Artemisia annua anamed seeds were brought into Haiti by Cory in 2007. He tried to grow this medicinal herb on LaGonave but the growing conditions made it very difficult to grow plants large enough to produce many leaves for tea.
Tea from these leaves has been proven to treat malaria at similar or improved rates than commercially produced pills and at a much better price. Cory has continued to plant and work with the Artemisia plants in Northern Haiti.
The plants grown from seed must be cared for carefully while small. Once they are larger they are transplanted to gardens.
From the strongest vigorous plants, cuttings are taken for rooting. One way is to put them in cups of soil covered with a clear plastic bag. After 10 days the roots can usually be seen though the clear plastic cups and they are uncovered. If they had adequate root systems they will start to grow rapidly.
After a few days the new plants are ready to be transplanted to locations with good wet soil. We have had to water some of the Artemisia when we went without rain a few weeks. If the plants get dry and stressed this will trigger flowering after which the plant will die.
These are the plants that mom was planting the end of Feb. in the first photo. The one with Cory and Anna was the first part of May.
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