Two seed questions
Mistress Krista
seeds fall and lie dormant over the winter, or do they fall and germinate
immediately, then survive as best as possible thru the winter?
2. What's the best method to collect the seeds of these types of plants?
How does one know when they're ready to be "harvested"? When all the petals
fall off? Beforehand?
Krista
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simy1
> 1. With plants such as rudbeckia which self-seed, how does it work? Do the
> seeds fall and lie dormant over the winter, or do they fall and germinate
> immediately, then survive as best as possible thru the winter?
they fall, sleep through the winter, and germinate in spring.
>
> 2. What's the best method to collect the seeds of these types of plants?
> How does one know when they're ready to be "harvested"? When all the petals
> fall off? Beforehand?
Hold off as long as you can (let the head dry, but pick it if it looks
it is starting to lse seeds), then pick the whole head and store in a
ziploc in the freezer. In the spring, wait to plant the seeds until
things have warmed up.
>
>
> Krista
noname
>seeds fall and lie dormant over the winter, or do they fall and germinate
>immediately, then survive as best as possible thru the winter?
Both. Depends on your climate. My rudbeckias seem perpetual (zone 8). Some
plants are well-started in fall; some new in spring. The things is, these
generous self-seeders provide the material for both possibilities.
>2. What's the best method to collect the seeds of these types of plants?
>How does one know when they're ready to be "harvested"? When all the petals
>fall off? Beforehand?
Leave most seed-heads (the leftover parts after the petals have fallen off) on
the plants as long as possible, so as to harvest the most mature seeds. Someone
will doubtless correct me, but I don't know of any flowers whose seed-heads (or
pods or whatever) should be harvested green and/or moist. Sometimes it's hard
to catch a seed container before it's split and distributed many of the seeds
contained, but there are always some leftovers to save. Rudbeckias (and Cosmos
and Zinnias) get pretty dry and crispy on the stem, and are easy to gather and
save.
The most important thing about seed-saving is to keep them *dry*. Look up web
references for specific flower preferences, but I've had quite satisfactory
results without extraordinary storage conditions. Baggies or even old envelopes
save seeds in a kitchen drawer pretty reliably. Just remember to *label* them.
Tyra Trevellyn
<good stuff snipped>
>
>The most important thing about seed-saving is to keep them *dry*. Look up
>web
>references for specific flower preferences, but I've had quite satisfactory
>results without extraordinary storage conditions. Baggies or even old
envelopes
>save seeds in a kitchen drawer pretty reliably. Just remember to *label*
>them.
>
So right. "Something" happened last year and my labelling instincts vanished
at one point. This past spring I had several identical unmarked brown
envelopes with almost identical-looking seeds inside. I ended up chewing some
to determine what they were. (No hallucinations....) I too have never fussed
about storage except to try to maintain some consistency of temperature.
Unless something must be refrigerated or frozen, I keep the seeds at prevailing
room temperature in paper envelopes (or if commercial seeds, in their original
packets). I don't use baggies except as a second wrapping; I've had problems
with condensation. I've had good germination results in general, including
some truly old seeds. But gosh, my labelling skills......what is "Sp lv
22/inst"? I'm getting much better now. Really. I'll get around to that
template. Really.
Best,
Tyra
z6b nj
mitc...@earthling.net
_new guinea_. These self-sow [Zone 6] sometimes 3 generations during a single
summer. The seeds are large round brown when ripe sim to morning glory or radish
seed-size. They form in large [up to 1"] pods which gradually turn from green to
yellow as the inside seeds ripen and "burst" open or with a slight pinch.
The seeds from the last generation overwinter and depending on the severity of the
winter germinate to greater or lesser extent everywhere. I can't recall where I
originally got the seeds it was from a commercial packet. Their progenators have
been sent to Italy [from NJ] and also sold at a website near Ottowa. Btw I let
these seeds air-dry as much as possible, mixing them to assure at least surface
drying, and for larger quantities use silicon gel packs which have also been dried
[small amount of artificial heat is ok for these] all in an airtight container.
These flowers form in every colour as long as they're the 4 primary, and "only"
variations and plse excuse my poor colour descriptions: red, purple, red/purple and
pink. And this is my queery: These are rich pastel shades [I have pics] and
nowhere's close to pure white. Last summer a pure white variety came up. I got only
a half dozen seeds from that and didn't try them this year. But another plant or 2
came up this year a few feet away. It's more luxuriant than the first and I'm
hopeful of bounteous seeds which I plan to harvest. I'm a long way from a
geneticist even longer than from a botanist, smile. What is the import of this
white variety [I can also take pics of the current plant]. It's at least as
vigorous as the pastels. Possibly thinking outloud it's purely a creation of the
local soil ie very acidic but this is uncertain. Maybe that should have been my
first question chuckle. However can anyone venture a course of action to take
assuming a successful seed harvest to preserve my rights and possibly to market
this "new" variety. Tia
Jim Shaffer, Jr.
>For this particular variety a tall very green leafy impatien strain possibly sim to
>_new guinea_.
I don't know what to tell you about the white ones (I'd have to look to see if
any of mine are white or just pale pastels), but what you describe are known as
Balsam Impatiens. There are a single and a double variety. I've only ever
grown the single variety, from shared (initially, then self-sown) seeds, and for
some reason I've only ever seen the double variety for sale.