Usually, the opium poppy is cultivated from seeds.
Prepare the soil in your garden. Just add some fertilizers and calcium carbonate and cover the whole soil with mulch. One month later, remove the mulch and spread the seeds equally on the soil.
You should start to grow the seeds in the beginning of spring. The first seedlings will show up after 10-15 days.
Keep the soil wet all the time. The opium poppy loves the sun, but it doesn’t like it to be planted somewhere else.
The opium poppy is easy to grow, it even spreads itself for the next year.
Harvest
After the flower has opened and the first leaves have faded, remove them. Now you can start scribing the heads. The best way to do this, is by using a razor blade, making vertical incisions. Spread your scribes equally around the head.
After a few hours, you can scrape off the opium (gently) and make new incisions. You can repeat this process up to 3 times.
The opium should be dried and kept in an airtight and dark place.
The scribed heads can still be used. Just remove them from the plants and spread them equally in 1 layer. Dry them in direct sunlight, but make sure they do not touch each other. This can increase the risk of mold.
First, you should note that every tenth plant has to stay untouched to grow good seeds for the next year.