Seed collecting - please comment :)

Currently in the Plants Database, there is a free-form text field for how to harvest seeds. Only a very few plants actually have any seed collecting information.

I proposed to Dave that we create a list of seed collecting techniques, and allow you to check off all that apply when you are working on an entry in the database. Here's the list of general techniques I came up with:

1. Bag seedheads to capture ripening seed
2. Collect seedhead/pod when flowers fade; allow to dry
3. Allow pods to dry on plant; break open to collect seeds
4. Allow seedheads to dry on plants; remove and collect seeds
5. Remove fleshy coating on seeds before storing
6. Allow unblemished fruit to ripen; clean and dry seeds
7. Ferment seeds before storing
8. Wear gloves to protect hands when handling seeds
9. Properly cleaned, seed can be successfully stored
10. Seed does not store well; sow as soon as possible

Keep in mind that each technique will have a complete description and step-by-step instructions; the list of techniques should be brief yet self explanatory.

Here's what we need from you: please review this list and suggest any other different seed collecting techniques that should be added. Feedback should be emailed or posted back here by Saturday 4/27

Thanks in advance for your suggestions and comments - together we can make the database better than ever!

I'm not seeing anything else Terry.I've tried to go over the methods that I use in my mind.The only thing might be a place to check telling the user that seeds may not be the preferred method of propogation.

This would apply to plants with tubers such as potatoes,or ones that rarely set viable seed like azaleas.

Terry,

This is the first I've seen this thread. Don't know how I missed it.

At any rate, there is one I can see missing. Some veggies require that the fruit be significantly over-ripe before gathering seeds. This would apply, for instance, to cucumbers, some other melons, and eggplant. Probably a few others I'm not thinking of right now.

Great feedback Mel and Brook. Here's what I can do, based on your recommendations:

1. Add an option that says "Seed collecting is not recommended for this plant."

2. Add an option that says "Unblemished fruit must be significantly overripe before harvesting seed; clean and dry seeds"

Any other suggestions or comments?

Ditto what Brook said.

Cucumbers need to be fermented along with being over ripe...nasty situation.Can we check all that apply?

You know, Mel, if you do a lot of cucumbers then you don't even notice the smell of fermenting tomato seed. :-)

yak! Nasty in any amount!

hehehehe, should we include a box that says noseplugs required?

Seriously, yes you can check all that apply. Check out the Lycopersicon entries in the test database, and see what you think of the form.

Actually, folks, fermenting tomatoes smell exactly like a good Gewurtzraminer wine that you've left on the verandah overnight. (Or like a bad one, that you've just opened.)

Yummy! Drink the first at once, and put the other one in your freezer. Its top layer, unfrozen, will be pure alcohol and can be drunk instead of vodka.

Are you sure you need to know this?

John

Gosh, John, you really are a fountainhead of strange experiences.

I mean, this is the voice of experience speaking, right?

As my old latin teacher, after fermenting tomatoes, once imprudently said: "hic, haec, hoc".

Which loosely translates as "hic, please hand me that hock". Doesn't it?

Yours bibulously

John

any ideas on jack-in-the-pulpit seeds? I can't even figure out where they are! I am not a master gardner! I just love gardening...people have asked me about getting some of the seeds to them from this plant, and I have no clue....

Blueberry,

You might want to post this as a new thread so that people who aren't following this one (which, I would say, is most) see it and can comment.