seed pod questions...

So here I am babying this little pod, making sure it stays on the plant to ripen so I can harvest the seed. Today I see that while the pod is still green, it has started to crack open so I go get a little bag to put over it to catch any seeds and I accidently pulled the darn thing off the plant! Sigh...so will the seed in a green pod, that started to open on its own, give me viable seed or are they doomed? If the seeds are viable, what should I do with the pod until the seeds are dry and ready to harvest?
thanks,
d

What colour are the seeds? I know that there can be dark seeds in green pods. If they are dark I am sure they are viable. But if not, I don't know. But I am sure someone else knows.

Hi dee, sorry to hear about your seed pod falling of, if seed pod started to open while its still green, from my experience that means it does not have seeds in it or seeds have been aborted by the plant, sounds like a dud. That's what happen when you pollinate most of the time when temp. is above 80*F, at least in my case, I usually get best results when temp. is 70*F to 75*F maybe down to 65*F. Ether way I would open the pod and see since they won't ripen if there is any seeds in the pod and relieve yourself of the anxiety of losing the seeds that miet not be there in the first place, to me I would take it as a learning experience and try it again. You should note the temp. when you pollinate your hibs so you'll know what temp. is best for you to pollinate. hope you have better luck next time with your attempt to produce seeds.

Wilfred

Thanks for the responses, I didn't open the pod but I will now. This was open pollinated so it was a gift from nature...too bad. There are several more pods on different plants so I'll keep an eye on them as well.

Ok, the seeds are obviously immature so I guess it was a 'dud' [thanks for the scientific term Wilfred :-)]

Better luck next time.

Too bad Dee. I hope your others will hold!

Hey Dee, I'm excited that you have seed pods. Will cross my fingers for you to have great success. I've only had that happen one time & gave the seed away & don't know what happened to them. Nature gave me those seeds too. Didn't even know enough to keep some & try them myself. Just thought I didn't need another yellow Hib not realizing it could be cross pollinated with another color. Now my goal is to get seed pods on Hibs & Brugs so I'm proud for you.

Judy

Good luck to you and your seed pods!! I have not had any luck yet myself, but what Wilfred said above about the temperature may be my problem. I thought I had one that was good, it started to turn brown but then the stem started turning yellow so I opened up the seed pod and it was moldy on the inside. *sigh* I have more that I will keep my eye on but I'm sure with the hot temperatures I polinated them with, they will not be viable. Keep us posted!! :)

Well, I have ONE seed from my Mango Tango plant...open pollinated so I have no idea who the other parent is...Let's see if I can germinate this little guy...

best of luck to you dee. hope it germinates into a beautiful hib plant with gorgeous blooms.

Wilfred

Thanks Wilfred I need it! After the fiasco with the desert rose seeds I should probably just have sent the seed to you to germinate for me but I decided to take a risk and try it myself.

That's the way to go dee, if you don't try you'll never know how to and I'll bet you will be successful with it. really hope you get more seed pods with seeds in them so you can keep tyring and be very successful with them, that's how I started when I started planting hib seeds, trial and error and believe me at the beginning I lost quit a few myself but never gave up in trying.

Wilfred

Question. Don't hibs sometimes set pods, all on their own, without being cross pollinated? I assumed those seeds are not viable? My "Pocahontas" has this "big mama" sized pod on it right now. I didn't cross "Poca" with anything. The chances that it was cross pollinated by an insect are lower, because she's inside the pool screening. What should I do with the "Poca pod"???

Jon

Jon, if the hib self pollinated seeds will still be valuable since the pollen that pollinated the hib most probably came from the hib itself. Whatever comes out the seeds will look really close to the mother plant but they can also look like the hib's parent plants that were use to cross pollinate do to the gens it contains in it.

Wilfred

A lot of the fancy hibiscus, (not garden variety) will develop these big pods, but they don't have any viable seeds in them.
Maybe I'm wrong in this, but I've never heard of a tropical hibiscus self-pollinating.
Barb

I've never heard of it either, but apparently there is a way you can cross the same plant and sometimes come up with seeds. I asked a hybridiizer how would I know if a seed pod was the result of my crossing and not just the plant pollinating itself. I was told it was, more than likely, a result of my hand cross pollination.

Jon

Usually happens if the tropical hib is very hot with the pollen and produces a lot of it and its kinda windy, flower petal brush against the pollen piking up some and when the wind blow again that part of the petal happens to rub against the stigma of the flower just by chase and leaves some of the pollen it had picked up earlier. But your right about the hibs developing large empty pods.

Wilfred

Wilfred! You posted a photo above of a pot with little green things. Are they pieces of plastic, or seedlings????

I have the dumb red hibiscus that is everywhere, grown from seed(!) off a bush in a yard. Is it a waste of time crossing this red with a very highly bred yellow/orange bicolor that a neighbor has?

