Is the Nettle Fibre Ready to Harvest Yet? (May 31, 2021) 

It's always worth trying, there are local variables, but yes, give it another week or so and I'll bet you'll get much better results!

Just blame it all on me, I don't mind 😉

Where bouts are you in east Texas. I am from Jefferson area.

@@tana2183 I'm in Sabine county.

Might I also add in case anyone is wondering. Nettles do not die off during the winter here because the ground does not freeze, they will go dormant and die back to the ground in the shade but in the full sun will go into a kind of stasis that makes the branches tender again, it is a subtropical adaptation. In winter, some of them in fact become woody and rather worthless for about 3 months out of the year. There are two types of nettles that grow here in North Florida. One imported by the Hay trade in the 17th century which brought the stinging nettles of Europe and the native which is called bull nettle which does not have edible green leaves but become quite woody and it's roots can be eaten and cooked like potatoes.

That's fascinating. I don't think I've met the bull nettle before. I'll have to look that up!

@@SallyPointer They are only native to the Americas though I imagine they've spread to England by now. Be careful though the stings on tender skin can cause contact dermatitis be sure if you do get poked to have an antihistamine or use contact treatment like baking soda or wet tobacco. They will look a bit like Lamium but larger ivy leaved lower to the ground like dandelions and full of spikey spores at midsummer. They like to grow in open fields or in barley/wheat plates. They are nick named "the devil's dandelion", "Mala Mujer" or the Gulf scorpion flower. They grow white flowers or orange in some adaptations. wear gloves touching it. The sting and pain is unforgetable.

It can indeed! Thankfully I've none immediately local here, though it was all over the valleys when we were based in Wales, I've seen the outer bark used for basket, inner bark for cordage and pulp for paper. Definitely worth experimenting with!

@@SallyPointer ah lovely! I actually posted my comment just as I collected some for papermaking 😁

Grass is good too,so many different types each with its own strengths and weaknesses.

Sorry, still not strong enough after my surgery and things are also still chaotic following Gareth's death. Thanks for your patience!

@@SallyPointer I’m impressed you are out and about at all. Stay strong.

It doesn't sting much if you know how to pick it ;) A few stings are pretty much guaranteed though, no big deal

I bet they will be some of the ones that see you right out the other end of the season, long after the others have gone too crunchy!

I personally like working with unretted nettles and mostly do prehistoric analogous methods, but retting is a good method if it's your favoured way

Yes I think so, seems a lot of it about this year.

At the other end of the season, around the autumn equinox, they can get very woody and it becomes really hard to peel the bast off the stems.

@@SallyPointer Thank you Sally, I'll just have to experiment then!

Just do it confidently and with an awareness of which direction the hairs point.

Check out the Nettles for Textiles group on Facebook ( there's a website too if you don't do FB) lots of expertise on retting amongst the members there. 🙂

@@SallyPointer Thank you, I will check them out! So happy to see you out and about.

I'm a mixture, born up north, dad from Hull, mum from Southampton but we lived abroad for a number of years and I spent my teens in Berkshire before moving to Cardiff, so my accent is a bit scrambled!

@@SallyPointer it certainly is then! 🤣🤣 I'm from the Midlands so nowhere near those but your accent seems very 'generic' for want of a better word.

Does depend on the area, round here, if the seeds have fallen, the fibre is starting to become coarse. Fully formed seeds is a good indication of ripeness though.

They do, but I've had a lot of practice so avoid most of the stings

Definitely! I generally pick between midsummer and the autumn equinox to suit the way I process them, but in dryer colder areas, some people have good results with frost retted nettles, so there are regional differences. As to yield, it depends on how fine you spin I suppose, but if you work on the calculation of just under a gram of good fibre per nettle, you can probably calculate your shirt from there!

@@SallyPointer i in the swiss alps about at 600m above sea and local climate is suitable for wine... I guess the nettles in my yard are not enough then

You'll need to experiment, but I've certainly had worthwhile seeds off nettles I'm harvesting. The nettles here will be good for fibre for about another month, which coincides well with seed harvesting season.