Hundreds and thousands of seeds.

Well I have started harvesting my Colocasia hybrids for the season. I first pick the seed heads and take each berry and slowly pull each seed out with a pencil end. This is hard work but it is much safer than squishing the berries to try and find the seeds in all the muck.
I have now run into a problem. Colocasias produce small seeds about the size of a grain of salt. In the past I would put many seeds in one pot and rase them. I have found that it does not work well they tend to rot easily when this confined. So this year I plan to put them in cell trays of 72 per tray. I am finding that each berry can hold 1 to 25 seeds and usually its 25. So after 3 to 4 berries I have a full tray. Off the top of my head I am thinking it will take 30 to 50 trays to get all the seeds I have produced. This is will be a task because space is something I have little of in the greenhouse. I am currently using stands that has 4 shelfs each shelf holds 5 trays. If I can do well this winter and keep most alive I should have a ocean of new unusal colocasias next spring. I will be keeping my fingers crossed and trying to work out this odd problem I did not intend on.

you can send me about a 100.000 and ill raise theam for you MR B Paul

Brian, do you plant the seeds moist or after they dry? I am thinking you plant them fresh and moist. If they are dry, you could mix them with sand and broadcast them in pans or bowls and prick them out when they are large enough to handle. That is what I do with tiny seeds. How many of the seeds will actually sprout? Could you put 2-3 seeds per cell then seperate once sprouted?

Brian-
1. How long does it take for them to grow from seed to 6" plant?

2. Do the ripe colocasia berries turn red/orange like the Alocasias?

Best of luck with the seeds. If ever you need to cull the rejects. I'd be happy to adopt!

ROX

I worked all day on the seed trays I did around 6 trays 4 to 5 seeds per cell with 72 cells in a tray. I have bairly hit the top of the iceburg on how many I have to work on. The berries do not turn colot but usually I only pick them only when the stems seems ready to fall over or begin to rinkle. Healthy seeds are easy to see but some of the less mature ones are very hard to see.and are what takes me so long to make sure I dont over look.

Do Fontanesii self-pollinate?
I broke open a "pod" after the stem began to wrinkle. The inside sort of looked like a green, slightly mushy baby corn on the cob. (Descriptive, huh?). Were those pollinated or not? I didn't see anything that looked like your picture.

ROX

A special note if you are a true plant addict your fingers should look like mine in the photo LOL.

LOL
I work directly with the public and have sometimes had to excuse my hands. I've taken to wearing surgical rubber gloves in the garden. They work great. Better that garden gloves because you can get in under the plants and gently work the roots if you need to move it.

What's weird is that all summer my nails are short and often slightly ripped up due to gardening. In the winter they are long and manicured. It's a seasonal thing for me.

Celt-
Are they the new cool powder-free purple gloves!

ROX

I don't think so. My dentist gave me the box, they're the latex white ones. Now, I say im heading out to do surgery ....in the garden :)

Rox I have not seen any colocasias self pollinate though I have heard and I might have had it happen this year with Gigantea. In most cases I have to remove the spath around the flowers to work on them. So that corn cob think is were the berries should form. If it does not take they do not swell up or stay on near as long. If it does take you will notice that the stem that hold up the flower will stay usually 2 to 5 month feeding the seeds inside and maturing them so they can survive.

I was going to offer you a manicure. :)

LOL!

Brian-
Thanks for the info. I do have one seed pod that has been on for about 2 months (C. esculenta 'red stem'). We'll see what it does.

This message was edited Oct 6, 2006 11:29 AM