Re: Sarr seeds, when ready?

Oliver T Massey CFS (massey@hal.fmhi.usf.edu)
Tue, 6 Aug 1996 11:10:20 -0400 (EDT)

>
> a few months my sarr. ?flava? and one of my psittcaria (sp?) flowered. I
> tried my best with a Q-Tip to (gnn, Alzheimer makes me forget
> vocabularies ;-) - ok, you know what I mean, make it produce seeds. I
> /think/ it worked, the part of the flower where the seeds should be in
> grew a lot. But how long does it take for the seeds to get ready? How
> will i know the right time?
>
> Ciao, Daniel.
>

Sarrs. are fall ripening. I leave the flower stalks alone until the
seed capsule/ovary dries and turns brown. In many cases the style will
have already been lost earlier in the summer. Once brown, I usually
leave it alone until I begin to see it start to split, then I remove it
and store the seeds in the frig. If you are expecting bad weather or
will be away for a few weeks and don't want to lose any seed you can go
ahead and cut the flower head off before it begins to split.

Tom in Fl