I'm trying to not get addicted to yet another flower! so sorry for me! Too bad, I cannot resist!

Melissa/Molamola

Hey Melissa, welcome to the addict forum. Glad to have you....don't want to be the only ones with this sickness.

Judy

Thanks for the hello!

We have an active Hibiscus Society here, they have regular meetings and an annual show with some amazing blossoms. I just haven't done much with hibiscus because we got a Pink Aphid a few years ago that's really nasty, deforms the bush, and is difficult-to-impossible to control. Guess I might have to learn some new tricks.

I have been babying several large seed pods for weeks on my black dragon... they opened the last few days to find... NOTHING! Oh well. I read somewhere that these types of varieties are notorious for this... will keep trying. *pouting*

PurePlants. It can be frustrating, can't it? Some times the empty pods also look wrinkled. It's a way of ID'ing these as opposed to the ones with developing seeds.
On the up side, you can think of the time you spent babying the pods as practice for when you have good pods.
Barb

Melissa those are little pieces of weed wacker cord I cut about an inch and a half to mark were the seeds are, this way I know how many have germinated and how many have not, also help if anything else that miet has flown in the pot and grown that's not a hib seed. BTW, have you tried to use Neem Oil on your hibs, you miet be able to get some magnificent bloom you can post on the forum.

Jamie don't loose hope in getting your hib seeds Black Dragon hib, just have to keep trying until you do.

Wilfred

Wilfred, using weed wacker cord to mark the seeds is a great idea! Smart!
I'm going to start doing that.
Barb

Thanks Barb, I started to use them since everything else I used seem to rot or break and i couldn't find the seeds after that to check on them to see if they were still viable for germination, this markers will last for ever and you can reuse them over and over again after you replant your seedling.

Wilfred

Oohhhh....lotssss of seedlingssss.......

Very good way to mark your seedlings, Wilfred. Will have to try that when I start my seeds.
Still don't have any from my Hibs but the pods are still there so there is hope!

Judy

Seedlings, what are seedlings?

Poor skwinter, it's really winter now, hey? Stay warm, all of you in the storm!

(edit:) Oh, I lived on an east facing mountain where it was amazingly windy most of the time, and there was a plain red hib that set seed. I thought that was unknown, so I valued the seed, planted some, and have three bushes in large pots now. They look just like the parent.

I'm thinking about finding a nursery that has a nice selection and going right when they open in the morning, and buying whichever plant has the most blooms open, and then going around to their other hibs and pollenating the one I bought. Is that a crazy idea? I'm just getting started here. (groan, another plant addiction!)

This message was edited Dec 10, 2009 7:04 AM

Molamola,
Actually, that's a pretty good idea and welcome to the addiction!
The seedpods on my Nightmare are developing nicely. Yes!
Barb

I know this is an old forum, but I hope you can help me. I thought this would be the best spot for my question. I'm Kristen and new to this craziness! I just got a saffron and Cindy's heart from HVH (love them!!!) and thought I would try to cross pollinate. I took the pollen from Saffron with a Q-tip and put it on Cindy's Heart.

First question, On Cindy's Heart, the part that I put the pollen never spread out and the pollen sacks never made pollen, photo attached. Does that mean something this flower is not a good candidate, or has nothing to do with becoming fertile?

Second question, when the flower dies, do I leave it on the plant or clip it off like I do the other spent flowers? How will the seed pod grow back on the plant? In the flower holder thingy, (I don't know the proper term for it, sorry)? Or does the flower drop off and a new stem and seed pod take its place?

Not sure what it means if the mother plant didn't produce pollen. You should put the pollen from Saffron on Cindy's Heart during the morning, when the pollen is most fertile. You then just leave the bloom alone and let it fall off naturally. If the cross pollination worked in the next couple of weeks you will see a round seed pod forming where the bloom was on Cindy's Heart. Now you just wait another 3-4 weeks until that pod swells more, becomes brown and falls off on its own. It will usually start to crack open a little bit right before it falls off the mother plant. If all goes well you can then open up the seed pod and see if you have some black colored seeds in there.

Boy, I have pollinated over and over and over, and gotten not one seed pod!

That's a bummer. Here in South Florida the results are better if its attempted during the cooler months of Nov-April. Many of the pods fall off prematurely during the hotter months. Have just started to do some cross pollination with Daylilies recently. After 3 attempts I finally have a maturing seed pod. The concept/procedure is exactly the same, but you have to cross diploid Daylilies (22 chromosomes) with other diploids and tetraploid Daylilies (44 chromosomes) with other tetraploids. Since tetraploids have double sets of chromosomes (22 from mother and 22 from father) there are more opportunities for dramatic advances and/or changes from the cross pollination. For that reason most prefer to do crosses of tetraploids because the possibilities are doubled.