning bucket. I promise only to use my new-found cloning powers for evil. Or good? For its trial run, I have two different kinds of hibiscus cuttings (Hibiscus acetosella and  Malvaviscus penduliflorus) for a total of 8 cuttings. The bucket is on the windowsill of my kitchen, a very shady spot but good for keeping an eye on things. The directions recommend opening the bucket every week and cleaning out the water, which I have to admit was feeling a bit...slimy. It lacked odor.

     It's hard to say what's going on with these cuttings. They are not black and dead, nor are they water soaked and swollen. The leaves on the green hibiscus are larger than they were, a good sign. The purple hibiscus shows no change. Overall, I approve.

The Clone Bucket, Part 1.

     I may have mentioned my aspirations to be a mad hibiscus maven, someone who is willing to share freely information, preferably about something unusual, like hibiscus. They are members of the mallow/rose family, and make for a tasty addition to both human and rabbit palates.Other than the Chinese hibiscus, many members of the family grow very well here in west Florida, including one of my favorites, the Turk's Cap hibiscus.

     So I have asked Santa this year for a cloning bucket similar to this one from Garden Pool. I love their design, but after researching their plans, I discovered it would be cheaper to buy one prefabricated. Maybe it's because of where I live, my access to the supplies. Santa got exactly what I wanted, and it's a lot more compact than I thought it was going to be, perfect for my already overstuffed galley-style laboratory. It even fits on a windowsill.

     For the first test run, I have filtered water and no hormones/chemicals added, and have made no modifications to the cloning bucket. If this all works as advertised, I may actually acquire some rooting hormones and a finer misting nozzle from the aforementioned big box stores.

     While I was setting up the bucket, I happily noticed the plastic bucket itself was made in the US. Didn't expect that. Hooray for plant technology probably pioneered by pot. The system includes a pump, a riser, a spigot, the black bucket, the black lid with holes, the foam plant holders, and a bunch of sample chemicals I plan on tossing.

Alternative Method for Making Lye, Part 4

     After working hard experimenting with the recipe in Part 3, I have discovered that recipe lacks water, or heat, or some vital process that makes it possible for completion. After some discovery on the internet, I was able to find a recipe for the reaction that seems to work out much better. The recipe comes from an interesting website that promotes the use of knowledge and technology to improve the lives of people worldwide, a noble challenge. They also have some great information about small and large livestock and crafts like candle and soap making.

      This is the mixture of hydrated lime and washing soda, after it has been boiled and is cooked and cooling. This pan is stainless steel, found at a rummage sale for $4, because I wasn't willing to risk one of my other pans to the process. Below is the first pan I tried making lye in, and it is hard to see from the picture, but the teflon is actually bubbled up off of the metal. Who would have thought? Teflon and calfalon are not of my favorite substances on the planet, after all the bad press they've received among the psittacine-phile communities for the deaths of hundreds of indoor pet birds. Apparently when teflon and its derivatives are heated above 200 degrees F, (which is every time you use it, right?) then toxic gases can be released which have been found to harm pet birds and newborns. That being said, don't make lye in a small enclosed room. Duh.
     I have still have to test the pH of the lye water that is produced from this process.

Alternative Method for Making Lye, Part 3

Barefootboy's Recipe and Method for making lye from washing soda and hydrated lime, originally found here. Edited by Tentance.

• Put 4 ounces of distilled water into two, 2-cup measuring cups (or containers).
• Slowly add 1/2 oz of the Sodium Carbonate to the water in the first cup and stir. It will clunk up, so you'll need to stir gently but well with each 1/2 oz you add. NOTE There will be some very minor but noticeable heat given off. This is normal. 
• Add 1/2 oz to the water until you reach 2 ounces. Stir until the mix is clear. There may be a tiny amount that will not mix. This is NOT a problem.
• Slowly add 1/2 oz of lime to the water of the second cup, stirring with each 1/2 added to mix as much as possible. Continue until you reach 2 oz. The mix will look like a grey white milk shake and there will be some gritty residue especially if you use garden lime. This also is not a problem.
• Carefully pour the first cup with the 4 oz of clear liquid into the first large container, leaving any non liquid behind.
• Now pour the second cup carefully into the first large container.
• The mix will now become an even thicker gray white mix. Allow to separate into a clear liquid and a white/grey solid. This can take 2 hours or more. General rule, if you can let it sit for 24 hrs, do so.
• Set up your funnel with filter on top of you second container.
• When the mix has settled, carefully pour off the clear liquid into the funnel.
• The first 3 to 3 1/2 ounces should filter off rather easily, the last 1/2 ounce will take a bit longer. You can either let the mix sit and separate over time, or put the white semi-solid in the filter and let sit until as much of the liquid as possible filters out. What will be left on the filter paper will be Calcium Carbonate (raw chalk) with lye residue. Dispose of this very carefully.

You should now have 4 oz more or less of at least 50% lye solution. Every batch has had the strength verified by the pH test and has turned out 13 on the scale.
As listed above 2 oz of Soda ash (Sodium Carbonate) to 4 oz of water and 2 oz of hydrated lime to 4 oz of water = 4 oz more or less of 50% lye solution.

 
Editor's Note: To calculate the amount of homemade lye to use in your soaps with your choice of oils, head over to the SoapCalc website. In field 1, choose NaOH (sodium hydroxide). In field 3, choose Lye Concentration 50%. Adjust your superfat and oil percentages and calculate as usual.
When in doubt, do a small test batch. You can always add more water and "cook" the soap for a longer amount of time in the crock pot or on your survival fire until you obtain the desired consistency. This homemade sodium hydroxide might lend itself more to the hot process method until you become more familiar with it.

