Plantfile's question

Recently while helping a new member add a new coleus to the plant files I realized under the "seed collecting" addition on the bottom DG has a 'lump' statement that is misleading or confusing to new coleus folks.
Previously under "Propagation" we had the option to check
"plants will not come true from seed"
Now under 'Seed Collecting" the option is
"N/A: plant does not set seed, flowers are sterile, or plants will not come true from seed"
Thanks for your attention to this.
Sidney

How long ago do you remember having that option? I don't remember ever seeing the option under propagation, I only remember seeing what you're seeing now. I've only been around here for a few years though. I agree it's confusing the way it is, I've seen it have to be explained a number of times regarding other types of plants too not just coleus. But I think there are some things that if you change them in the database, it would require the PF admins or other volunteers to spend many, many, many hours going through entries that are already in PF to update to the new fields so I'm not sure if it's an easy fix.

I remember the old way. " plants do come true from seed" There was a lot of discussion as to what to do with plants that do not seed, and sterile plants. The new option covers all three situations. It simply means that seed saving from this plant is not practical for one of the three reasons.

Sugarweed and Farmerdill are correct - the option previously read only "N/A: plants do not come true from seed". We expanded it to cover other reasons why seed saving is not a viable option.

I know that and you two know that but just this week a new coleus poster was led to believe coleus don't set seeds.
I remember the old box explained it very well for our little coleus.
Just a thought.
I didn't know someone had gone through and changed them by hand.
Sidnry

I think if a checkbox was just removed, then nobody had to do anything by hand, the info just wasn't there anymore. I was thinking if you tried to fix the situation by splitting the current option up into 2 checkboxes, one for sterile/no seeds and one for doesn't come true from seed, that might involve a lot of manual work because you'd have to go back through all the entries that are there in PF and figure out which ones are sterile and which ones don't come true from seed to make sure that the correct box is checked. Terry or one of the PF admins would know much better than I would what it would take to do that though. I've also seen people get confused by that option so if it's an easy fix it would be nice to separate sterile vs not coming true from seed.

I believe I will need to go through and add a comment to every coleus with the exception of a few and put this statement under a 'Neutral' rating.
This plant will set seed.
However to keep the foliage bright remove flowers as soon as possible.
The seeds do not come true to the parent plant and can yield muddy results.
Thank's
Sidney