collecting zinnia seeds
bettyfb
12 years ago
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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
12 years agobettyfb
12 years agoRelated Discussions
What is the biggest and most double zinnia?
Comments (20)GZ4, "I didn't know that I could get bigger and bigger zinnias just by saving the seeds of my bigger flowers. How does that work?" Zinnia flower size, shape, and form is determined by a number of different genes. Zinnias are primarily insect pollinated, and pollen gathering insects travel from flower to flower gathering pollen. In that process they accidentally pollinate many zinnia stigmas. Since they gather pollen from many different zinnias, sometimes they self pollinate a zinnia and sometimes they cross pollinate the zinnia with pollen from zinnia blooms that they just came from. As a result, open pollinated zinnia seeds actually contain some hybrids as well as some selfs. And some of those hybrids may involve zinnias that themselves are already hybrids by the same random pollen exchanges. Many times those bee pollinated hybrids are between similar parents. Similar, but different. So a packet of red dahlia flowered seeds will produce a variety of red dahlia flowered zinnias. So called pure varieties or strains are not actually pure. If you look closely you will see small or not-so-small differences between the individual plants and flowers. Your seed packet may have given you dozens of different varieties of red dahlia flowered zinnias, some of which are actually crosses between two different red dahlia flowered zinnias. By saving seeds only from the larger zinnias, you are choosing to grow only seeds from the larger red flowered varieties and discarding the smaller red dahlia flowered varieties. Seed saved from larger specimens will also vary in size (and other characteristics), but their average size will be somewhat larger and you may find still larger specimens. Each time a new seed is formed, a re-shuffling of genes occurs, and you may get a different combination from any that you have ever seen before, and some of those "shuffles" may give you your biggest zinnia yet. "I love the look of GIANT dahlia flowers--where should I start and what should I do to breed those?" Start with some commercial dahlia flowered zinnias that appeal to you. When they bloom out, study them to see which ones are your favorites. I usually cull out zinnias that I don't like to make more room for those that I do like. Then, recognizing that the specimens that you have selected may actually be hybrids between similar but different parents, you are free to self them with the expectation that their progeny will continue to vary, but will have changed some in the direction that you want them to go. Or you may to choose to cross-pollinate some of your favorites to "shake them up" some. Each seed you save will be a different recombination from the genes of its two parents. Remember, zinnias are composites, so each petal is actually a different "flower", with genes that are at least a little different from the petals next to it. "I was told that it's pointless to save the seeds of hybrids, but if their flowers are big and they are only crossed with other dahlia types, it sounds like maybe I should. " You should. Don't tell rose breeders not to save seeds from hybrids. Rose breeders cross hybrids with hybrids with hybrids, and then cross them again so that very complex ancestries build up. No reason you shouldn't do the same with zinnias. And if some non-dahlia flowered zinnia has a trait that you would like in your dahlia flowered, then by all means cross it in and then select out the combination of traits that you are going for. Prehistoric zinnias had all kinds of different forms that we haven't seen yet. By recombinations of recombinations, we can bring combinations of those unseen traits to the forefront. I personally am not a fan of the dahlia flowered zinnia flowerform. It tends to hide interesting bicolor and tricolored petals because the petals are stacked so close together. This dahlia flowered bloom partially conceals an interesting two-tone color scheme. This zinnia bloom does not conceal its petals with thickly overlapping petals. I refer to this zinnia flowerform as "Aster flowered". Various insects, such as aphids, leafhoppers, thrips and such, can "hide" in those closely packed zinnia flowerforms. So my personal preference is for "open" zinnia flowerforms. But that is just my subjective preference, and you are free to have your own. By saving seeds from your favorites, your personal seedstock will come to resemble your preferences. "I guess the other thing I could do is just grow giant dinner plate dahlias instead of trying to coax zinnias into a larger size. :-) Haven't explored that option yet." Maybe you should. Breeding your own dahlias is definitely something that you can do. I prefer zinnias because they grow faster, and you don't have to wait so long to see the results of your crosses or personal selections. ZM...See MoreCollecting Zinnia Seeds
Comments (3)if what you planted was F1 .. then what you are harvesting is F2 ... so no.. not in any manner genetically speaking ... will they be the same ... but ... what he said.. they may be better.. they may be worse.. and most likely in between ... so if you want what you had.. go buy more F1 ... the neighbor jsut collects heads ... in a plastic grocery bag.. and hangs them in an unheated room behind the garage .... in z5 ... MI otherwise.. have fun with what you have... ken...See MoreCollecting Zinnia Seeds
Comments (2)If the birds are eating the seeds, and the seed heads are brown and dried up, it sounds like the seeds are ready. I used to deadhead the tall Zinnias (State Fair Mix), but last year wanted to collect some seeds, so I left the flowers to go to seed. This worked out okay because the new flowers that grew on the plants would pretty much cover the old flower heads as they dried. I cut off the oldest dried brown seed heads, and put them into a paper bag to dry for about a month. Then you can remove the seeds from the heads. I left some seed heads on the plants until well after frost, and the Goldfinches went crazy over the seed in the fall. I pulled the plants up once the birds had eaten all the seeds. This post was edited by terrene on Fri, Aug 30, 13 at 19:52...See MoreCollecting seed???
Comments (4)Hey Hidden jungle, I am not quite sure on how to collect coleus seeds, but I am an expert on zinnia seeds! I have been collecting Zinnia seeds forever, So I decided to write a blog on that very subject. This whole month I will be talking about collecting, saving, and storing seeds from Zinnias, Tomatoes, Peppers, Snap Dragons, Cucumbers, Prairie Mallow, and any other that I feel like! My blog url is: www.vioboy.blogspot.com ~Zach Here is a link that might be useful: MY Blog...See Moreken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
12 years agozen_man
12 years agobettyfb
12 years agoLinda's Garden z6 Utah
12 years agozen_man
12 years agobabelsrus
12 years agozen_man
12 years ago
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