Previous method discussion

Alternative Method for Making Lye, Part 2

This is an explanation of how to make common lye, sodium hydroxide, from readily available ingredients.
Explained very well by Barefootboy, from the Homesteading Today forum. Edited by Tentance.

Alternative Method for Making Lye 

     Due to the restrictions being placed on lye sold in stores because of the criminal use of it, I'd like to bring up an alternative method of making lye that does not require wood ashes.
     Get hydrated lime at a hardware store (as builder's lime) or garden supply store, it is used in gardening and I found it under the Hoffman brand. The next ingredient is a little trickier, you need to find some basic washing soap powder. It should be straight Sodium Carbonate with NO additives or perfumes. Arm and Hammer (Washing Soda) does sell it in the old blue box some of us remember for childhood, but most big box stores don't carry it. Try discount or dollar stores. I found 100% Sodium Carbonate being sold as a pool chemical inexpensively, called "Pool Time pH UP". Or, you could try heating regular baking soda (NOT baking powder) then use it as the soda ash. I'm not sure how long to heat it, as I have not tried that method, but chemically it's correct.
     If you do get these two, simply make an equal mix of each in filtered or distilled water and carefully combine. I suggest starting out with a cup of each to get used to the steps. This will create a white solid (Calcium Carbonate = chalk) and a liquid (Sodium Hydroxide = Lye). Using a funnel and a coffee filter, filter out the white solid.
     I mixed 1 tsp of the Sodium Carbonate with 3 oz of distilled water, and 1 tsp of the lime with 3 oz of distilled water. I poured them together and waited 5 minutes for the solid and liquid (lye) to separate, then filtered the mix through a coffee filter in a funnel. The result shows all signs of being Lye.
     This process does NOT require heating at any stage of it. It is simply dissolving two powders in enough water so they can mix and separate, and then filtering off the liquid. If you use 1 ( oz, cup etc) of each chemical (lime and carbonate) and 1 (oz, cup, etc) of water in theory you'll end up with 1 (oz, cup) of the solid and 2 (oz, cups) of the liquid which will be 50% strength lye (which may need to be further diluted with water to be used with a lye calculator).
     BUT as they said in MASH "this is meatball surgery" this is meatball chemistry, so you will not get the exactness you'd get under controlled lab or industrial conditions.
     On the other hand, it will work, and has signs of being economical (yield/cost) and IS an alternative to getting hassled whenever you want to make a batch of soap.
     I found that I had to use 2 cups of water to each cup of lime/carbonate (4 cups of water). I am filtering the mix now, and it's looking like I'll recover 2 cups of lye solution, so the 50% strength still looks viable. At the max I'll get 2.5 cups of lye solution, so that's still somewhere between 35 to 40%.

The fancy term for this is a "double displacement reaction" [Editor's Note: Double displacement reaction - aqueous metathesis (precipitation)]. The Sodium Carbonate swaps with the Calcium Hydroxide (slaked lime) to create Sodium Hydroxide (lye/liquid) and Calcium Carbonate (chalk/powder).

     Read more for a better recipe and breakdown of the method. Check out this post for confirmation of the validity of this method from a chemistry and soaping text.

     From PlicketyCat:

     You can grind limestone or seashells (calcium carbonate) and then heat it in a kiln/bonfire (1200F) until it calcinates and forms quicklime (calcium oxide), then soak the quicklime in water to create slaked lime (calcium hydroxide).
     You can also burn kelp/seaweed to create soda ash (sodium carbonate) instead of heating baking soda. Soak your soda ash with water and filter to leach out the carbonates, and mix that solution with our calcium hydroxide water solution to form Sodium Hydroxide (and dry calcium carbonate again).
     Or burn wood to create potash (potassium carbonate) and a small amount of soda ash (sodium carbonate). Soak the ashes with water and filter to leach out the carbonates, and mix that solution with your calcium hydroxide water solution to form Potassium Hydroxide (and dry calcium carbonate again).

Alternative Method for Making Lye, Part 1

     This is an excerpt from a chemistry text, written in 1856, called "A Treatise on Chemistry Applied to the Manufacture of Soap and Candles: Being a Thorough Exposition, in All Their Minutiae, of the Principles and Practice of the Trade, Based Upon the Most Recent Discoveries in Science and Art."
     I have taken enough college chemistry classes to realize that I never could seem to find the useful parts of the chemistry books. Perhaps because they didn't come with those chapters. But here is a small bit of a nifty chemistry which can be done at home to work-around the lack of available lye sources for home soaping.
     I love antique cookbooks and now, chemistry books. They provide a new perspective that is absent in our modern age.
     Read more for a more practical method breakdown. Do home chemistry at your own risk. Never throw salt in your eyes.
     What is soda ash? What is hydrated lime?

What is hydrated lime, really?

     Hydrated lime is a builder's concrete additive and a soil amendment. The high calcium, low magnesium (non-dolomitic) type can also be used for making a home-made version of sodium hydroxide by following the methods outlined here.
     The pure form of the chemical is known as calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)₂) or slaked lime. It's pH is a high 12.4. Aglime and hydrated lime are frequently confused, but are chemically completely different. Aglime is crushed limestone (calcium carbonate).

     As a soil amendment, it is a cheap way to raise the pH of large amounts of overly acidic soil. In aquaponics and hydroponics, it can be used to safely raise adjust pH and add calcium to the closed systems, though some people would just add seashells to their system. There are several grades of hydrated lime for the garden, a high calcium grade, a medium calcium grade, and a dolomitic grade. These three are all varying degrees of magnesium added, with the high calcium having the least, and the dolomitic having the most.

    For the soap lye synthesis plan, I have found the highest calcium grade hydrated lime for the best price at the Sears website, of all places. Five pounds of 95% calcium for $13.63, free shipping. That's even cheaper than Amazon!