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How early can you harvest seed pods.

2 years ago

Seems like sometimes pods look green and closed and you go out the next day and they are already at least partially brown and split open.......often losing some seed. Is it possible to harvest while pods are still green and closed (but seeds are black) without hurting vitality of the seed? Any other tricks?

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Comments (2)

hoosier_nan (IN z5b/6a)
2 years ago
I like to err on the side of caution and harvest them only when they are cracked open. If I see one that is dry looking, I will squeeze it to see if the sections pop open. If they do, I harvest it. If you know when you pollinated the flower, you can figure that after about 42 days (I think that's the right number), the seeds should be ripe.

We try to make what we call 'a seed run' every day. As you say, one day, they're green and the next day they are popped open.

Karol Emmerich, a well-known hybridizer, cuts her scapes and ripens them in a bucket of water. I guess you can't argue with her success, but I am afraid to do that. The trick is to let the pods get to a certain stage before you cut the scape. I don't know how that would work if the scape has pods of differing ages. I haven't had the best of luck with a pod that gets accidentally snapped off, so I don't try that.

If you are going to be away during the ripening season, you can get those little organza bags sold for wedding favors and slip those over the pod to hold any seeds that might spill.

Nancy
woodnative thanked hoosier_nan (IN z5b/6a)
shive
2 years ago
I gently squeeze the green pods. If they crack open, I harvest them. Here, if I let them crack open after brown, seeds get too wet from heavy morning dew, and I get bugs in them.

Debra
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