Hard Frost

Hi, I sort of feel stupid for asking this, but this is my first year saving my own seeds instead of buying new, and I was wondering if I should clean up all dead plants in my yard now that we have had a few moderate frosts. Are the seeds ruined? The plants I am worried about are my morning glories, moonvine, zinnia, hosta, hyacinth bean (some of these pods look burned), and nicotiana. Can I Still get good seeds or should I just tear them down and clean them up? They are all annuals here.

I can not give you an answer - but I will try to get the attention of someone who may be able to OH WEEZEEEEEE!

Well, I'm no expert on some of those plants, but most seeds will do fine with a moderate frost... in fact, most of my seeds are fine with a hard freeze. If we get a frost before the seeds have matured completely, I cut the flowers at the stem and bring them in. In most cases, they will continue to mature and dry, depending on how close to maturity they were. One way to judge the winter hardiness of a seed is to recall which ones self seed. Obviously, if they sprout up in your bed in the spring, they have survived your worst weather and are still viable.

Thanx !

If you look it up ion the T&M website, they say if they are HA (hardy annual) or HHA (half hardy annual). HAs will take a freeze, HHA might take a freeze, and GH won't take a freeze.

I know most Zinnias will germninate here in the spring if they are left out all winter. Not sure about Profusions or the Swizzle, though.

http://www.tmseeds.com/

Suzy

I just checked out Winamac, and it is in Northern Indiana. I was born in Gary and raised about 5 miles south of Chesterton... very close to the southern tip of Lake Michigan and the border to Illinois. It looks like Winamac is somewhat south of that. As I recall, the winters were cold, but I do remember cherry tomatoes self seeding in my garden, and they are not very cold hardy.

yeah, we do have some tomatoes come up from seed every year that we didn't plant. what about MGs? I have thousands of vines all over my yard and I couldnt make it to all of them. Can I go out and still get them off the vine?

Do you ever get MG volunteers in the spring?

Wow, I can't believe this, but I don't know! This was my 1st spring in this house, and at my last house we kept adding onto the deck every year, so I can't remember! The only ones I KNOW we got every year were those pain the butt bindweed :)

Yes, I think that stuff could grow at the south pole.

I had some morning glory volunteers this year, although not as many as I'd expected given the probable large number of fallen seeds in that bed. Maybe birds like MG seeds?

I'm with you in being disgusted at the bindweed. Grrrr.

For the Morning Glories, they have a good chance of being just fine. Even if they're damp and cold pop the flower pods off and take them inside to a paper plate and let them dry out. I've seen them go fine down to 15F here in IL and the seeds produce well the next year. In fact, I just pulled the last of mine (the ones all over the house) and am drying them now. Just make sure to let them dry out in the pod first before breaking them out to store otherwise they'll mold in any storage container.

I've had volunteer Zinnia sprout but the seedlings have never survived. I've saved seed as late as mid November here in IL (5b) and they've germinated so so the next year.

For any Hosta the real problem is whether or not the seed will be of any use, especially if you want it true to the parent plant. As far as I've read there are so very few that produce true from seed hence the large market for tissue cultures and liners. The only one I've saved from seed that actually produced true was Ventricosa. I do know for a fact the seeds will over-winter and sprout up the next year for Ventricosa. If you want say 1000 of these let me know. :-)

For the Hyacinth bean even if the pods are burnt dry them and see what the seed inside comes out like. As long as you get nice firm dark seed with that little white streak in the middle they'll be fine. Mine didn't produce very well this year, despite what people say Cicada's do damage certain plants.