I have a well established Valerian plant that I use for medicinals, it has multipled in it's pot so often that I have never thought to harvest the seed. I noticed today the seed forming on the flower head. It had the little aerial propeller that reminded me of a dandalion...stood out for an hour with a tweezer picking off ripe seed...neighbors would have had me committed had they seen the sight...lol. My question is this. I have a high grade dehydrator, do I have to wait for the seeds to turn brown before I pluck them or can I pluck them green and dehydrate? Second question is: If I offer These tiny little seed for trade, how many should I put in each envelope?
Valerian seeds
usually a trade is 15- 20 seeds unless that has changed sometimes if only have few its a few.
If it was me, I sure wouldn't be puttign the seed s into a dehydrator at all. Just let them sit naturally for at least 2 hours and then bag em up. if you put them in a dehydrator you are going to dehydrate any and all moisture that the seed preserves inside to help keep the embryo and such inside alive.
Even when you leave seed s out to dry naturally, they stil retain a bit of moisture you can't see, but the hydrator gonna suck the live out of them.
Actually it's temps above 130 that will kill a seed, anything below that and the seed should stay viable. It's a raw foodist thing...they've been experimenting with temps and viability for awhile now, and they check the temp to see what temp is still low enough to get a seed to sprout (cause they eat the sprouts). My concern isn't drying it in the dehydrator, my concern is the fan inside blowing the seed around, thought I might tuck them inside some cotton gauze for stability.
I dont' know about drying them, but, would love to have some seeds. I had a plant in CA and never saw seeds, but did have a couple of volunteers, so they must make seed few and far between.
A.
A good rule of thumb is that when the petals and stigma fall off the end of the seedpod, it is ready to pick and lay inside to finish off. The pod will usually (but not always) split open when it's ready.
Suzy
Valerian doesn't make much of a pod - I just pick the seed heads, and shake them in a ziplock bag. I shared some and just sent a bunch of seeds/chaff together - it's too hard to separate. They make tons of seed and can be invasive in wetlands - I think it's banned in some states because of that. In my hot IA garden, it increases slowly and I've never had volunteers.
What color is your Valerian?
white
Well, I've picked off enough to make about three trades and I will post that seperately. Gourd if you are still looking let me know. My flowers are white as well.
Hi Randy,
Sent you a D-mail.
A.